January 24,2011

Kia Ora!

Its been a wet week here in kiwi-land. Its rained for about 3 days now. It really feels nice to get out of the hot sun for a while. Although it is kind of annoying to get as wet as we do. Mum, your right, I love the rain until I get caught in it ;). Nah, I still love it. Everybody here calls the rain "rubbish weather." But its rained so much that the river is really high. If it rains as hard and long as it did yesterday, then it might run onto the road like it has in the past. I took a picture on the way over here, but its already gone down a bit already. (see pic.)

Last Monday we went on a pretty good bush walk. Its just out of town about 2 k's. I got some pretty cool pictures. It felt just like it looks walking through a tropical jungle. It was way cool. Really hot, but fun. We went with some members, and they all went for a swim in the river, but of course I couldn't join them. Instead I just stood under a waterfall. My companion and I ran up a big as hill to see if we could see into the next valley. By the time we got down I was dripping from sweat. It gets so humid here. Still not used to being so wet from sweat.

Yesterday my companion Elder Luckhardt and I gave a fireside to get the member work going more here in the branch. We've knocked on pretty much every house except maybe a few random houses. So this week we're starting round two for tracting. We don't have very many K's allocated to us this transfer, but the zone leaders said that they're going to give us some more next transfer. I don't know if thats a little bit of a hint that we're going to be staying for next transfer. They're on Thursday this week, so I don't know whats going to happen until probably Wednesday.

Oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!!!! I hope its a good one! Treat yourself to something nice, on me ;). Ofa la Hiatu, Love you all so much! Thanks for all you do for me in supporting me!

Until next week...
Ka Kite!
Sincerely,
Elder Sorensen

Elder Bednar in NZ

Jan 17,2011

Kia Ora!

Its been another hot week here in Kiwi-land. Not much has really changed here either. I'm still in beautiful country, but the people that come with it are pretty complacent. The work here in Te Kuiti is pretty slow. We only have 2 people actually progressing. We started teaching the branch mission leader's wife and she's set for baptism on the 29th of January. Kasey (branch mission leader) was less active and his wife had been through a few sets of missionaries. Kasey has fully come back to church and loves is, and his wife has really clicked with us. And then we met a guy named Owen, and his partner Tiaroha. He had made a resolution after his nan (grandma) died to really change his life and really look into religion. He really likes what we teach and is accepting it pretty readily.
Tracting is getting really hard here. Its frustrating when so many people openly reject God like they do here. I can understand when they have a different religion, but a lot of people here openly/bluntly reject God in their lives. And the hard part is we don't have many investigators to see, and we're running out of ideas to do other than tract. But the work is moving forward regardless.
We had interviews with President last Wednesday. It was pretty good. I love talking one on one with President Porter. I'm going to miss him when he leaves in July. Today we were going to go to Mt. Ruapehu (Mt. Doom) but there's bad weather down there, so we'll go on a bush walk today, and hopefully Mt. Ruapehu next week. A week from Thursday is transfers again. We'll see what happens, and I have no predictions.

Sincerely,
Elder Sorensen

      Temple in sunset

Total Rejection

Interviews Temple View District

Jan 10, 2011

Kia Ora!! and Happy New Year!!

Can you believe its 2011 already? I come home in 2012. I know that's a trunkie thought, but I don't think there's a missionary here that doesn't think of home every day. Sorry I didn't get to email you last week, New Years holiday carried over to monday, and all the shops were closed. It sounded like Sister Porter sent out an email explaining it a little bit. Things here are starting to pick back up from holiday brake, so we're able to see more people. We have two people set for baptism down in Taumarunui, but we can't see them very often because we don't have very many Kilometers given to us. Thomas (11 yrs old) is about as golden as they come. He has fellowship that worked with him until he was ready for the missionary lessons. His parents are both members. His dad is active, and his mum was active until a couple of years ago. He keeps every commitment we leave him, and he even called us one night and told us that we forgot to leave him something to read. They other investigator's name is Hazel Rerekura (35). She was almost baptized back in 2003, but she said she won't let anything stand in her way this time.

New years was pretty lame, well from a missionary's perspective. There were some guys drinking outside our flat until like 4am. There were a few fireworks, and a drunk guy singing happy birthday to 2011 really loud. Sounds like you had a fun New Years with the blessing and Xcountry skiing and things. I didn't realize it, but I'm a cold weather kind of person. I love the cold. Last Friday was really hot!! 85 degrees F. and 70% Humidity. And we went out tracting all day! but that night I popped the monster zit that you can see in pic #3, and it was just like that volcano that was on my chin a long time ago. Super disgusting.

Time's up, Love you all! You're in my prayers!

I'm in Kiwi-land

 cooking butter chicken curry in my apron

 trackting (I have a monster zit on my cheek)

Ka Kite!
Sincerely,
Elder Sorensen

January 3rd Happy Birthday Mum!