Airport Arrival

Kia Ora Whanau (Haere ra Aotearoa)

Kia Ora Whanau,

     This last week was great.  We've had 4 people accept to be baptized, 3 need parent permission which shouldn't be too hard, and 1 only needs to get married.  Its really exciting for this area, because it hasn't baptized in a while, but we should have a bit more that weekly next month :).  

     We found a 9 yr old girl whose family thought they had to talk to bishop to get her baptized, but when we had a family home evening we told them that that falls under us.  She already wants to be baptized and the family's active and everything will be quick and successful.  The other 2 only have a parent concern of not moving too fast.  But we asked them if they enjoyed the gospel, they said yes, and after our last lesson, the restoration, we asked them if they'd be baptized when they know its true.   They said YES!  

     Then we had a huge miracle way off in Taumarunui.  Our brand president rang us up and asked if we could come for church because there are 2 part member families that want to come to church and us to teach their partners.  Because of sickness only one came to church.  But his partner Sue has been investigating for over 2 years.  She already believes the gospel, so her only concern is marriage.  So they're talking about it between now and this Sunday.  Thats her only concern, but its one of the bigger ones, but they really want to have an eternal family, so that will play a big role!  

     So we've got a great week for this last week of mine.  What a way to leave with a bang :)

Arohanui! 

Sincerely,

Elder Sorensen

Leaving NZAM

Dear Elders,

We recognize that you are close to a very significant point in your life.  You will soon complete your service as a missionary here in the New Zealand Auckland Mission (the greatest mission in the world) and return to your home and family.  We are very grateful for your service.

The Lord has given great promises to you, and will bestow many blessings upon you as you look to your future, while continuing to centre your life upon Him and upon His restored gospel.  You have the opportunity now to prepare well for your life ahead by choosing to “seek learning” and furthering your education.

As the Lord has instructed in Doctrine & Covenants 109:7 “…seek learning, even by study, and also by faith.”  We invite you to begin to do so by visiting the website below this Monday on Preparation Day.   

https://www.ldsjobs.org/ers/ct/home.jsf    As you go to this website and open an LDS account and register on LDS Jobsyou will be given access to many resources to help you.

We encourage you to complete this process prior to the Education & Employment workshop that you will attend next Tuesday 4^th September, from 10am to 12.00noon at the Pacific Area Office.

We look forward to seeing you next Tuesday morning for breakfast in the Mission home.

Love

President and Sister Lekias

New Zealand Auckland Mission
7A Auburn Street
TAKAPUNA
NORTH SHORE CITY 0622
AUCKLAND

Kia ora 2 more weeks!

Kia ora whanau!!

     This last week was great. I really liked the zone conference. We took away that we need to fill in our days better in weekly planning, which we've done and will continue to do. The biggest updates from this week are, we picked up 3 new keen investigators, and we worked more of our branches.
     We finally had a lesson with a part member family, the Fatupaitu'a family. They have a son now living with them from Australia, and they adopted a daughter from Samoa. They've both been coming to church. I've been a bit worried that they're just going out of respect of their parents. But for mutual they're doing a Glee festival for a big stake activity, and the youth are doing a dance. And from what I've seen, they really do enjoy it. So we're going to do our best to make sure they're doing it for themselves and not just for their parents. But if they can't find the mum's records all goes right, we'll be able to baptize 3 from their family.
     Other than that we've been trying to work in our other branches. We went to Te Kuiti and I was looking for past investigators. I found out that one of my recent converts has been having a hard time, but wants to come back to church. And the best part is that she has friends that she can bring. So we'll really be working with her whenever we go down. Other than that, we've got a great ward council that are giving us lots of names to visit, and we're keeping really busy. I'm also really exited for the mission conference on Wednesday!

Arohanui! 

Sincerely,

Elder Sorensen

Tena Koe Aug. 13th

Kia ora whanau!!

     This last week was a bit trying. We had some good lessons set up where we were going to set a few people, but for various reasons they dodged appointments. But that doesn't mean that they're lost. So we're going to try again this week. We've got a few people that we're going to try to set this week. Ripeka, Nicole, and a referral named Peke. We also got a couple referrals from our PEC meeting this week. There's a family that just adopted a family member from Samoa, and also one of their sons moved back in with them whom we thought was a member, but they both turned out to be non members :).
      So that will be our focus this week. I feel we've done a pretty good job at finding referrals through members, now we just need to work with the ward to teach and baptize them and they'll have the best chance to come and stay!
      With that family with the 2 kids, the Fatupaitu'a family, their concern is that they don't want to push them to fast. So we've told them that we work as fast as they understand and gain a testimony. So they sounded comforted about that, but still didn't want us to really start teaching them till the 1st or 2nd week in September. But we convinced them to let us come this Thursday to let us explain about church and the things they're already a part of so that they can understand. They agreed, and hopefully this will be an earlier and better start than they were originally thinking. Of course we will follow the spirit though and not be just pushy.
     Sorry, not much time this week, we're taking turns on the chapel computer.  Love you all so much!  Praying for you, and I appreciate all of yours in my behalf!

Arohanui! 

Sincerely,

Elder Sorensen

Aug 6th

Kia Ora Whanau!!

     I'm happy that today's a sunny day.  Its been a rainy past couple of weeks.  But it doesn't bother me too much because I'm in a car now :)!  And better yet, I'm the driver.  Before now I've only driven a handful of times.  I'm finally used to the steering column being on the right side.  I was used to being on the left before, but now I'm used to the driver on the right side. 

     Its been pretty easy to be a district leader in this area because 1 because of a zone meeting I haven't had to lead a district meeting yet, and 2 its only our companionship and two sets of sisters, so I don't have to worry about setting up trade offs!  Last Friday we had a good little Zone meeting about trying new finding ideas.  In this mission 'zone conference' means 2-4 zones coming together with president, and 'zone meeting' means just 1 zone and sometimes has president or the ap's.  But the hard thing about the sisters here, is that their proselyting time is cut by half or more because they work at the visitors' centre.  So my challenge is to gage how hard they're working given the less time.  

     Then on Saturday we went on trade offs with the zone leaders.  I stayed in this area with Elder Smith.  As we traded off he was telling me he had chicken pox and so we should stay away from children and pregnant women.  Then in the morning he decided to call Sister Lekias before we went out, and she told him it would be better to stay in the flat and not take any risks.  So all of Saturday we stayed in the flat.  The most boring day of my mission.  

     Despite all of that we have some good potential for baptisms here.  First off there's Nicole.  She is pretty much ready to be baptized.  She's been investigating for the last 2 years, and knows its all true.  Her only concern is that she will only get baptized when she see's her husband (rm) really go back to church.  And his biggest excuse is that he plays in a Rugby league tournament.  But the final for that is this Saturday then he'll be finished for the year with games.  We're hoping that will be it, and that he'll come back.  Ripeka (9) is ready to be baptized, she was just sick all last week.  And then we just found out that a member has just adopted a 13 yr old from Samoa thats been to church twice now, and loves it.  

Arohanui! 

Sincerely,

Elder Sorensen

Kia ora 30 July

Kia ora whanau,

     Transfers went great.  Found out that was moving for my last one.  Any guesses?  I'm covering Te Kuiti and Taumarunui again!!!  Except I'm also covering the Ta Awamutu Ward.  I loved this area last time I was here, and I still love it now.  My new companion is Elder Hughes (Elder Huge he's 6'8)  from Sanford Colorado, and he's easy to get a long with, which was an answer to my prayers.  This will be the greatest last transfer I could have asked for. 

     Yesterday (Sunday) we went down to Taumarunui to give a talk each, and also the combined Priesthood/Relief Society training.  It went pretty well even though there were only about 6 adults and 3 youth and 3 or 4 small children.  We also took some time to set up the missionary work and coorelate with the branch president down there since its an hour and a half away. 

     Elder Hughes and Elder Hatch (who I replaced) had just cleaned out the pipeline and there are 4 investigators now.  Ripeka is the closest to baptism.  I haven't met Repeka, but from what I've heard, she's ready for baptism.  The only thing standing between her and baptism is her dad.  Elder Hughes has told me that for some reason the dad won't let us teach her without him there.  Because they were busy with sports all weekend we weren't able to see them.  But we're going to go by as soon as we can.  The good news is that they came to church.  Both her and her dad. 
     I'm excited to work in these areas again.  I know we'll have great success in covering 3 wards/branches.  We just need to get everyone on board!

     Thanks for all the Pics of Leah.  Hopefully she gets out of NICU soon.  Can't wait to see her!  Keep sending pics when you can!

Arohanui! 

Sincerely,

Elder Sorensen