Sister Ashley Sorensen: January 2015

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Happy, healthy and DRIVING! 1/26/2015

I can DRIVE!!!! So quick funny story. Sister Erickson and I were in the truck in front of an investigator's house. Sister Erickson was saying a beautiful touching prayer when all of the sudden my stomach growls. I leaned forward in hopes of muffling the grumble and in the process I hit my head on the truck horn! My companion quickly had to finish praying because we were laughing so hard.
I love this gospel and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to share it with the people of West Virginia. I know my Savior lives.
This morning for personal study I read through the white handbook. We are so blessed to have this book of guidelines as missionaries. On page 5 it states " You represent the Lord in this area and are responsible for obtaining His direction in carrying out your assignment and blessing the people there." I love this statement. We have the amazing assignment/privilege to bless others through service, prayer, study, conversation, and our testimonies. We must stand a witness of God at all times and in all things so that we can be lead by the spirit to those who are ready to hear His word.

This week was wonderful! We have five new investigators!!!!! Sister Erickson and I are so blessed!! We went tracking in Clay last week. Clay is so far away from Flatwoods so we don't get to go down there very often. So we saved up our miles and drove down there! We had some pretty amazing visits with people. One visit was with a women by the name of Wilma. We knocked on her door and she came out on her porch to talk with us. We gave her a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment to meet with her. The conversation was like every other conversation we had had that day and we thought that Wilma (like a lot of our investigators) would probably cancel on us.

The following week we stop by her house kind of expecting her to tell us that we needed to reschedule. We knock on the door and she surprisingly lets us in. Wilma then tells us how she has started to read the Book of Mormon as well as the pamphlet we left with her! Crazy Cool! She told us that she had a couple of questions for us and about how she was looking for a book that would help her understand the Bible better! AMAZING!!!!!! We had a wonderful meeting with Wilma and her husband and committed them to continue to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to see if it is true. They both said that they would and we get to go teach them the plan of salvation this week! Sister Erickson and I are super pumped!

After our wonderful day in Clay we had a member drive us home. It was pouring rain. Buckets of water were falling from the sky!! We got home said good bye to the member and started to walk to the door. I then realized slowly that I had locked the house keys in the house!! AHAHAHAHA! Why!!!!! I am locked out of my apartment in the pouring rain with a ticked off companion (I am exaggerating here). Can the night get any worse? Yes it can!!! Our district leader decided to visit us!!!AHAHAHAHAHA!!! Our very patient district leader and his companion do everything they can to break into our house! But nothing worked and they had an appointment they had to get to!! WHY!!!!!! We then ran to the neighbors house and they kindly drove us to security to get the spare key. Mercy. I just don't make mistakes. I royally screwed up! hahaha. I love being a missionary! I am so very grateful for all the kind neighbors in my life that have taken me in from the "rain" of life! I know our Savior lives and loves us! Stay strong.

Sister Sorensen

The District in Flatwoods

Sister Erickson, Sister Sorensen, Brother and Sister McBean, Elder Stechnji and Elder Marcowsi,

Elders Neilson and Young and,

Elders Warner and Taylor

Look who's driving!

At the food pantry.

Dinner with the Whites.

It is freezing in Flatwoods!

Monday, January 5, 2015

Happy New Year!

This past week was wonderful. We had an investigator share his testimony during sacrament meeting yesterday. How cool is that! It was probably the best Fast and Testimony meeting I have ever been to. This week I learned how important it is to be specific in what you ask for in your prayers. How can God answer our prayers if we are not specific in what we ask for. Prayer is vital to an investigators conversion to the gospel. It is important that our investigators are specific in their prayers so that they can come to the knowledge that there is a God and that he has restored his gospel today.

This week was an exchange week. An exchange is where your companion switches with a sister training leader(STL). An STL is the equivalent to an assistant to the president but female style. I was super nervous. I wanted everything to go perfect! Hahaha. But of course it didn’t. HAhAh. Sister Combs and I started our day off in a Burnsville trailer park. No one was home! No one!!!! So I decided to try a women who Sister Erickson and I dropped because we could never get a hold of her. I cautiously walked up to her door and knock. The women answer the door and let Sister Combs and I in. We ended up teaching her the whole Restoration lesson and committed her to read the Book of Mormon. It was fantastic and we were able to pick her up as a new investigator. After we went and taught the Plan of Salvation to Crystal and she loved it. It gave her “hope,” she said. I love this woman with all my heart! She WILL be baptized before I leave Flatwoods! Sister Combs and I were going to go do more visits but we realized we had run out of miles!! AHAHAHA! How did I let that happen!!!! I may or may not have freaked out a little. Haha. After Sister Combs calmed me down and told me that everything was just fine we decided to make no bake cookies for my neighbors. But we didn’t have a recipe and I had accidentally left the phone in the truck so I ran outside to get it. Sister Combs waited on the porch for me as I ran toward the truck. I jokingly turned around and made a comment on how sexy I look when I run. Just as I said the word sexy I missed a step and totally did a mini flip in the air and biffed it hard. My skirt came up and over my head. The whole world could see my underwear including poor Sister Combs who was laughing/ screaming my name on the porch. Hahaha. I rolled over laughing and flipped my skirt down. Sister Combs came running passed me(Still screaming my name) grab the keys, got the phone from the truck, and came back to my side. I thought she had left me to die. HAha. Sister Combs helped me to my feet and back inside the apartment. We realized that I had been running so fast I gave myself road rash on my left knee and right hand. We laughed and joked that what was seen could not be unseen. HAhAh. We then made some no bake cookies and tried to take them to the neighbors but no one was home!!!! Again!! Well, I tried to have a perfect day but the Lord quickly humbled me. Sister Combs and I had a blast but I was very grateful to be reunited with Sister Erickson the next morning!

Yesterday was fast and testimony Sunday. A very old man by the name of Brother Ash stood up and shared his testimony. We have been teaching his grandson’s wife the lessons and they have made many a meal for us. We were able to attend their wedding the week as well. I love Brother Ash!!! He is amazing. Toward the end Brother Ash’s very touching testimony he said that he had learned something very important. He had learned that Sister Sorensen was addicted to potato chips and that she was a vegetarian. Everyone laughed so hard. I am so very grateful for him because now the whole ward knows that I am a vegetarian and will no longer feed me meat! He bragged about how he had made me the best vegetarian chill ever! I love him! Haha.

I love ya lots

Sister Sorensen