Week of January 26, 2014

An Other week of miracles up here in P.A. and i'm just loving it. Being a missionary is the best thing ever, and I never want to leave. Now I know why everyone says stepping on the plane to come home is the hardest part. But I still have 19 more months till that happens :) So as always, let's get down to some stories that happened this week, because they're good ones. If you don't have time, you don't have to read them all. 

Monday: Nothing special happened. Tuesday was a good day. We mainly stopped by a bunch of people and set up appointments, but we were just about to head home for dinner and a guy who we now know as Jose pulls up in his car and we said hi and started talking to him because he's seen missionaries before. The thing was he works for our apartment leasing building and he knew exactly who we were, especially because we just got our lease renewed. He offered to drive us home because he also works for the taxi cab in the city. So we accepted, he let us into his house while he warmed up his car and he drove us home as we talked about the gospel with him. It was definitely a blessing and we knew it. So we're going to stop by him sometime this next week. After dinner we had sports night as we do every Tuesday and we had a huge turn out! Binnie actually came even though we haven't been teaching him, and a lot of less-actives. It was just amazing. 

Wednesday we did service for the Food bank here in town and they gave us tons of free candy as always! It was the best! our apartment is full of it, and we're going to get diabetes one of these days. After the food bank we had one of the other elders drive out of town because he was being transferred and we here hosting an other elder till saturday when the new one came up from Regina. A few weeks ago we got a referral from a less-active member on a reserve to teach her daughter and her common-law husband. We got in touch with them, but their always busy. So we dropped by on Wednesday and Billy, her husband happened to be home, so we taught him, and he was interested to hear more, and he wanted his family to hear it, so we set up something for Friday. 

Thursday was fun. Loyd dropped us and doesn't really want to meet anymore. He said he just doesn't want to join and waist our time. But we told him to read the Book of mormon and Pray about it, which he has been doing, and then we watched finding faith in Christ and he loved it! Then he gave us some cinnamon rolls that his wife made. It was great. Hopefully in time, he'll have his heart softened. After him, we walked to downtown P.A. to stop by some people, and a lady stops us in her car and waves us over, she said that she had met with missionaries before, and she loved it! so she wanted to meet with us again. She gave us her number and address, so we called her up and set up an appointment. Hopefully it'll go somewhere, because if that wasn't a miracle, I don't know what is. Wednesday and Thursday night we taught Eric. both lessons were great! We read the BOM with him once, and also taught about the atonement and repentance, and I just love teaching the guy. He's so prepared. I just hope that now when he start teaching the Law of chastity and stuff, things won't come up, and he'll be baptised on Feb 15. 

Friday was kinda pooched. We had a good study with our Zone leaders over SKYPE, and all of our appointments that day fell through. It was not fun at all. But we stopped by a less-active that we love to talk to, and she told us how much she loves us coming over, and her non-member husband even told us. But I just wish we could actually teach them. They just like shooting the breeze, and they'll come to church in their own time. We just have to keep inviting. 

Saturday was a busy day. We did service at Habitat for humanity, which was fun, then we drove out to a reserve and taught our investigators that are kids. Malcom and Kassie. he's 10, and she's 12. It was a fun lesson. After that we drove back into town and finally got in touch with a potential who we've had for a while named Helan. She's an older lady, so we shoveled her walks and she let us in. She knows the mormons really well because when she visits her LDS daughter in Arizona she goes to church with her. So her daughter sent us the media referral. She's golden. After her, we picked up the missionaries in our district, threw them in the truck and we all drove 45 min out of town to a dinner appointment and it was snowing all day, so it was fun in our truck. On the way back the wind picked up and it was complete white-out conditions and that was pretty scary, but it buffs out. 

Sunday was great, we had Eric come to church, and the sisters and other elders had a lot of people come too, even though we woke up and it was -40 out side. Which is not fun to shovel in without a binnie on by the way. But church was good. After that we went to Micelle and Billy's. They're that referral we got, and her less-active mom came into town from the reserve, and made us all lunch! we had Bannock burgers. Bannock's this type of fried bread that native's make and it's amazing. But the lesson was good, and we hope they go places. 

So that's my lengthy email as always. I'm just loving it here. I'm really happy to have the area, and the companion I do. Some sad news is, my last companion, Elder Martin went home because he tore some Cartilage in his knee. I felt bad for the man. He only had 5 months left, so we'll see if he comes back out. In other news, it's getting back down to -40 and it's cold! I'm not frozen to death, but close. My glasses completely froze over yesterday and had a layer of ice on them while we were walking. It was funny. Well guys, the church is true, I know it because if it wasn't, missionaries would have messed it up long ago. 

Love you guys, and thank you for your prayers and support,

Elder Jake Sorenson

Week of Jan 19, 2014

1/23/2014- Can't believe where the time has gone! Seems like just yesterday I was getting off the plane. But then again, that's everyday the alarm goes off. All these days go by so fast, and next thing I know, My head hits the pillow, and then next thing I know, the alarm goes off and the cycle starts all over again. Crazy. Anyways, This week's been great, and resulted in a baptism in our ward, but it was the other Elders, but we're still way happy. Here's my week in a nutshell:

Monday: nothing special happened. On Tuesday we had a great district meeting, and then we walked around to downtown and talked to everyone we could, then had a lesson with some less-active natives, and had a sports night. We invited everyone we could, and had a huge turn out. we had a ton of investigators come, and some less-actives too! and some members to friendship them. A big change from the sports nights we've had in the past where it was just 1 person showing up. During the sports night a drunk native walked in the church and started talking to us. His name was White dear and he lives in the north. He kept doing these weird prayer hand-signs, and talking in circles. Then he asked us to talk to the "father" and we told him to come back on Sunday, it took him forever to leave, but we finally got him out because he was so drunk. 

Wednesday was fun. It was a very windy day. The windiest it got was about 120 Km/hr! pretty crazy. That was mainly because we had a "heat wave" blow in and it got up to +4*c which is about 36*f. big change from the -40 we've been having. IT was nice to only have to wear a jacket. During the day we did some service at a food bank, then drove out of town to a member's house and ate lunch. They had a beautiful view of the Northern Saskatchewan river, and we talked about how the sun doesn't go down till 10 in the summer. Pretty weird. After that we stopped by some people, and nothing Exciting happened. 

Thursday we did some service at a mental recovery place. It was pretty fun, we got to build some shelves. And that night we had dinner at the Hunsaker's. They're a great family that used to live in Prince George, BC. He works for the RCMP as an aircraft mechanic. He's a pretty great guy. They made us enchiladas because she asked us what we haven't had in a while that we had back home, and they were great! I miss Mexican food, it's just so bland up here. It was a pretty fun night. 

Friday was a little boring as usual. We always plan out our week, then we walked to a couple places, and had dinner at an other member's house. They're older, but still pretty fun. We also got our transfer calls, and I'm staying up here in P.A. along with Elder Hindes, so nothing exciting there. No one really got moved around in our mission. After everything settled down, we went and taught Eric. We taught him the Plan of salvation, and it was solid. He asked some high caliber questions, and he's going to be ready for baptism. The only thing that concerns us is that we found out from Ben Reconmacher, a less-active member that knows him, is that he might be gay. So we're keeping the eye on that, but he seems like he's ready to make changes and he's changed. 

Saturday we did service at Habitat for humanity, and went out to teach our investigators out in Muskoday named the Bear's. they're kids, one's 12 and one's 9. We had a good lesson with them, and it was fun. After that we drove a little further out of town to go visit some people in a little town called Birch Hills, but no one was home, so we went and prepped for Eve's Baptism. It was a great service, I spoke at it, and a lot of people turned out to it. The spirit there was so strong. She bore her testimony at the end, and it was so powerful. I'm so happy for her, too bad I didn't teach her, haha. 

Sunday was great, I had to give an other talk, but in Sacrament meeting. I was the last speaker so had to fill up the remaining time, but I thought it went great, I got a lot of compliments for it, and I made the ward laugh, and I think that's how you get the members to like you. It was great because Eric was there! After Church, we had a ward pot luck and it was really fun, we also had a crazy walk into the chuch, and I had to talk to him, it was fun! For dinner we drove way out of town to a member's house and it started to snow bad, and it was pretty sketchy getting back because it was a dirt road most of the way, and it was pitch black, with 6 missionaries in the truck, but we lived. 

So that's my fun week. The sisters up here got 11 new investigators this week which is unheard of! but I know that the Lord has just prepared this area. I'm excited for this upcoming transfer because we can just buckle down and start baptizing people. 

Love you all, and thank you for your prayers and support,

Elder Jake Sorenson

Jan 12, 2014

It's actually warmed up a bit up here in P.A. and it actually felt a little bit like a Utah winter up here for the last couple of days. This last week was a really good one! I loved it, and we get our transfer calls this Friday, and if the APs tell me I'm getting transferred they're going to have to drag me out of here tooth and nail because I'm not leaving. I've got some stories to tell so let's get started:

Monday didn't have anything special, but we deep cleaned our apartment because all the elders before us did not do it. But on Tuesday I woke up sick. I was pretty much out of commision all day, and you really can't do missionary work when you're hunched over a toilet all day if you know what I mean, so I pretty much got to sleep in which was nice, but it was terrible because I felt like I was going to die. Luckily it was just a 24 flu, and I got back to work on Wednesday, but I was still recovering all week long. On Wednesday we had Zone Training Meeting and we were supposed to travel down to Saskatoon for it which is two hours away, and we were going to pack our whole district in our truck for it, so we were pretty excited, but because of the weather/ road conditions, and Saskatoon is 2 hours away, our mission president told us we couldn't drive down. Our assistants couldn't even come out from Winnipeg, which means that I'm not seeing my mail for another 3 weeks! yay! Basically after that we stopped by a lot of people, and had a lesson with a less-active member that we talked all about the outer reaches of Saskatchewan with. 

Thursday was a really good day. The Zone leaders came up from Saskatoon and had an exchange with us. We did a tri-pan for the day, and went and did some work/ had some fun. We started off by going to do some service at this place we found called "good as new" it's a place where you can help out some of the mentally handicapped, so we went there for a bit and they fed us lunch. After that we had a lesson with our investigator Loyd, he's an older guy, he is really open to the gospel, and to the Book of Mormon. Elder Hindes has taught has taught him before and left him with the BOM and to read a little bit, and he actually did, so that's what we talked about. After him, we taught a less-active member that I love to death and he's hilarious, so we taught him about the atonement using an object lesson I love that involves fire and science. It's the best. and no, it's not a tea bag. haha. After that we stopped by a few people and headed out to our new found native's reserve, Wahpeton. We taught our less-active out there. Her name's Karen Parenteau. She's great! she made us this fried bread called banick. It was really good. She hasn't been to church in about 20 years, so we dug to her concerns and really taught to her needs, and then invited her to church, and called a member she used to know, and had her invite her to church also. It is hard for her when she lives 20 minutes out.

Nothing Special on Friday sadly, but on saturday we did some service at habitat for humanity, and then walked to the other end of the town, because we're trying to conserve on "k's" or how much distance we have on our truck. We have next to none that we can use this month, and we've already used a lot. But after that we had a baptismal interview with the other elder's baptismal date, and she's solid! She's being baptised this Saturday and I'm excited. After that we had a meeting, and taught the Bird Family who's a native family full of girls. I love them to death, and their Dad really likes the missionaries. It's a miracle how we found them and a crazy story too. But i'm excited to teach them further.

Sunday was a great day. We had church for once, because it was actually warm enough, because it was snowing. I've never been to a place where it has to warm up to snow! Funny how I say warm, but it's still -20*c outside, which is about -5*f. crazy. Sadly no one we invited showed up to church, but after church we went half an hour out of town to a member's house for dinner which was fun, but then we taught Eric. I told you guys a little about him last week, but he's the miracle of the week. It was amazing how we found him, and he is prepared by the Lord. We sat down and taught him a little about the restoration, but he's met with missionaries before so we focused on that a little bit, and talked about baptism, and then invited him to be baptised, and he accepted a date of Feb 15. It was amazing! the spirit while we were teaching him was amazing, and I'm excited for him.

I don't want to leave P.A. and I want to see Eric be baptised, and the work up here is just exploding. With Eric we were taught that as we are diligent, and put forth the work, and the effort, as well as pray and ask for the blessings, because we were fasting when we found him, the Lord will (for lack of better terms) throw us a few free-bees every now and again. I love this work, and the Gospel. I never want to stop being in this spirit, and I'm so lucky to spend the next 20 months out here in the CWM. 

Love you guys, and thank you for your prayers and support.

Elder Jake Sorenson 

Week of Jan 5, 2014

Wow. What a week. It was really slow, but we did get a lot done and I feel that Prince Albert is right on the edge of exploding. I'm so excited for these next couple of weeks! I want to share a couple of stories because the work out here is going great, but let me tell you when I say it's COLD up here as always. Let's start with Monday:

On Monday we had FHE with a less-active/part-member Filipino family that was really nice that we played some games with. It was really fun. Tuesday was New Year's Eve, so we weren't able to do much, but we got some solid Street contacting in. Wednesday was pretty great. We finally got to meet with a former investigator that we've been looking up for a few weeks that moved and we lost his phone number. It was a big mess, but we finally got his info and met with him. He was really nice, and met with the missionaries for about a year and remembers mostly everything. His name is Marcell, He's native. The only reason he's not baptized is because he never made it to church because he works on Sunday. I really want to teach his whole family and baptize all of them! 

Thursday I exchanged with Elder Wells in my district. He's still in training so I got to train for a day! I was excited because I want to train. It was great, we went and did a lot of talking to people on the street to break him out of his shell. It was really fun. We then met with a member for dinner and it was the best. Friday was pretty slow. We did a lot of planning that was long, but needed. We came up with some good things for our area and really strengthened our faith for it because when we found it, it was pretty dead. We did stop-bys for the rest of the day, expecting to get yelled at and we were pretty down in the dumps for no reason at all. We just had nothing to do. But then I turned to Elder Hindes and asked him if we wanted to stop by Jerone. He's a former's son who we've been trying to meet with his mom. It's pretty messed but we went over to meet with his dad but he sadly passed away :(. So we stopped by like 7 times and she was never home until Friday night. We stopped by and she was total open to meeting with us. We set up an appointment for Thursday which is perfect because that's when the Zone Leaders are coming up for exchanges. Turned the day around.  

Saturday wasn't looking to good, but it turned out great! We started off the day by doing some service for Habitat for Humanity, and then we headed out to Wahpeton which is a native reserve 20 min north of town. It was beautiful up there! And we went to find a couple less-active members. Which we found one, and the others were either dead or moved which was sad. But the one we found was solid! She gave us a referral and also set up a dinner appointment! so i'm excited to go back to the reservation. Saturday was cold though. About -40 all day with the windchill. We actually got to meet our bishopric that night! we call them our "less-active" bishopric because the first counselor is the only one who comes on a regular basis. The bishop is a trucker, the 2nd counselor had a concussion, and we have a 3rd, and he is always working up north. It's funny. 

Yesterday was good, but way slow. We had to cancel church because it was so cold. Which is a joke because people live in this, they should be able to come to church right? But I understand when they're traveling from out of town, and there's a risk of car troubles and it's -47 outside. It was pretty bad. So it was cold enough that we basically couldn't do missionary work on request of our mission president. So we went to a member's house and had dinner, and other than that we could only make phone calls. But we did have an other lesson with Binnie. He's not to solid sadly. He's wrapped around science. He doesn't really believe in God. He read the BOM and then went on a rant on how God doesn't exist. We just had to testify and told him to pray and look for an answer and what that answer would be. The best part about the lesson was we had a friend there that was kind of listening but not really. He asked for our info because he had met with missionaries when he was 15 in Alberta, but moved out here and he wants to meet with them again. He basically helped us teach Binnie. It was the best! And he's moving in with him so it was a win-win. His name is Eric.

This last week was great. We had a lot of miracles, and we have a lot more to come. This next week is going to be even better. I have no doubt that this is the Lord's work, and as we put forth our effort, he blesses us even when we don't deserve it. All on Saturday night and Sunday morning we were fasting for people to be lead to that are prepared for baptism, and I have no doubt that that person is Eric. Things are just about to get crazy up here, and cold and I'm just excited as ever, and I never want to leave.

I love you guys. And thank you for your prayers and support.

-Elder Jake H Sorenson.