"Be not afraid, only believe." (Mark 5:36)‏

Dear family and friends,

   This week has been another great week here in Australia. I can't believe it's already December! Time is flying by but I'm loving it here so much. There are so many wonderful people here that we're working with. Here are some updates on some people. Nari and Donelle and the other boys are doing wonderful. We are still teaching them every week. We go over almost every single day to keep them going and to make sure everything is going good. They are starting to get more and more involved in the ward activities. The baptism for Donelle and Leo is still on for December 20th of this month and we can't wait for that day to come! We are so very blessed that God trusted us to be working with this wonderful family. We love them so much!

   

Here are some of the tender mercies that happened this week:

• This week one of the recent new investigators that I met in the Green Valley area we were finally able to meet with him. I was a little unsure of how keen he was to learn. But it turned out to be a great lesson. Hamlet was so eager to learn! He read the Restoration pamphlet and we went through it with him. We gave him a Book of Mormon towards the end and he was already reading it. He was so happy to learn more and to see what it was all about. We look forward to working with him and hopefully he continues to have the fire and desire to learn more of restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
• I went on exchanges with the Samoan sisters in this area. I had the opportunity to go with this new sister in the mission, her name is Sister Esau. She is amazing! She has only been here for about a month but she taught me so much and is a great missionary! Her area is actually the same area as Green Valley but they just cover the Samoan people so that whole day in their area I was trying to remember any Islander families that I knew of that could help these sisters find people to teach. I've never searched so much for islander, specifically Samoans in my life. I was on the lookout all day long! They don't have a car in that area so we were walking all day and so it was so great because we got to talk to heaps of different people. We had one cool experience...We were walking on our way to this less-actives home when we saw these islanders outside their house. We were so excited and started to talk to them. This one boy in particular was very interested in religion and had been searching for a while in all the religions. He was truly seeking truth and Heavenly Father had led us right to him. We taught him of the Restoration of the gospel and we testified of the Book of Mormon. He said that he would read the Book of Mormon and the Sisters have an appointment with him this coming week. It was such a blessing. I know that those sisters struggle with finding people to teach, especially Samoans so that was great to see the hand of the Lord in the work that day.
• We had a great experience this week as we were going through the ward list. We're still trying to meet some new people and especially all the ward members. We tried many different houses and we went to one of them and no one was home. But as we were getting in the car a woman drove up. Her name was Priscilla. She said that the man that lived there was her x-partner but now she lives there with her daughter. She was the sweetest woman and we got talking about who we were. She was very interested in learning more and we were able to set up an appointment with her. That was such a tender mercy to meet her that day. The Lord is so good to us, it always happens that way. After a long day of no one home we were able to have a little tender mercy with Priscilla to help us know that he is there and that we are doing the right thing. What a blessing!

      I don't know if any of you have heard about the new initiative that has come out by the church. It is called "HE IS THE GIFT." It is a great program that is going and we are taking it on strong. We pass out so many of those cards each day and we are really seeing lots of success during this Christmas Season as we are striving to put Christ back into the Christmas season. If you haven't already seen this mormon message please do! Or have a look atchristmas.mormon.org. Invite EVERYONE that you know to take a look at this. It has been a great blessing in my life and has helped me to remember what Christmas is all about. 

   As I was doing my personal study one day this week I came across the scripture of Mark 5:36 which I entitiled this email. It was something that really stuck out to me. We've met so many people that are fearful of where the world is headed but as I got to thinking, we really have no need to fear. As we trust in the Lord and live a righteous life, we won't have to worry because we know that we are on the winning team. Are you on the winning team? Are you on the Lord's team? I encourage each of you to evaluate your life and see if you are doing all you can to do what the Lord has asked us to do. If not there is still time, the Lord is always there for us and can help us to get on the strait and narrow path towards our Heavenly Father.

  I know these things to be true! this is the Lord's church. I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

 Love always,

     Sister Sorensen

PS. the pictures are of Nari and Donelle. And then the other one is of Simi, Nari's little boy. He is so cute!