November 22, 2010

Kia Ora! Malo lele! Malo se fua!

This week was about an average week. Nothing too exciting besides climbing Mangere Mountain last p-day. It was pretty fun. Not very big, but on top you could see for miles (kilometers here). I'll send you some pics after I write this letter. It was an easy hike, but steep, hot, and humid. So I was pretty sweaty. Especially after playing touch at the bottom of the mountain. Touch is so much fun. The weather has been up and down. It got really hot Thursday and Friday was really humid too. Then Saturday night it poured all night. So that was good to cool everything off. I've noticed that its always windy here. You know how it feels when a front starts to come through? thats about how it feels pretty much most of the time. Luckily we've only had to be in the rain for a few minutes this week.

Earlier in the week we got like 25 referrals because some of the MTC missionaries trackted out our area. So we've been really busy trying to contact them all. And all that on top of our usual lessons. So we've been pretty busy.

This week ended pretty stressful. Lessons started falling through and there was stress with some of our investigators. Sunday we were planning on having about 10 investigators to church, and we only had 2 show up. Liandra (9 yrs.) who is set for this Saturday didn't make it. We're not really sure what to do about her. She has a hard time learning the things we're teaching her even by rote. We go over the steps to repentance very simply and a few times and she still can't repeat them back to us. So we're praying hard to know whether she should still be baptized on Sat.

Then Rosie has been having a very hard time with things this week. With the whole bail of Perry, and him arguing with his mother and her and things are just hectic for her. She has even said to us that now that she's trying to do the right things and change, all these things are coming up out of nowhere. When she thought nothing else could happen, more things happen. She said she's tired of things going wrong and doesn't want to change anymore. We're trying to comfort her and getting her to turn to the Lord, but she said she can't handle everything that's being thrown at her. We're praying very hard for her and helping her all we can. She is set for the 11th, and we're working as hard as we can to help her through these things and get her prepared for that day. I hope everything works out for her.

On Saturday Elder Jenkins made me Sr. companion for a day. I didn't realize how hard it is to do everything. Its really hard to think of people to see all day when lessons fall through, and there's not too many people on the streets. It was a bit stressful, but I learned a whole lot.

Everybody enjoy the snow. Be grateful for it. I can't wait to see it again when I get home. Most people here haven't ever seen snow in person, and if so just once. Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers. I really appreciate it. I love you all and pray for you all.

Mangere Mountain

The "Kevin Pose" on top of the mountain

My district (left to right: Elders Handy, Sorensen, Smith, Chandler, Matu'u, Jenkins)

Beautiful New Zealand

Me enjoying New Zealand

Ka Kite!
Sincerely,
Elder Sorensen

November 16th, 2010

Kia Ora!

It has been an amazing week here in New Zealand. A lot has happened. We had the baptism of Matekino Toetoe, a trip down to the temple visitor's center with some investigators, and a full mission conference where Elder Hinkley (President Hinkley's son) came and talked with us. This week has just been amazing.

Matekino's baptism was so very stressful. I'm not sure if I've told you about her, but her family was pretty turned off by us coming by, but because of a very intense situation with her jumping off a bridge, but no harm done, her family has come completely around. Her mum has an unshakeable faith in God, and her sister is starting to come to church with Matekino and her mum. So the night before Matekino's baptism, her boyfriend Perry and her little brother (12 yrs old) broke into the neighbors house and stole some things. Rosalund (Matekino's mum) called the police on them, and when they were arrested they found drugs on both boys. Most of it was on the boyfriend, but a little was on the 12yr old. They were all at the police station until 3 o'clock on the morning of the baptism. The family now has a 500 meter restraning order on the house. When we called that morning they said "can you come over, something has happened." We were thinking, uh oh, she probably smoked again, or something like that. After we were told of the situation we asked Matekino if she still wanted to be baptized. She said yes. I was completely blown away! Even through all of this stress and as upset as she was, she still hadn't smoked, and she still wanted to be baptised!! So on Sunday we were waiting for her to show up to be confirmed. 8:30, nope. 8:45, nope. 8:55, nope. But luckily she showed up just after church started. I confirmed her and everything went according to plan. Just after the confirmation we looked over to the foyer who did we see? Perry. When Matekino saw him she just started to cry, and her mum was about ready to throw a fit. But luckily she stayed cool. It was all a mess trying sort out how to keep Perry away from Rosalund. It was a stressful week, but an amazing miracle nonetheless.

The mission conference was amazing!! President and Sister Porter, and 3 of the 1st quorum of the 70 spoke to us. Elder Hinkley, Elder Nielsen, and President James J. Hamula. President and Sister Porter are amazing people. I'm so gutted (kiwi slang) that he's leaving in July or something. He is really big on the basics. The mission statement is being an instrument to the Lord in 3 ways. 1-Faith in Jesus Christ 2-Recognizing and Relying on the Spirit and 3-Being exactly obedient. Sister Porter said "When you are obedient you can expect blessings. When you are exactly obedient you can expect miracles." This mission is truly a mission of miracles! They happen every day here in NZAM. They gave some stats of the mission.

 

Maori Family we're Teaching

Temple Trip to Hamilton

October 2010 - 186 Souls saved
Year to Date total - 1,369
2009 58%(companionships baptizing) and 25%(baptizing multiples souls)
2010 70% 31%

November
Accomplished: 38
Set for baptism: 130
Projected: 168
December set: 39

Elder Hinkley gave some Be's of missionary work. It was an amazing talk. Very uplifting.
Be Enthusiastic
Be Believing
Be Obedient and be careful
Be Cheerful
Be Helpful
Be Prayerful
Be Hardworking
Be Respectful
Be Persistent
Be Spiritually Independent
Be Anxiously Patient (Patiently Impatient)
Be Bold but not overbearing
Be Humble
Be Clean
Be Filled with Faith

Ka Kite!
Sincerely,
Elder Sorensen

Nov 8th

Kia Ora!,


Its been a very eventful week here in Kiwi-land New Zealand! First of all, the results of transfers. My guess was that I was going to stay in Hamilton/Dinsdale area, and have to lead and basically be senior companion for a week, and that Elder Eckery was going to be transfered out. So we were expecting a call about it on tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Tuesday night, no call. Wednesday morning personal study, no call. Wednesday companionship study, no call. So we went out about our day as planned. When we got back for lunch, no call. I was so curious what was going on. We thought we should stop by our flat at about 4pm and lo and behold, there was a message! But it was not what we were expecting. Elder Eckery and I were being "double shifted" out, and they were closing the Dinsdale area for a transfer. I have no idea why, but that was way unusual. So I got transfered up to the Manukau (manu-cow) zone, but we're in Mangare city South Auckland in the Mountain view area. It took about an hour and a half to drive all the way up here, but it was a beautiful drive. We can see Auckland/One Tree Hill off in the distance. The "mountain" is really small, more like one of the foothills behind our house, but its more of a mountain here. Our address here is 96a Hall st. Mangare, Auckland, so you can look it up on google earth.

The flat is pretty messy, so I havn't taken any pictures of it, but the picture I sent, ours is the whiter one on the left. We havn't had any free time to clean or even unpack all the way. So today is going to be a busy p-day. The flat has a bedroom, a big room that we use for studying, two other rooms, a kitchen, and a small wash room. I'll see if I can send some pictures next week. Oh yeah, my new companion is Elder Jenkins. He was born in Colorado, but his dad just retired from the Air Force, so he grew up all over. He got his call from Virginia, so thats where he says he's from. He seems like a pretty nice guy, and I'm pretty sure we'll get along just fine.

Things here are going so much better than down in Hamilton. The people here are so nice, and heaps more are inviting us back to talk with them. This week we even got a referal that was looking to investigate the church. Things here are happening! I am just so happy and excited about this area. We have one investigator set for baptism for this friday! Her name is Matekino. She's about 19, Mouri, and has even given up smoking. And we've got a few others who are coming along. The prophet has given us a call for "Each companionship saves multiple souls monthly." Thats how well the work is going here in NZAM. We're well within reach of DOUBLING our baptisms from last year. I guess President Hinkley asked everyone (missions) to double their efforts and double their baptisms. Because we're doing so well and are so close to accomplishing that, Elder Hinkley (President Hinkley's son) is coming down to thank us in person!! We're having a special Mission Conference for the occasion. Its next week monday, so P-day and emailing will be on Tuesday. Its going to be so awesome! I am really excited.

Nothing really funny has happened to me this week. Except during transfers I misplaced my scriptures, but luckily they have been found, and are on their way to be returned to me.

 Goodbye Hamilton flat

 Beautiful New Zealand Hills

Manukau Flat

November 1, 2010

Kia Ora,

     Its been another week in "kiwi-land".  Its getting hotter every day.  We finally don't have to wear suit coats except for meetings!!  Last month we had to wear them after 5 pm.  Its so weird that I'm going to have a hot Christmas.  I'm going to be tan!  I guess everyone here goes to the beach and has BBQ's and things like that for Christmas.  So weird to think about.  The next big holiday is Christmas, and they're not too big on Halloween.  They don't have Thanksgiving either.I'm going to miss the snow.  Its fun hearing that you got a couple of inches.  Its been cloudy for a couple of mornings and one day, but other than that its been really sunny.  I guess there's a hole in the o-zone layer here as well as Australia.  One day it wasn't that hot, and I wasn't out for too long, but I got a little burned.  I'm definitely putting on sunscreen from now on. 
     We had Manu's baptism yesterday!  My first!  Everything went smoothly and it was pretty much perfect.  A talk before on faith, and one talk after on the Holy Ghost.  And yesterday she asked me to confirm her.  I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous giving a blessing in front on the whole ward, especially because I've only given one blessing previous.  But I said the set words right, and everything else went smoothly.  It feels good to take part in the end result of the hard work of missionary work.  President Porter has a goal for every companionship to baptize multiple souls monthly.  He always says "New Zealand is on fire." 
     I think finding is the hardest part of the work.  Its hard talking to everyone, and talking to strangers on the street.  It gets frustrating as well getting shut-down time and time again.  But those who are prepared are out there.  And I need to just focus on finding them, and dismissing others.  Some people are pretty funny how they reject us.  Like this one lady was on a walk with her husband (or partner, you never know) and child.  When we started talking she said "just don't even.  This is my special time."  We try asking if she knows anyone we could talk to, and she just says loudly "just go away."  Then another guy says that he hates what we're doing and that I should "just go get a bloody job."  I guess that 80% of our converts in the mission come from member referrals.  And so its frustrating when lesson appointments fall through and we have to go out and talk to people until our next appointment.  Its especially hard to find here in this small area, because we've talked to just about everyone.  And we're left to talking to people again.  We try to teach 20 lessons a week, but it it a pretty stretching goal.  The thing we're having the hardest time with is getting people to sacrament meeting.  So that's something we're going to focus on this week. 
     Oh yeah, Thursday is transfers! I'll be starting #2 of 17!  Today I've officially been on my mission for 2 months!  Hurray, I'm as green as the country (which is pretty green).  So I've compiled a list of the most common kiwi slang and their meanings.  So when I call home and I use them, you can have this list as a sort of dictionary.  I'll include them at the end of this letter.  So this transfer I'm probably going to stay and my companion is probably going to leave.  He's been here for about 4 and a half months, so he'll be excited to leave.  Last Monday we went to Hamilton Gardens for p-day, as well as playing touch rugby.  I'll send some pictures.  We're having a good time here in Kiwi-land, and I'm learning heaps (there's a bit of slang).  I've still got a lot to learn, but I'm doing my best.  This has already been an amazing experience and I'm only 1/17th of the way done!  I feel like I'm really grasping the reality of the length of time that 2 yrs is.  But I just need to focus on the work, and not the length of the mission.

Morning rainbow

 Hamilton Gardens

 Manu's baptism

 

Flat fun with the companion

October 25, 2010

Kia Ora!

     Things here in Hamilton NZ are great.  Its been rainy off and on this week, but Friday through today we've had some really good sunshine.  It feels really nice, except on Sunday when we had to wear suit jackets.  Its really hot with jackets on.  We've had some really good meals with some members.  President Porter only wants us to be fed 4 times a week by members, or else I think we'd be fed every night.  They call this the 20 k mission.  I heard that's like 40 pounds.  Is that right?  I sure hope I can handle not gaining that much.  I think I'm back to around 165.  I'll weigh myself whenever I get the chance.  Anyways, dinner on Saturday with the Satini's was amazing.  They're tongan and fed us a lot!  We had steak (they were a little thin and tasted like the marinated steaks back home), rotisserie chicken, and sausages, with potatoes as a side dish.  It tasted so good.  And then they almost always serve ice cream for dessert.  The ice cream here is really good.  Much creamyer than home.  I think thats what'll give me the most pounds. 
     A couple funny stories.  So earlier this week the district was talking about hair cuts and my companion said he needed one.  He said that he could get some clippers and that I could cut his hair.  I thought he was joking, but thursday night about 10:15 pm he asked me to cut his hair.  He just told me to do a #4 all over and then a #3 on the sides.  It looks a little round, and a tiny bit uneven, but it was dark outside and it was a little chilly standing outside...so don't blame me.  I might have him cut mine tonight or something. 
     Sister Porter gave us in our welcome packet a excersize routine that is about 8 minutes, and you can repeat it as many times as desired.  It looked pretty good, so I thought I'd give it a try.  There's 8 excersizes 1 minute each.  I realized that my watch only goes by 5's without a second hand, and there were no other clocks in the flat.  Then I remembered my alarm clock from home, and my companion gave me an adapter.  So I plugged it in and it was acting a little funny, but it eventually went back to normal.  about 2 minutes into the excersize I hear this little buzz and then a pop.  Then I realized that I didn't check the voltage on the clock.  The adapter didn't have a transformer in it like my camera charger has.  I accidentaly gave my alarm clock about twice the votage it could take.  So today I'm going to take it apart and see if I can find out what happened on the inside. 
     This last week we had a way awesome unexpected traning.  It wasn't technically a zone conference, but we had "specialized traning."  President and Sister Porter came, and a few other zones met at our chapel.  It was a really good and uplifting traning.  President Porter started off by saying to focus on the things you're doing good and how to do them better.  And only take a few things to improve on.  "Most people are hard enough on themselves.  So I want you to focus on what you're doing good, and how you can do it better."  I'm out of time now, but theres a quote he said that I really liked, and I added a bit of my own in with it.  "Miracles cost.  They cost work.  They cost faith. they cost obedience.  You only get what you pay for."

Hamilton Flat

October 18th, 2010

Kia Ora,

Its been a quiet week in Lake Wobegone (applause). Actually its been pretty eventful. Last Monday biking home from some other Elder's flat we got hailed on from on big black cloud. Everywhere else in the sky was blue so it totally took me off guard. That night it was freezing cold, the houses/flats here aren't insulated, and we left a few windows open. It was a cold night. Tuesday morning I really didn't want to get out of bed because it was so cold. When I went to take a shower the hot water made it steam up like a sauna! When I opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom it felt like when you see in movies a god or something with a light behind them and the clouds and wind rushing past them. I felt pretty cool hahaha. It was also really windy and exhausting to bike straight into the head wind. Thursday was rainy all day! Especially before dinner I was just soaked through, except for my torso and feet. And it rained pretty much the rest of the day.

So on Saturday (well I left Friday night) I had a trade off with Elder Rezel my zone leader. It was such an amazing day! I really saw how I wanted to be when I really get the hang of being a missionary. We avoided arguing and actually had a good talk with some people who don't believe in organized religion. They basically believed everything we do, except for modern-day prophets and apostles, and organized religion. We let them know our purpose, to pray and ask if these things were true, and that we leave it up to them, and left it at that. We had a couple really good lessons that were really spirit filled, and that day was just really amazing. It really gave me a vision and a goal of where I want to be as a missionary. We also got a few kids set with a baptismal date, whom Elders have been trying to get permission for a very long time. So that was a pretty big miracle. And while I was in the ZL's area, Elder Eckery and Elder Burr were able to set Mike back in my area.

So one of our new investigators is named Rohammad. He is an Indo-Fijian, and I would say he's about 6' 7" or something like that. He says he's Muslim, but he likes listening to other peoples religions and talking about God. So while we were in there (all this time I had my backpack between my legs on the floor) I pulled out my scriptures, and held them between my legs as I was introducing the scripture I was going to read. He stopped me and just started telling me off about not having my 'holy book' between my legs, and that if I want to talk to him about religion I have to 'respect the book, and then you'll respect the religion' and 'once you learn respect then you can preach to me.' Oh yeah he said "if that were my book, oh I don't know what I'd do to you." I was speechless. I just said sorry, and I'll respect it from now on, and went on teaching him for a little bit before he went off to work. When Elder Eckery and I went off we couldn't help but laugh about being told off by this huge Fijian guy.

Later that day we saw an older lady spraying something with a hose on her lawn, and we thought "hey, she looks nice. Let's go talk to her." When we got over there we said hi and she said "Don't even think about it!!" We asked if she had heard what we share, and she yelled "Just GO AWAY!!" We said okay, and have a nice day, and she said in an angry voice "you too". After we were out of sight and sound of her Elder Eckery said that he usually wouldn't leave it at that, but she had a hose. We just cracked up laughing!

So on Saturday during dinner (trade of with my ZL) we got a call that a couple of missionaries in our zone were being held hostage. When I first heard this I was like WHAT? As the details slowly came in this guy was very violant and was just throwing fits, so the missionaries would calm him down. Then he would get upset again. And this went on for 4 hours. They said they're a bit shaken up but they made it out fine that night.

So I forgot my camera this week, so no pictures, but I'll send my memory card home soon.
A little bit more about NZ. One of the ward members whose lived in the states for a while said about the food, that Mexican food is to the US as Indian food is to NZ. So I've had a couple of curry's. I haven't had anything real different yet. I got to eat an oyster in lemon juice. DISGUSTING! I bit down once, just about threw up, but ended up swallowing it whole. Like you said, its a lot like home except for the trees and the countryside outside of the city. My area, Dinsdale ward, is one of the smallest in the mission. So Elder Eckery who has been here for 3 months, has pretty much knocked every house. So we try to visit members investigators and contact on the street as much as possible.
A random thing you could put in the next package; a little thermometer. I would like to know what the temperature is so I can tell you how humid it is relative to the temperature, and so I can know what other people are talking about when they say temperatures.

Ka Kite!
Sincerely,
Elder Sorensen

October 11th 2010 (for you its 10/10/10!)

Kia Ora!

Today has been pretty dark and rainy. The sun is poking through a little bit. I'm still loving the rain. Everybody says its been abnormally wet, and that they don't like it. I don't know what their problem is, but I love it.

Things here are going much better. I'm really starting to get into the work! I had a couple of trade offs with a couple elders this week. Thursday with Elder Mayer, and Friday with Elder Burr (ZL). With Elder Mayer I was in charge of everything, had to plan who to see and what to do. The whole time I was thinking 'I've only been here for two weeks, give me a break' but we pulled through and had some good street contacts and potential investigators. Elder Burr is amazing! He knows what I'm going through being shy and being homesick. He gave me some good advice that seems to be working (along with prayer. Prayer works). We taught one of his investigators who was quite a miracle. Her name is Katherine, she comes from a Anglican church background and suffers from severe depression (to the point she couldn't bring herself to shower, or even get out of bed until late afternoon). She said a prayer to find the truth and it had to be by a person with her same background. The next day Elder Rezel, the only one in the mission who comes from an Anglican background talked to her on the street. She said within 3 days she was feeling so much better, and to me, I would have no idea she suffers from depression. It was such a spiritual lesson. Testimonies were shared, questions were asked and answered, and if sh didn't already have a baptismal date, we would have set her right there.

We have one person set (for baptism), Tera, and the disappointing thing about him is his partner is less active and doesn't want to go back yet. She said that she'll come back, but not yet. And they keep dodging us...frustrating, but we'll keep on trying. We're looking to set Mike on our next visit, and his two 'step-daughters?' (he's not married to their mother) this week as well. Our goal for October is 4 baptisms. It can happen.

I live in a house or 'flat' as they call it here. I'll email some pictures. Its not too bad for a missionary flat. There's a little bit of mold on the bathroom ceiling. We have a washer with the warm water broken, and a drying rack rather than a dryer. It takes all day for things to dry.
My companion was born in Utah and moved here when he was 5. So he's not officially a Kiwi. But he does have a Kiwi accent, which is pretty different than an Australian. And people are already saying that my heavy Utah accent is going away. They have a whole bunch of different expressions, but the most common is "sweet as".

The area I'm in isn't very concentrated with Maori's. Much less than 50/50. There's no more 100% Maori's left. Yeah, they're mixed pretty good. Some are white and say they're Maori. They have same living conditions as the Kiwi's. The ones who still hold on to their Maori beliefs, at least the ones I've see, are usually alchoholics or into drugs and stuff. But there are a lot of good Mauri's as well.

The kind of people I teach...hmmm. Well most people here drink, and a lot smoke. But the people that invite us back are usually the nicer side of society, so they're willing to listen. But its only the ones who have an open mind to other things that usually will let us talk. I'd say most people say, nope, I'm happy where I am. Being content is the hardest problem we're running into. People aren't willing to change.

Nope, no mutton yet.

And the accent is actually pretty different from Australian once you've been around it for a while. There are a few things that make it hard to understand what they're saying, like they're "r's". They say them like the English. I'm trying to learn to speak Kiwi as best I can. Its pretty fun.


Ka Kite, Love you all!
Love,
Elder Sorensen