Feb 14, 2011

Kia Ora Whanau!

This was a fun week last week. Elder Luckhardt and I left Friday afternoon to Taumarunui (toe-mah-roo-noo-ee), and stayed at a member's place till Sunday evening. It was sure nice to get out of Te Kuiti for a few days. And while we were down there we had a baptism on Saturday morning. It was a little stressful because the family actually lives in Auckland, but comes down every weekend. And Thomas (whom we baptized) doesn't like going to big wards, and he love's this branch, didn't come in until late Friday night. We were planning on seeing him Friday night, but we missed them by about 5 minutes. But the baptism went all good, and I'd sent pictures, but my companion's card reader isn't working. Cancel that. Got it.

I got some really amazing sunset pictures, but again the card reader isn't good, and I can't connect my camera because it's dead. We didn't find any success down in Taumarunui, so we probably won't go down for a while now. I'm going to miss the beautiful countryside down there. But here, Angel Puletaha is working with a couple youth who are really interested in joining the church. So we'll have some work here to do. Its cool to see how well the work moves forward when members do the finding and we do the teaching. Thats how its really supposed to go.

Glad to hear Mum's over her cold, now dad, get over it. Yeah, your daylight is getting longer, but my days are getting shorter. I'm starting to notice it more and more. I think the rain will be here when your spring starts to hit there. No, you didn't tell me about Jennie Joe's mum. Thats cool that President Monson is going to speak at it. If you get a chance, you should shake his hand.

Oh yeah, did you clean off my camera card onto the computer yet? If so, you could send it in your next package. And Happy Valentines day!

Arohanui!

Sincerely,

Elder Sorensen

 

Feb 7, 2011

Kia Ora!

This week's weather report: Super muggy and humid. Average 80% humidity, and average daytime temperature 80* F. I can't wait for winter time. I realized something here, I'm a cold weather person. So on Saturday we went to give service to this Mauri lady mowing her lawn across the street from the park. When we got there she didn't have a mower and it started to rain. So we stopped by this youth activity and taught them how to play ultimate frisbee. Because we were going to mow a lawn I wore my jeans. It was so humid and hot! It rained enough to get everything wet, and then the sun came out to make it pretty much unbearable. But anyways, when I put on my jeans they're feeling a bit tight. I guess I've gained enough weight to make a difference. Do you think it would be better to look for a pair here or send some to me? But I did learn how to tell Samoan's how to stop putting food on your plate when you're full. You say "maonga" (mah-o-nga). So hopefully that'll help me lose some weight. And I'm trying to get myself to exercise more in the mornings. Its just really hard when your companion basically sleeps on the floor for exercise.

So with the new month they reallocated K's for our car. But they made an even bigger mistake. They thought we were at 1200 last month and so they thought they'd be nice and give us 1500 for the month, when they really gave us 1800 +200 last month. I hope they can get it all sused out. But we were able to go to Otorohanga last Sat. and it felt really good to get out of Te Kuiti after about 2 weeks of working in the small area. Brother Stockman (1st councillor) gave a funny expirience at church. They took a few buses out for his work to Bennydale, and when they came back, I guess they saw us riding our bikes down the main street. And the bus driver said "there go those *bleeping* mormons." And then other people on the bus started saying "yeah, they came to my house too!" But the stake rep for the branch said to start looking for a bigger building to meet in because the chapel is pretty small. So the work is really going forward.

Thank you so much for the package! Its good to eat american lollies again. Its been a while. The one's here aren't quite as good. When you sent the tetris game, did you know that I'm not allowed to play electronic games? Its really cool, and I would love to play it, but I can't.

Thanks for all you guys are doing for me! I appreciate all the prayers, and packages, and emails! Love you all so much!

Arohanui!
Sincerely,
Elder Sorensen

February 1, 2011

Kia Ora!

     Its been a wet couple of days which has been really nice to cool things off for a while.  There was a cyclone that hit the islands, like Tonga, Samoa, and it slowed before it hit New Zealand.  And the main part of it hit Auckland.  We just got some good wind and then some rain.  Last Saturday we had a baptism.  Her name is Stacey Puletaha.  She's the branch mission leader's wife.  Everything worked out perfectly.  Friday night it started to rain, and the baptism was supposed to be outside at a pool of one of the members.  By answer to a few prayers, Saturday morning was a beautiful sunny day, with some wind, and then it rained Saturday night, and most of Sunday.  Yesterday was pretty wet as well.  For P-day we played basketball in the rain.  It was hard, but pretty fun.  Speaking of weather, it would be really cool if you could get me a 5 day forecast for NZ (central if you can).  That would be awesome and I'd appreciate it. 

     Transfers came and went without much change.  I'm still in Te Kuiti with Elder Luckhardt.  We were going to get a third elder, one from my in-take, but they changed they're minds at the last minute.  They decided to get him to train a new missionary instead.  We have one more baptism set for this month, Thomas.  He's pretty awesome, and now that its a new month (meaning more Kilometers) we can go back to Taumarunui and catch up with him and sus everything out for his program. 

     We've basically talked to everybody here in Te Kuiti both in tracting, and in talking on the streets.  Not much work is happening here.  So we're pushing our leaders to give us more K's.  Then we can do more work in Otorohanga and Taumarunui.  Things are getting stressful with the mission president's new vision of baptizing weekly.  They tell us to try to set all of our investigators with a baptismal date, and then when they're not prepared and they fall through, our leaders tell us to "stop the bleeding" meaning stop letting people fall through.  I like the idea of progressing and working harder, but I think weekly is a little too fast to get investigators to progress and get an adequate testimony.  I'm personally following preach my gospel and not baptizing anybody who's not ready. 

     Anyways, My time is pretty much up and have to get back to work, but I love hearing from you guys.  And I think I got your package.  Elder Mayer (DL) said he has a package for me and my companion or something like that.  So I'll pick it up tomorrow at district meeting.  Thank you so much!  I really appreciate everything, the prayers, the packages, the emails, and everything you all do for me!  I love you all so much!  You're in my prayers. 

Arohanui!  (love)

Sincerely,

Elder Sorensen

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!