Portage la Prairie

Hello familia and amigos. I am doing great. I have no idea as to what in the world I am doing, but otherwise great. This is such a roller coaster ride that I am having a hard time keeping up, but more on that later. I would like to apologize yet again to everyone for this week I forgot my camera cord to upload photos so yeah I`m a genius. Sigh I`ll figure all of this out. Maybe ;) So I was actually abandoned by my district on Tuesday. They all left to their missions a day early so I had to go be with another set of Elders till I left. It was really fun. I spent the day with Elder Ream and Elder Austin who are both going to the Canada Vancouver Mission (that`s why I went with them, well one reason). I actually had a substitute teacher for brother Deppermann`s class come who served in that mission at the same time as Spencer Rolfson! (btw Spencer if you read this Sister Thomson says hi) Ok there is one experience from the MTC that I want to tell you about before I get into everything else. Every Tuesday night we have a devotional from a general authority and not last week but the week before the General Relief Society President Sister Linda K. Burton came and and one thing that she spoke on is ``what do our missions mean to us now and what will they mean to us after our missions.`` Great question. She actually asked just any missionary from the assembled 900 or so of us to come up to the podium and answer. I did. I answered the latter question with something I truly believe. I have to paraphrase but I said something like my mission will teach me valuable lessons about things like how to use the Atonement of Jesus Christ that will set me up for the rest of my life. Really neat experience.

Ok on to my mission. My trainer or ``father`` here out in the mission field is Elder Moore who is amazing. Really great missionary. This is his second time training too so I am quite blessed there. He really knows his stuff and is here to succeed. Before meeting him though I flew up here with Elder Ouwerkerk (Over-kirk) who is from Calgary and a super nice Elder. I was up at about 1am on Wednesday and had to be at the MTC travel office by 2:30am so that was fun. I really wanted to sleep and did but our flights were short and I tried to share the gospel with the people I was sitting with. Only one person on the two flights I had. Both said no to a Book of Mormon but did accept a pass along card. In the customs line Elder Ouwerkerk and I talked to a lady a little about our church and we also gave her a pass along card. I was sooooooooooo tired. We went to the mission office and met President Craig who is such a great mission president you have no idea. He, Sister Craig, and a few other missionaries have really helped me love it here in the Can Win Mission (the Canada Winnipeg Mission is called the Can Win Mission. So great) When we got here we trio`d up with one of the zone leaders and he took my companion and me out teaching. We street contacted and taught a man named Leon for the first time. He at the time had only moved here from Zimbabwe 2 weeks ago and in that lesson we found he already truly believed in Jesus Christ and committed him to baptism. It was a really great lesson but I wasn`t really in it since I had a headache, nausea, and had been up for already for about 14 hours with only 2 hours sleep the night before so that was fun. Sister Craig made us such wonderful food though that I felt better after. She and President Craig really took great care of us. We got to go to bed at 8 which was a true tender mercy. For breakfast we have waffles and bacon so I was feeling really good.

The next day I met my trainer and we are serving in Portage la Prairie which is a town with about 10,000 and about 15-20 active members. We have a lot of investigators we are just right now having a hard time getting true commitment. Oh well. We had a lesson on Thursday teaching a man named Jagar. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. He was feeling the Spirit, but wasn`t opening up very much. He says he doesn`t really like to. He was feeling something though. He will come around. On Sunday we had a really wacky experience though. For maybe 15 minutes we sat in a room with a bunch of drunk people. We had come looking for someone we were hoping to teach or plan a time for a lesson and we were invited in. They were all pretty drunk. The guy I was sitting next to kept asking me the same question over and over. They were all asking us kinda useless questions and swearing here and there. We answered with simple statements and just the whole time I was looking around feeling pretty uncomfortable. Elder Moore though got an address for a less active we are looking for out of one of them which was correct so hey, as Elder Moore says, ``the Lord works through drunk people.`` My companion does a really great job at loving the people and is very knowledgeable in what we are doing so not having to worry about what to say or do next is a real blessing as I try to figure this all out. The days are so long and I have many many many times felt extremely incompetent. It is not a happy feeling and I truly have been having my faith tested. However, these feelings have not lasted. As I have held on to my Faith in Jesus Christ and endured these hardships I have felt the help and strength from God come. I have received comforting revelation to press forward in faith as I have read from the Book of Mormon. We have a challenge to read the whole thing in 2 transfers with specifically highlighting in a different copy than our own things specifically relating to Jesus Christ, faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. I hope that everyone can feel my conviction as I testify here that I know my Savior Lives. The Book of Mormon is truly the word of God and brings help, peace, comfort, direction, and revelation to all who read it with a sincere heart and having faith. This is such a real thing! It should be the iron rod in our lives as we strive to come unto God. I know this to be a real thing in my life and for any who wonder or question I challenge you to read it for yourself. As I struggle to come to God and have Him help me accomplish my goals as a missionary I am always able to keep going through prayer and reading the scriptures. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ amen.


Love you all. Keep being amazing!


Elder Kynan Sorochan


PS, we aren`t supposed to say ``cool, awesome, or sweet,`` so that has been fun. I say them a lot it turns out. Also, we are a Facebook mission, so I think I am allowed to have family and friends on my mission account so add ``Elder Kynan Sorochan`` if you wish. I don`t know if Reno is an internet mission so we will see. K bye!