September 27, 2010 Update

Dear Everyone,

This week was a bit tough because we were still under restrictions because of Ganesh Festival. We were unable to do any finding, which has caused our teaching pool to become rather small. That's what happens when you cannot find for 2 consecutive weeks. However, we did manage to go over a Map to Baptism with Jay Kumar and his family. We set a date for October 16th, but they were unable to stay for all 3 hours at Church, so we will have to set them again. We think they want to be baptized on the 17th, and that’s why they left. If it is the 17th then I am fine with that; it will be my last Sunday. What a way to go out!

Saturday was Giri Babu's baptism with his wife Lalitha. Giri was baptized twice. Lalitha, the one who I baptized, basically threw herself in. She lifted her legs up and just went down like it was no big deal. Then, the following day, Giri was not properly confirmed, so they had to call him back up in front of everyone, and do the confirmation properly. If it was anyone other than Giri I think they would have been frustrated and would have left the Church. lol. Lalitha's was done correctly. I did not do either of the confirmations because I have been sick with the flu for the last week. After Church we went to our Branch President and asked him to sign in the spot that says he saw the confirmation. Well, he signed in the spot that was for the person doing the interview...on Giri's record! So now he needs another record! lol. How much more can he take?

The Deville's are excited for Josh's baptism. Sister Deville was devastated when she learned that her 2 daughters would not be able to attend because of visa problems. Josh is doing well and he is pumped for his interview. I told him that it was more to test his heart and not his knowledge and then he was perfectly comfortable with it. Brother Deville is becoming more and more active as the weeks go on. He is so helpful when we teach, and I can see the fire coming back into his eyes.

I love you all. Thank you so much for your support. I hope you all have a great week. Hugs and kisses from India!

Elder Sorensen

The forty-seventh week...

Birthday
I had a good birthday. We had some cake and 5 baptisms in our district! Red Cherry Bakery made me the cake. lol. I was going to buy it but my companion did...he is a great companion. He kinda reminds me of KC. He shows love by buying me things. Sister Nichols, the office couple and Elder Mehan all called me on my birthday!! It was cool. Elder Mehan was staying in hyderabad at the time, it brought back some memories. Swathi, the first girl I baptized in Gajuwaka, told EVERYONE at church that it was my birthday. She dragged them to me and made sure every member shook my hand and wished me a happy birthday. It was sweet. One of our auto drivers Naidu brought me 3 apples and a rose for my birthday. He even took us to Church for free.

Illness
The sickness is there...and it's having a blast dancing around in my stomach. The meds don't make anything go away...they are supposed to make the pain less - which I think they are doing. I am very skinny - I am walking on sticks. (his legs are skinny - get it?)

Is chicken the meat you would have gotten all the little bones lodged in your throat? Everyone is having a hard time figuring that one out.

It probably was chicken. At the time I hadn't had beef in a while, and I hadn' had fish in a while... or mutton...so probably chicken.

The Work in India
We still have no one set...but we are doing really well at challenging people. We are going to a few homes to set people tomorrow and Friday. The week was good - nothing too exciting.
We are going to this new place called Steel Plant. It is far away and it is a jungle. We are meeting lots of new people and working on getting them to church. The Branch President lives out there, and he is helping us out a lot.

I was thinking the other day, when you leave Visak where do you think you will go?

I predict the last year of my missoin will be spent in Bangalore and Chennai. Those are the 2 biggest cities left for me. Ii need to stay somewhere I can get my meds I need - and if neccessary treatment. Coimbatoire doesn't offer those things. Bangalore has less restrictions now..I don't know what they are, but they had the most baptisms last month.

You wanna know something cool about the church here in India? Out of all the requests for new buildings this year, in the asia area only 5 were approved - 4 were in our mission!! Sri Lanka, Visak (we are getting a chapel!!!!!) Chennai, and Bangalore. That's sweet! All of them are going to be stake center size. It is way cool. This Sunday, before we watch Conference, President Nichols is going to announce the organization of 3 new districts in our misssion - Visak, Chennai, and Coimbatiore - adding to the Hyderabad and Bangalore districts. The members all over India are pioneers. It's difficult, and sometimes all we can do is watch, but I love being a part of it.

I was sitting in Sacrament meeting this week, looking at all of our members, and I thought, "The 2 year service that we do is nothing compared to what these people have to sacrifice." They leave family, friends, jobs, education, eveything (sometimes) because they know of the Restored Gospel. It feels really great to be a part of these people's lives and help strengthen them and help them progress towards the Celestial kingdom. I have been reading a lot about MY PURPOSE in Preach My Gospel this week, and I like a quote by Elder Oaks - "We don't baptize or proclaim the gospel to increase church numbers or build bigger buldings. We do it so that others can have the promised eternal life which we know is possible."

The fourteenth week...

HOLLER!

Well it’s been another exciting week on Mosque lane - nothing too exciting. We have 8 baptisms lined up for the first 3 weeks of March. We set Dinesh and Rajesh last night, I got to do the honours. They were my first successful set, so I feel really god about them. We had to push back the Abraham family. He couldn’t give up tea, or make it to church, but the daughters and mother are still coming and have a date for the 8th. The last 2 days have been spent building our finding pool. Last week we had an all time low of 6 new investigators for the week. So we are busting our hump, check it out, to get some solid people baptized. We walked for about 8 hours in the last 2 days with no avail. We are finding more and more anti-Christ’s, but less people who want to know about Jesus. It’s kinda frustrating when people yell at you to go to hell. But I am sure everyone gets that on their mission. No worries.

We also set Simon, Yohan’s brother, for baptism on March 8th. We dropped him a few weeks back thinking he was just a punk, but it turns out he really had no time. He likes us and he has said that he knows the Book of Mormon is true. Abel (our actor friend from last week) was off at some “rich people meeting with Parliament” this week so we didn’t get to see him - but we are planning for him tomorrow. He said he will get us something really nice to eat. I trust his judgment.

On Sunday I was told that I should marry a Tamilian woman. We had mother Stella feed us this week and it was da bomb. The next day she said “Marry a Tamilian woman.” Lol. So we also made plans to go back this week. My companion is hurrying me. I love you all. Thanks for all the supoort. Sorry this update is short.

I look forward to hearing from y’all.
Elder Sorensen