Goo-ba-lee-Goop!‏

Dear family and friends,

 

    You must be wondering what the heck the title of this email is all about but I will explain. But it has been another great week full of so many wonderful experiences and tender mercies. Sister Tito and I continue to work extra hard in order to help all of those that we're working with to progress and come unto Christ. Here are some of the events/ tender mercies that happened this week.

 

• On Wednesday I went on an exchange with a sister named, Sister Ilalio. We are running low on kilometers so we decided to walk the whole day. Unfortunately we weren't able to get many set appointments so it was an open day full of unknown. But in a way I love days like that because it strengthens my faith and helps me to trust in the Lord to go where He wants us to go. There was one miracle after another. One of them that sticks out in my mind was when we had been walking almost all day and it was really hot. I was really struggling to keep going and just was praying really hard that I could have the strength to keep going and that we'd find someone that would recieve us. Just after that, Sister Ilalio looked over and saw that there was a door that was open and people inside. I said, "lets go!" We knocked on the door and it was such a nice woman and listened to what we had to say. We set up a return appointment and it was good to know that there were really some nice people that are ready and prepared at this time. I don't know if that woman will be super receptive but at that moment it was a tender mercy to meet her. She boosted my energy and helped me to keep going. I'm so grateful for that experience.
• Emily Van Dyek is changing day by day. It has been incredible to see the changes in her. We started the stop-smoking program with her this week. She was able to crush a whole pack of new cigarretes on her own. But unfortunately she wasn't able to make it the full week. She hasn't fully decided that she wants to quit. So we continue to teach her and encourage her and I know that she will be able to quit. It has been great to see just how much the gospel can change people. Even those that you least expect. All you need is a willing heart and an open mind and the spirit will be able to teach them and show them the way. I don't know if I'll be here for Emily to be baptized but I'm grateful to be able to say that I was one of the first missionaries that introduced the gospel to her. I know that she will one day come unto Christ.
• On friday we had a few cancellation and so we were walking around the suburb by our flat. We saw this lady spraying off her driveway. We of course went up to talk to her and she was a lovely lady. We talked about the beautiful weather and then she took us around and showed us her garden. She was so nice that she didn't even notice we were missionaries until after we'd been talking for a little bit. She then started yelling GOO-BA-LEE-GOOP! i thought it was a little strange at first and then she explained that she likes to feed the mag-pies and that is the call she uses to call them in for their feed. So Sister Tito and I joined in by yelling and all of these birds came in and started eating. It was sure a funny experience and now Sister Tito and I like to use that phrase whenever we see a mag-pie. The lady was very kind and we set up a return appointment too. Something I learned from Bev that day is the importance of treating everyone with respect. She didn't even notice we were missionaries she just talked to us like anyone else and I hope that I can do the same thing with everyone that I meet.
• Our wonderful Mission President gave us permission to go to the temple with Mini for the first time on Saturday. Mini went with the relief society and stayed the night there in Sydney and we surprised her and got a ride early in the morning with a member. We surprised her and you should have seen her face. She was so excited that we were there with her to help her. It was a great experience to be able to see Mini glowing as she was able to help some people that have passed on to recieve that great blessing of baptism that Mini just recently was able to experience. Mini loved it!
• Sister Tito and I also had the opportunity to do an endowment session and what a great experience that was. After not being able to go so long, it was a great blessing to be in the temple that day. I learned so much and it really was a good boost of spirituality. I LOVE the temple and I'm so grateful that we have them on the earth today.
• We set a baptismal date with Felicity for November 15th. We are so excited for her and are ready to help her to get there. Please keep her in your prayers!

     There are so many more wonderful experiences I could share but those are some of the highlights of the week. I'm so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I'm so grateful to be able to now share the gospel to those that are ready to recieve it at this time. I know that the Lord is hastening the work at this time and now its our time to stand up and to proclaim the truth to all the world. I commit you to pray and fast this coming fast sunday to know of someone that you can share the gospel with. Or even someone that needs strengthening at this time. I know the power of fasting and prayer. I know that if you have the desire to share the gospel that you will know who is ready. And as the scriptures promise us that we have no need to worry what to say but the words will be given us at the very moment we need them. So go out and share what you know to be true!

 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thanks for all the love and support!

 

Love always,

    Sister Sorensen

We are nothing without God (Alma 26:12)‏

Dear Family and Friends,

 

    It has been another wonderful week here in the Canberra area. I don't even know where to begin with the week that I've had. Its been full of so many wonderful experiences and lessons that I've learned. Here are some of the tender mercies that we saw this week.

 

• EXCHANGES WITH SISTER MATA'AFA: This last monday after emails we drove to Nowra (3 hours) to go on an exchange with those sisters there. I had the wonderful opportunity to go with a sister named, Sister Mata'afa. In Nowra there are heaps of old people because its a retirement place near the coast. So we visited a lot of older people. We went to the nursing home and we talked to a lady that is a member and she was a great example to me of a faithful woman regardless of all the rough times she's been through in her life. We also visited this other member who is about 80 years old and she is so missionary minded. She doesn't even seem like she is that age and has invited so many to hear the gospel. I want to be like May when I get to be that age! It was a great blessing to meet all of those wonderful people that day.
• EXCHANGES WITH SISTER BOITEUX: The next day we went on exchanges with the Woden Sisters. I got to go with Sister Boiteux. She is amazing as well! We got to see some cool miracles that day. The first one was when we went to visit this investigator named Jeanette. She wasn't home at first and so we tried some doors around her and no one was home. So we headed back to the car but Sister Boiteux is new to the area and can only get around with a gps. The gps wasn't working at all and we didn't know what to do. So we decided to pray. The gps still didn't work and so we decided to just get out of the car and start walking and find out why we were supposed to be there. We talked to several people and after a while we headed back to the car. The gps still wasn't working but as we were trying to figure it out we saw Jeanette walk by and go into her house. So of course we jumped out of the car and went up to her door. THAT WAS WHERE WE NEEDED TO BE!  We had a powerful lesson with her on her door step about prayer and putting the Lord first. By the end of it she said she was about to cry and wanted to go inside to pray some more and ask for forgiveness for some things. When we went out to the car the gps started working again. I knew that the Lord needed us to talk to Jeanette that day.
• Another thing that happened with Sister Boiteux was we got to teach this little boy named Brodie. He is 9 years old and has a small attention span. So we decided to make the lesson really fun for him. It was one of the best lessons ever. I taught him basketball as we were teaching the lesson. We related basketball to prayer and Christ was a the coach and how we have to listen to him and talk to him. Sister Boiteux said that was a miracle that he was able to listen and understand the lesson. It was so fun! All those years of basketball pay off even on a mission!
• Emily and Kristy and her family came to church! That was a huge miracle that they came. We went on splits before church to round everyone up for church. Sister Tito and Faith Stubbs went over to wake Emily up and she did not want to come. But with a little bit of the spirit and a little bit of petrol from the members she drove herself to church! It was awesome!

 

     There are so many more miracle to share but those are some of the few. It was a great week and I'm loving every minute of my mission. One thing I learned a lot about this week is the power of the Atonement. Many times I find myself always wanting to do better and always falling short of what I want to do. And instead of getting angry with myself I have learned how to turn it over to the Lord to help me to make those weaknesses my strengths and reach new heights. I'm so grateful for the power of the Atonement that allows us to be better and to become more like our Savior.

 

Thanks for all that you do. I hope you have a wonderful week.

 

Love always,

    Sister Sorensen

Momma Mini!

The wonderful and fun Kikkert family

splits with Lata and Faith sunday morning.

If this is what it takes to get someone to church then we are willing to do whatever it takes! The Green's filled up a can with petrol the night before to give to Emily so that she could come to church.

Another INSPIRING General Conference

Dear Family and friends,

 

I know that all of you probably watched general conference last week and now that is old news for you but for us in Australia we just barely were able to watch it this past weekend. It was so amazing and I learned so much from the sessions. Aren't we so grateful to be able to listen to the prophets at this time and to know what we can do to lift to new heights and to more closely follow God's plan for us? I don't even know where to begin with all the things that I liked from conference. I think I took at least something from each of the speakers that I could use or improve on.

 WRITTEN QUESTIONS:

    One thing that I learned this week is the importance of writing down the questions that you want answered. For the first couple sessions I just had a few questions that I had in my mind that I hoped to have answered but some of them weren't very clear and I didn't fully know what I wanted answered. But thanks so my wonderful companion who helped me and inspired me to just take some time and write them down. So I did that very thing. I took some time aside and prayerfully wrote down some of the questions that I had in my mind and also some others that I had not really thought of before.

   I went to the next couple session of conference with those questions written down and it was amazing how much more I was able to get out of conference. Not to say that I didn't get anything from the talks beforehand but the spirit was so much stronger as I realized I was more ready to recieve revelation and open to what God wanted to tell me. God isn't just going to give us everything and expect us to do nothing for ourselves. He wants us to do our part and to prepare ourselves so that we can recieve all that he has in store for us. I noticed that by the end of conference that each of those questions that I had written down was answered by at least one talk. It was a great lesson to learn and what a great experience I had.

 

   One of my favorite talks from conference was President Monson's talk.  It was definitely an answer to one of my questions. I loved it how he said, "Walking WHERE Jesus walked is not as important as walking AS Jesus walked." I LOVED THAT! I've always wanted to know how I can develope a stronger relationship with my Saviour, Jesus Christ and I think I've always known but this talk just really enhanced it and helped me to recognize it more than ever before. If we want to come to know someone or even strive to become like them we have to do as they would do. Our purpose in this life is to become more like our Saviour, Jesus Christ and the way we do it is by being a little kinder to our fellow brethren, keeping ALL of His commandments, and just by putting aside the natural man and the things of the world for the things that truly matter most in life.

 

  This conference we had a few of our investigators come which was so great to see! We had our investigator Emily Van Dyek come which was a bit of a shocker. She even stayed for both sessions on Saturday. I think she was a little bit overwhelmed by the end but I think over all she really liked it. We also got Jennifer to come to one session and I think she really liked it as well. I wish that I had more time to share some of the insights that I recieved from conference but I have ran out of time.

 

I hope that you all have a wonderful week and strive to apply all the things that you learned from conference. WE ARE SO BLESSED! I'm so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and I'm ready to share that with everyone else that is willing to listen.

 

Love always,

    Sister Sorensen

We went to the Parliament building this last pday. It is really cool!

Brother Baker (Ward mission leader) took us all out for lunch in between the Saturday sessions. We had Emily with us too. She is the one that doesn't look very happy but i think its because she's not used to having so many happy people around her. And of course Mini came with us too. 

This is me and Shayla Arnold. I love that little girl. yes I'm still a kid at heart and was playing with her, I had a lot of fun with this 3 year old.

Reflecting on the Year

Dear Family and Friends,

 

     This week has been another really busy week but full of so many miracles, it is unbelievable how blessed we've been! Like always I would love to share a few of the tender mercies that happened througout the week:

 

•     We were able to see Sister Levine before she left to go return back to Hawaii. We sang her a song and spent some time with her and her parents. She is looking a lot better. She is opening her eyes and she is able to squeeze your hand a little bit. But she is still not able to talk or respond. But she is breathing on her own. It is a tender mercy that she has improved enough to be able to return home. Hopefully she will continue to improve. Keep praying for her!
• Mini is such a sweetheart. She had us over for lunch and provided lunch for us for the week pretty much. We ran around so much this week that we didn't even have time to stop at all this week for lunch but she provided some food for us so we packed that around with us everyday. We LOVE Mini!
• This week the members were wonderful in assisting us in the lessons. We were able to have 12 member present lessons this week as well as last week. We've made it a goal to have a member at every lesson. It has been a challenge at first but they have been very supportive. With all the people we have to visit, the members have been able to lift the load a little bit. I've gained a strong testimony on gettting the members involved in the lessons so that the investigators build a relationship with more than just us.
• There was two investigators (Deb and Steph) that we met a few weeks ago. We were walking down the street and there were two women out gardening. We decided to jump into to help them garden. We had a good conversation with them and set a return appointment with them. Unfortunatetly they had to cancel that return appointment last week because of sickness. We were planning on setting up another appointment soon but on our way to district meeting on friday morning Steph gave us a call wanting to have us over in the next couple days. WE COULDN'T BELIEVE IT! Of course we jumped at that invitation and set it for the following day. When we went to Steph's house the next day she had a whole white board full of questions to ask us. I have never had an investigator do that. She said that she read the Restoration pamphet and was very interested to hear what we believed in. We had an incredible first lesson with her as we taught the Restoration. She was happy to hear about it and was so curious. We were able to answer all of her questions and she is keen to continue to learn more. We are so excited to work with Steph!
• On Monday it was a holiday so we had a normal proselyting day. We had an appointment with an investigator named Emily. I was struggling to find a member present to come with us but I knew that the lesson would go better if we had a member there. I had Sister Hedley put a post on facebook to see if there was someone willing to come with us and within a short time we had a member give us a call. We had a great lesson with Emily and we found the perfect member present! It worked out just wonderful! Sister Lopez is so great, she invited Emily over for dinner and even offered to take her to General Conference this next weekend (we still haven't see General Conference here but we get to this weekend). It was such a great experience and I have never seen Emily smile like that before. She is so happy to know that someone cares for her.
• Also on monday I was on exchanges with a Sister named Sister Tsai. We had some service that we were doing that day for our recent convert Trish. We were going to mow her lawn and pull some weeds. Well we had borrowed a Lawn mower and when we got there and tried to start it it wouldn't start. I couldn't figure out what the trick was for it to start. We tried and tried and then we decided we would say a prayer. Not long after the prayer there was this couple walking down the road. We simply asked the man if he could help us and he said he would give it a go. Right away he got it started and we were so thankful! I think the Lord was testing us to see if we would humble ourselves to turn to Him first. Then immedietly he was able to bless us. You think we'd learn by now but we still haven't.

   There are so many more tender mercies that I could share. Just as President Uchtdorf shared in the Women's conference about how the Lord is always showering blessings upon us each day. It is just up to us as to whether we're going to let our umbrella down so that we can receive them. I loved that!

 

    ONE YEAR:

 This week is my year mark and I've been reflecting a lot on the year that I've had so far on my mission. It has been incredible! I don't even know where to begin with the heaps of different things that I've learned. One of the main things that I have learned is the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and just how far Christ's hands are outstretched. I have learned that the Atonement is not only for the worst of sinners but it is for each of us because we each sin every single day in one way or another. The Atonement allows us to become better. It allows us to reach new levels that we may not have ever thought was possible. All the Lord wants us to do is to apply His atonement and he will continue to build us up.

 

   I have also gained a strong testimony of the power of prayer. Before my mission I would pray but I have never prayed this much in my life. I have learned how to fully rely on the Lord. And I have discovered just how much our Heavenly Father hears our prayers and how he can help us with anything! Now when I may struggle with something my first step is to kneel down and pray. And each time that I have done that I have been comforted and been strengthened to keep moving forward. The Lord is the only one that understands everything that we are going through so I've now understood just how much he can help us because he has felt it before. He knows how to comfort us and to help us push through our trials.

 

      I have gained a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and also the importance of the Restoration. The Book of Mormon is by far my favorite book ever! I can't go a day without reading that book. It is truly the word of God! I know that because I've read it multiple times and each time I get something new out of it. I have come to find that just as it reads in the introduction, "...a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." I KNOW THAT TO BE TRUE! I have come to know God and have come to know my Saviour just by reading this book. I know that God will answer your prayers and it often does that as you read His Word. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet, there is no way that he could translate the Book of Mormon on His own. It is far more powerful than any man made thing or any man written book. Just like I was saying last week. The restoration of the gospel is so powerful. I have come to know just how significant and how percise everything layed out so that christ's gospel could be on the earth today for each of us to partake of it. If there is anything that you wanted to share about our church, I would say share with them the Restoration of the gospel. As someone understands that, then they are able to understand that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints is not just any church, this is the Lords church on the earth. I KNOW THAT TO BE TRUE!

 

   Another one of the million different things that I have learned is the importance of having Charity. I have come to love people more and more and I have only begun to see others as our Heavenly Father sees them. And as I have come to rely on the Lord and to have Charity for all men, it has really made all the difference. We are all very different and we have different talents, ideas, beliefs but all in all WE ARE HIS CHILDREN. And the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that we can find that each of us have in common. Every day I look around at how many of God's children have either rejected his word or they are living in ignorance and don't know of Christ's gospel. And that gives me more of a motivation to just keep working hard so that everyone can experience the joy and happiness that I feel each day while I'm living this gopel. I have also learned about just how important it is to do the small and simple things in our everyday life such as prayer, reading scriptures, service, and attending church. That is what will help us to stay strong, we will be able to resist temptation. We need to put on our armour of God each day or else we shall fall. I have seen the blessings that come from putting the Lord first in my life and I know that it is the only way to go. We need God in our lives and it is up to us as to whether or not we will let Him in.

 

I know that this is super long but I have just so many things that I wanted to share. I have learned so much and I have experienced so many wonderful things on my mission and I'm so very blessed! Thanks for all your love and support. I hope you all have an amazing week!

 

Love always,

      Sister Heidi Sorensen