Week of March 16, 2014

Good week this week in the great white north... It's still white.... I want something else... Green... Please.... The snow's been here for the vast majority of my mission. But it's melting ever so slowly. Funny thing I realized this last week. we've had the snow for a while, and I thought the snow would be there one minute, and gone the next. But I neglected the gray area in between, and I never took into account the melt. And when it's flat, there's no runoff like back where we have mountains, so where does the water go? EVERYWHERE! I've never seen my shoes so nasty in my life haha. but it's good, and fun to go driving in the truck just to see how dirty we can get it and what kind of puddles we can splash. 

This week was good but slow. We taught the bird's which was nice. We took a primary teacher over there that knew them because she's their neighbor, it went really well, and was probably the best lesson we've ever taught them. Good times. 

The highlight of my week was that I got to travel down to the temple in Regina with the ward here. It was a 4 hour drive that we took on Friday night and we did a session then, and did baptisms in the morning, then drove back up. It was a blast. Eric came with us and he had a lot of fun. I'll send a picture of me and him there. I got to spend the night with the missionaries down there, and see a missionary I used to know from Winnipeg there so we caught up. An other great thing was the car ride was with President Fowler. He's in our Mission presidency, but he's in the Prince Albert ward, so I got to know him really well and talk to him for a bit. It was fantastic. The thing is the Regina temple is tiny, not like the ones back home. I'll send some pictures. IT was beautiful.

In other news Sunday was great. We had a senior couple come and speak to us that came home from Russia. They served in the Siberia side of Russia and had some good stories. They told us how Prince Albert had a worse winter than they did. Made me feel special =P. But they also taught about getting over your spiritual "normalna" which is a Russian word for "as Usual" or getting over just going through life and especially the church and just going through the motions. He asked, What can you do more? which I never really asked and then applied until I came out on my mission. My mission's taught my a whole lot, and I love it. Don't want to trade it for anything.

It was +2 today, so I'm wearing short sleeves!!

Love you guys, thanks for all your prayers and support.

Elder Sorenson

March 10, 2014

Prince Albert Saskatchewan Canada. Easy to draw, hard to spell. Also, where we don't have Daylight savings! haha but really it was a good week up here. I'm having the time of my life! and what it sounds like you guys are too. Not a whole lot happened up here this last week, but it did warm up a little bit and the snow on the road melted but it's still here. The funniest part is that I say it warmed up but it's still 30*f. we just get excited and put shorts on when it gets to 0*c. that's just because we've seen -40 for sooooo long! haha but I hear that the cold is behind us finally! but now the 3' of snow's all going to melt and the roads are going to flood! yay! 

So we taught this guy named joey and his common-law wife named jamie. They're very humble but you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover! haha they have tattoos everywhere but they love the gospel and want to come to church so bad. We taught them about the restoration and they loved it, we left them with a book of mormon and just bore solid testimony and it was great. Other than them, we taught the birds which is always a hand full. It was crazy! teaching those 6 little girls is just.... crazy. We always have to think and be on our toes, because with a large native family, the'll steal things and cry, and just go nuts if you don't know what to do. Usually it has to involve coloring or an object lesson. So we taught them the word of wisdom. It went well. 

We also taught Eric this last week. Oh man, that guy is just a power house. I love teaching that guy! He found out that I like blink 182 so he had it playing in the back when we came over. I got mad at him and said it had to go, but he said it was his house :) but he tuned it off. But we had a very spiritual lesson with him about charity and home teaching. we did a practice home teaching because he just got called and we were helping him out, and he's a great teacher. It was great! We actually took him to a lesson the next day and he was just fantastic. I don't know what else to say about that guy other than the gospel changes people so much. I mean we met him 2 months ago and since he's been baptised, he's grown so much.

One of my favorite parts of the week is Sunday. I get to teach the gospel principles class at church that all the investigators come to and it's a lot of fun. I just get so into teaching. One thing i've found since coming on my mission is that I hated teaching at first and before my mission, but now I love it. And the Lord helps you out. And gives you the words to say. I love it when I start bearing my testimony, and the words come, and the spirit fills the room. I'm going to miss that when I go home. 

Yeah, that's basically my week. I'm going crazy up here. We just got a sister up here from Germany. And I just figured out that Brady Merrill from P.G. just came into my mission, so I'll have to find out where he's at. 

Thanks everyone for reading my boring email and for your prayers and support!

Love you,

Elder Jake Sorenson

Week of March 2, 2014

Slower week here in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. We taught a lot, but it was soooo cold. Everyone said it was supposed to warm up mid-february but this last week it dipped down to -50! it was pretty crazy, and i'm getting sick of the snow. It's been here for 4 months! and from what I hear, it'll be here for an other 2! It's not like Utah where the snow falls, then melts then falls again. It just falls in November, gets frozen, and doesn't leave till April! crazy. But here's some stories from this week, I'll try to keep it short. 

We taught Warner again on Monday, and Sunday. He's the guy that we're helping stop smoking. He's been smoke free for a week now and I'm happy for him. We taught him about the book of mormon, and also taught him one of the best restoration lessons I've ever taught. The spirit was so strong, and you could just see him lighting up. I love that. Wednesday I went on Exchanges with Elder Hanson in my district and helped him out a little bit to get the ball rolling in his area. It's a very slow area so hopefully things'll pick up. Friday we got to go to the dump! haha doesn't sound too exciting but we were helping a less-active move her brother out, and we took a bunch of trash in our truck out to the dump. It's out of town to the north, and the drive there was beautiful! only problem was it was -50 that day haha so it was fairly cold. Also on thursday we taught the Bird's. It was so fun. We made little restoration puzzles and taught the little girls. It was so much fun. I hope they'll be ready for their baptism in a couple weeks. Saturday wasn't too bad, but we did a lot of planning and then drove out to Wahpeyton reserve where we got "lunched." It made me pretty mad, but I always love the drive out there. 

Yesterday (Sunday) was pretty great. We had a great church service, and Elder Hindes and I taught sunday school again. It's a lot of fun. After church held the highlight of my week. Eric, our new recent convert, got the priesthood! It was amazing. Elder Hindes ordained him, but I got to stand in with the bishop and all of his counselors. Truly one of the best experiences on my mission. After church we taught Warner, and went to give someone the sacrament. We also went to the best member-missionary family I've ever met- The Yawneys. Oh man I love them so much! haha we had dinner over there with Eric and His investigator friend Cindy. 

That's basically my week in a nut-shell. We also got transfer calls, and Elder Hindes and I are both staying in Prince Albert for an other transfer. This'll be our 3rd together. I'm looking forward to it. 

The pictures are of my district (only 6 missionaries for the next 2 hours away.) and the other picture is the "

gateway" to northern Saskatchewan, and one of the biggest hills in the mission :)

Love you guys! Thanks for all your prayers and support.

-Elder Jake Sorenson

Week of February 24, 2014

Okay, this week was slow, but good. It went by super fast and this next week we get our transfer calls, and I hit my 6 month mark! crazy it's gone by so fast already. So here's the basic run down of my week. Hope it's not too boring for you guys:

Monday night wasn't too bad, we shoveled a lot of driveways because of the storm on Sunday, and we made a lot of phone calls. Boring right?

Tuesday was a blast. We had our zone leaders come up from Saskatoon and we went on exchanges with them. We taught the Birds that day and set a baptismal date with their whole family! it was great! We also had our sports night that night, and the new ping-pong table we got is doing magic. Too bad i'm still terrible at it, but i'm getting better.

Wednesday was slow. We went out of town to help a lady move her wood pile out of the snow. It was a good exercise seeing how i've gained almost 20 pounds since i started my mission :) and it was fun, untill I got hit in the face with a log. But it was a good laugh. 

Thursday was way slow, and we didn't teach anybody, but we walked around town and got a lot of potential investigators so that was nice. 

Friday wasn't too bad. We did a lot of planning and most of our appointments canceled, but rescheduled so that was nice. We drove out of town that night to a reserve to teach a less-active, but she wasn't home! She "lunched" our appointment! but it was okay seeing how we got to see the northern lights that night! They were very dim, and it was a bit cloudy. I want to see them in full force. Sometime....

Saturday was busy. We taught the Bird's again, and they ate up our lesson. They're a native family and have 6 little girls and so we have to always find fun ways to teach them because they go wild and climb all over you. We usually color or use abject lessons with them and they love it! They've been investigating the church for about a year, but never came to church. Until this sunday! We woke them up by knocking on the door, and so they came to church, and the ward just loved them! They had a good time, and hopefully will come back again. Also on thursday we drove out of town again to teach a less-active who fed us the best ribs I've ever had. (sorry mom). But he had a nice house and lives in the country side. I'll send a picture of the road to his house, because it's just beautiful! 

Sunday was great! we had the most investigators at church I've ever brought. The bird's came, so did Cindy and she brought a friend! Ever since we baptised Eric, he's been doing missionary work in bringing Cindy and her friend. I'm sad we handed Cindy and her friend over to the sisters. But we did because they would help them out more than we can. After Church we went and taught a guy named Warner. He works at the food bank where we give service. He wants to quit smoking, so we told him we would help. We just got a new no-smoking program and it's very effective. We taught him it, and left him with a BOM. He's really excited, and i'm excited for him too. Sunday night we went over to the Yawney's house for dinner. They are the best member-missionaries I've ever seen. We had dinner with Eric and Cindy and Brother Yawney taught them a lesson afterwards and we were all there helping out. But he's a spiritual power-house. I think he's part of the reason Cindy believes in God. Love it. 

So that's this last week. We find out this week whether or not i'm staying in P.A. I don't want to leave unless I get called to leadership. We'll see how it pans out. But i LOVE being a missionary. It's been the best education I've ever had. The spirit that you feel when you're testifying, and you can feel the spirit giving you words, and you feel it testify to the person you're talking with, it's just amazing, and I wouldn't trade that for the world, just love it!

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Love you,

Elder Jake Sorenson

Week of February 2, 2014

What a great week up here in the Promised land of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. Man I'm loving it here, I'm just exhausted but I wouldn't trade what experiences I'm getting for the world, and I never want to leave this place. It's so great. I know my emails are usually long, so if you really don't want to read it, you don't have to. As always. But let's start with some funny stories and some miracles that happened this last week.

Monday night was funny. We went to the Mall to find one of Elder Hindes' old investigators that moved up here from Saskatoon, but little did we know that the mall closes at 6. But we walked through anyways. We ran into this drunk native (a quite common occurrence up here,) and he asked us if we could give his friends a ride. We couldn't so we told him we walked there, and we had no money. He then looked at me, said I was a good guy, and that I was going to heaven. I thanked him and asked him how he knew. He said I had a huge halo above my head that was very bright. haha it made me laugh, but then he turned to Elder Hindes and said that his Halo was broken. It was hilarious.

Tuesday we went street contacting downtown and ran into this guy named Paul. He told us that he'd been looking for direction in his life because he just got out of jail. He told us he was very interested and wanted to meet with us, and there's not a doubt in my mind that he was on that street, at that time, for a reason. 

On Wednesday we taught our investigator Eric. He has a baptismal date for the 15th. That's coming up so fast! we had heard rumors that he might be gay, and we were teaching him the Law Of Chastity, so we were pretty nervous. But it went great, and he didn't have any problems. He's a solid guy, and there's no doubt that he'll be baptized next week. I'm so excited for him. 

Thursday was cold.The forecast was for a -35*c windchill. But it felt so much colder than that. So much that the natives here were saying that it was freezing, which doesn't happen often, even when it's -50* outside. So we couldn't find many people out on the street, because they were all inside. But after a long day, we were trying to set up a member present lesson with a Filipino member named Edison. He has a couple filipino co-workers that are non-member, and we know because they live accross the hall from us. Edison said something about one of them named Joven, he lives down the hall from us, and we got the prompting to go knock on his door and give him something like candy. We do service at a food bank every Wednesday and they get candy, but can't hand it out, so they give it to us. We got a huge box of crispy crunches and so we decided to give him some. We knocked on his door, and he let us right in. We taught him the restoration, and gave him a BOM, and promised him one in Tagalog. He seems excited about it.

Friday we had all of our appointments fall through so we went tracting for a bit. In -30*c. No fun, Especially because we don't tract hardly at all. But it was good. 

Saturday rolled around, and I was so happy that January was over! It was the longest month of my life! But we went and did service at Habitat for Humanity, and then drove out to Muskoday reserve and taught our investigators out there, the Bears. It was pretty fun, then we came back into town and taught our other investigators, the Birds. They have 7 little girls all under 12. It was a mad house! They're all native, and with native children, you can't have anything on you, because they'll steal it. They stole my scriptures about 5 times. haha but we went and colored plan of salvation charts with them, and they quieted right down, and the mom said that we should come over more often. It was great!

Sunday: We sadly didn't have anyone show up to church this week from our teaching pool. It was sad! But it wasn't our fault. But after church we taught an other native family, Michelle and Billy. We had indian tacos with them. It was so good. The rest of the day was slow, and I started to get a headache, but then I felt like we needed to stop by Tom. Tom is another one of Edison's friends. We stopped by, and he let us right in, he sat us down, and started to bash on us for worshiping on Sunday. He's baptist and worships on Saturday. We somehow turned the conversation around, and taught him the restoration. I don't know how, other than by the power of the spirit, but we took his bashing, and testified of the restoration, and he had nothing more to say about it. The spirit was so strong, and we knew he could feel it. He just lit up and was so thankful, especially when we gave him a Tagalog book of mormon. We invited him to pray at the end, and it was the most beautiful investigator prayer I had ever heard, he thanked Heavenly Father for us coming over and showing the new light unto him. I was so happy.

Well, this week was great, and sorry for the long email, I just have so much to tell you guys. I love it up here, and I'm 5 months out tomorrow! But that's nothing. haha, I love this work, and that spirit that was there last night with Tom, and is there everytime I teach and the spirit testifies, and I can feel it, and the investigator can feel it, I wouldn't trade that for the world.

I love you guys, and thank you for your prayers and support,

Elder Jake H. Sorenson

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