Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

Dear family and friends,

  Wow the weeks are flying by. This week has been another full on week of work as a missionary and I absolutely love it! This area is amazing and we have so much work to do here. It has been kind of a crazy week because now i'm in charge of the area because my new companion just got here so she doesn't know it. And i've only been here for just 6 weeks now so its been a little stressful but we are getting there. I'm sure learning a lot and its been a good challenge. But my companion, Sister Tito is amazing so I'm grateful that she is here.

  

   I'm just so glad that we have the ward the we do here in Belconnen. I have never seen a ward that is so heavily into missionary work. Every activitiy and everything that the ward does is some way or another connected to missionary work so it is great to be apart of it. The members sure keep us busy and help so much with fellowshipping. This last weekend we had a baptism in our ward and this next week we have 2 baptisms in our ward. One of those is the little boy that we've been teaching, his name is Reuben. He is 11 years old and he is so ready to be baptized. He has been so fun to teach and one great thing is that he loves soccer. So he has such a short attention span but when I give him a reward such as teaching him a new soccer move he sits and listens, its awesome! So Reuben and I are good friends and I'm excited for him to be able to enter the waters of baptism.

   I have seen the hand of the Lord in every single thing that we do each day. This week has been great! One miracle that I would like to share with you is with one of our investigators named Visnja. I might have mentioned her before but she was a former investigator and Sister Schwab and I actually started teaching her. In the past she has been a little hesitant and always has said that she doesn't have a lot of time. But this week we texted her to set up a time to go and see her and she happily set an appointment with us. When we went for the appointment I was almost thinking that she wouldn't remember or would be busy. But when we got there she was happy to see us. She opened up her door and let us in. She also looked a lot happier than I had seen her in the past. It was a miracle! Well of course we were happy to go inside and she was so excited to learn. We taught her of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she loved every minute of it. She said it all just made sense and she really liked it. The spirit was so strong and I knew that the Lord was leading the lesson. We invited her to be baptized and she expressed some concerns but we were able to resolve them with the help of the spirit. She then said that she would once she learned more! We were so happy and now are striving to find a date that we can set for her. What a miracle!

    Another really cool miracle was with this man named Lance. He was a man that was Excommunicated about 25 years ago and has had a rough background. He has been through a lot and miraculously we were able to find him. Well Sister Schwab and Sister Fotuali'i did but we have continued to teach him. Well I don't know if I mentioned this last week but he came to Stake Conference last week for the first time in about 25 years. He has such a big heart and now has a desire to come back to church. He feels like it is his time. He may be one to move very slowly but this has been a testimony builder that the Lord leads and guides this work. He places people in our paths that are ready to hear the gospel. Even those that you may think will never come back will come back as you trust in the Lord.

    Lately I've been reading the story of Alma the priest of Noah who was converted by the words of Abinadi. He brought many unto Christ by his teachings. But in Mosiah chapter 23 and 24 it talks about how the Lamanites start to take over their land and threaten them if they pray that they will be killed. Well they pray in their hearts and the Lord hears their prayer. He tells them in verse 13 to "Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and i will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage." Going on to verse 14 it reads, "...I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs..." In verse 15 it tells us that the Lord didn't take their burdens away but gave them the strength to bear their burdens.

    I know that the Lord knows the burdens that we carry, he understands our pains and our sorrows. But we need not bear those burdens alone. He is there for us and will help us to strengthen us to make it through the hardships of life. So no matter what you may be facing right now know that you are not alone and that as you trust in the Lord and rely on Him, he shall lift you up.

I challenge all of you this week to read those two chapters in the Book of Mormon. Mosiah 23 and 24. Then let me know what your thoughts are next week. I'd love to learn from your insights and your thoughts.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love and appreciate you all very much!

Love always,

     Sister Heidi Sorensen

Sister Tito and I

Reuben and I had a arm wrestle. It was pretty funny, he was trying so hard!

This is Mini's grand-daughter that we were able to teach last week. She is such a sweetheart. And Mini is such a great little missionary and she doesn't even realize it.