April 26,2011

Kia Ora Whanau!

Well right now its a cold, wet, rainy, and really windy today. Transfers went well without too much stuff being forgotten. The zone leaders back in Hamilton still have my rain jumper that they're going to get back to me hopefully soon. My new companion is Elder Ales. He's from Sacramento and he's pretty cool. We're both willing to work hard, but we both have fun doing it too. Eventually I'll get a picture of us doing something.

If you couldn't guess I have been transferred, any guesses on where in NZ Elder Sorensen? I'll give you a couple hints, I'm still in the Southern Kingdom, and the population is about 16,000. So look at google earth and some of the cities and send your guesses to Mum. I'm still trying to decide what the reward could be, but this will be fun anyways.

The flat gets pretty cold during the winter time. So Mum, and whoever helped her put together the packages, you must have been inspired to send me the scarf, gloves, and long-johns. I've already used them all. Oh yeah, the hat too. I got them at transfers and used them the first night, and I stayed warm enough.

This area already is doing pretty well. We have one baptism coming up in may, and a few more that are about to be set for baptism. The people seem pretty nice as well. Much better than Dinsedale. I don't know why the people there were so much harder, but I've loved the area's ever since.

Monday was a double public holiday, Easter and ANZAC day, so everywhere was closed for the day. The only places allowed to be open are food places, and tourist places. So thats why I didn't email yesterday. So we decided to go shopping. We get all our groceries and get to the check-out and try to pay with our cards. Elder Ales used his first, and it didn't work, tried it again and the same thing. So I tried mine and it didn't work either. Luckily Elder Ales had enough cash on him to pay for it. But I found out that we only got paid like $40. So we're going to have to call and find out what's going on. When I got to the flat the previouse Elder, Elder Naicker, ate everything! all we had was 4 or 5 eggs, a few packets of noodles, and 2 meat pies. No joke. So our shopping day was a big one.

District meeting was really good today. We had training on the Atonement. I love learning and having more trainings on it. I've always had the most success when I turn everything back to Christ and His Atonement. Its amazing the effect that message can have on people.

Well I'm really looking forward to this transfer with Elder Ales and this area. I'll say the answer next week. So tune in next time to find out: Where in NZ is Elder Sorensen?

P.S. For mother's day if the card doesn't work/as a last resort our flat # is 886 1470. I'm not sure about the country/city code or how that all works, but I should be fine calling from here.

Arohanui!
Sincerely,
Elder Sorensen