The twenty-fourth week..

Long story short...I was on fire this week.

The Week That Was,
It was a good week here in V-shack. I think I complained about the weather a little too soon. Let’s just say it’s hotter than it was 2 weeks ago when I began to say it was hot, and it’s only getting hotter. That may have been the reason my companion and I were “on fire” missionaries.

The week began with a wonderful Wednesday night. We went to a member’s home and they prepared what seemed like the best beef curry I have ever had. It was so soft and tender. I ate so much, it came back to hurt me though - I had to waddle home - but I have no regrets. They saw how much I liked it and they are having us over again next week. I am way excited.

This week my companion and I found 3 new families that we are working with. All of them have potential to become members of the church. The best family is Sister Diyamoni. We were finding in the hottest part of the day - our appointments for that time cancelled. We were having 0 success. We found a narrow alley that we felt we should go check. Much to our dismay all we could see were Hindu marked doors. One aunty was nice enough to give us some water, even though I don’t think it was a wise choice to drink. She then told us of a few Christians in the area. We went to the said house to find 4 wonderful Christians - a mother Diyamoni, a son Girish, and 2 daughters Vina and Lavanya. After they showed us how wonderful Lavanya was - she is an international classical dancer - we were finally able to share a message about the Restoration. They have already been taught by the missionaries about 1 year back, but they never went to church. So my companion and I have been wondering how we can get them to church, and help them progress. We went last night and we found out that there are 2 more sisters Raja Laxmi and Siylu. Only 3 have been taught by the missionaries and the other 3 are very interested in American men sharing about religion. We committed them all to church, and we are going over again on Saturday for Lavanya’s birthday. They seemed really excited about church that is once we told them we had communion and we also have Teligu. The son will be the hardest - he has no motivation. On Saturday I intend to take his Billa CD and tell him he can have it back on Sunday when he comes to church.

This last transfer I have put more emphasis on my study of the Book of Mormon. Recently I have been in the war chapters, and I love it. I have been finding weird new ways to compare the battles the Nephites faced to the same that I am facing here. This week I was reading in Alma 60. This is when Moroni rips Pahoran for being a traitor. Moroni then tell Pahoran, in verse 16, where it all began. It started when the king-men wanted to fight against the government. I thought about it a lot and the problems that my companion and I have been facing, and then I thought about how I could apply it to the rest of my life. It's pretty much the same concept. The Nephites were at the hardest part of their war, and they needed help, but the government wasn’t able to send it. The same is with us. If we expect the Lord to send us help we must first fix the inward problems. Just like Moroni and Pahoran did. If we are struggling with our family, our ward, or our companion we must first cleanse the inward vessel. It really helped me to see why my companion and I haven’t had any success since we have been together.

A funny thing that happened this week; we were at an investigator’s house and we were introducing the Book of Mormon. I had a Teligu copy I planned to give them. We were with the branch president and everything was going as planned. I gave them Moroni 10:4-5. As she read I listened for the words I knew, but I couldn’t hear them. No problem I thought. Then the branch president’s wife stopped her and flipped the pages and told me that she was reading Ether 10:4-5. My bad. Lol.

That was my week. It's getting time to go. I love you all. I hope you have a good week.

Elder Sorensen