April 7, 2010 Update

Interesting story before I begin with the awesome spiritual experiences that we had. I was on an exchange with an elder in my district; his name is Elder Mehan. He was my follow-up trainer and luckily he is finishing his mission here with us. We were teaching someone about prophets and he kept throwing out names. I think he listed the most obscure Old Testament prophets he could. Well, his name is Joel, so I piped up, trying to be funny, and said, “Yeah, like Joel, he was also a prophet, he has one of the shortest books.” Then, under his voice he said, “It’s the best one. And,” he laughed to me, ”there’s also a prophet named ‘Reid.’” Afterwards we laughed about it and I asked, “Where is there a prophet named ‘Reid’?” he asked, “Don’t you read the Apocrypha? That’s where it is.” When I come home I will look for my name in the Apocrypha. It sounds cool.

This was a week unlike any other. We were really blessed by the Lord. It's not that He hasn’t blessed us any other weeks, but I felt more like I was aligned with His will and not my own will. In the beginning of the week, missionary work always seems to be a little slow, and this week was even slower. We faced lots of cancelled appointments, and we found a lot of people who had really hard hearts and didn’t want to hear about the gospel. So by the time that Thursday led around we were pretty worried. We only have one new investigator and 4 member-present lessons. These are VERY low numbers, especially for someone who is suppose to be an example. Well, after I murmured I decided that it was all part of His plan. Friday we found 7 new investigators. Saturday we found 3 new investigators. Sunday we found another family of 3! Heavenly Father blessed us for our hard work and perseverance. This week, we have been blessed for doing the small things, like talking with everyone, always finding and stuff like that. We have 13 new investigators already with 4 more families lined up for the weekend. I love how Heavenly Father tests you, and then gives the blessing. Often times as a missionary I think, “I am serving a mission. I should be rewarded for that.” I don’t realize that I am receiving blessings already (like my health…), and I need to do MORE to receive MORE.

More amazing than that is Donald and his progression. We visited him and his family on Sunday night. It was then that we challenged Donald to be baptized on May 2, 2010! He said, in his raspy voice, “Surely, brother, I will be baptized. Then, my family will see that change and they too will be baptized.” He is awesome. He is still smoking about 15 a day, but we have gone over some plans with him, and he is committed to quitting. “I don’t know when I will be able to quit, but I know it will be before May 2.” he said. I believe he will be able to quit. He choked up a little bit when he was telling his wife about his priesthood blessing. He is doing awesome; tonight we plan on setting the rest of his family. We committed his wife to go out on Saturday night, stare into space, think about all that God has done for her and then get on her knees and pray and ask Him if this Church and baptism are true. She would like to be baptized, but she wants to know if it’s true first. She has been in Ooty this week, so that’s why we told her to pray outside and look at the stars. Both of those are 2 things that she cannot do in Chennai. We have high hopes for their family.

I love you all. thanks for your support. Keep working hard to forward the work along. "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing." I love you!

Elder Sorensen