Life as a Missionary

Hello everyone! This last week was great. Elder McKenna had his birthday this week which was super fun. On Monday we went dollar bowling with lots of the Zone with lots of missionaries. As well we had 2 birthday dinners, one in each ward. I sent a photo of the Shrimp Scampy we had which was so good. We also went to this breakfast place called Cracker Box on Wednesday and it was soooo good.

This week has been hard. We are having a hard time finding people willing to progress. As well a lot of our lessons fell through. It was really hitting me hard that we aren't having success. I was wondering if there was something I was doing wrong or if we weren't working hard enough, or just something else. On Saturday I just was not dealing with it well and we went back to the apartment in the evening to do my new missionary training because we had done service in the morning and hadn't been able to do it till then. We were doing things with the Book of Mormon and Elder McKenna had me teach Moroni's promise to him in different ways. In the ways he had me do it he had me compare them all and showed me how I need to teach in my own way. Stick to being me in everything I do. He as well shared with me D&C 84:88 and part of 89 where it talks about how we have Christ with us wherever we go when we do this work. He is with us and when people accept us they accept Him as well as vice versa. The Spirit was with us really testifying to me that it isn't us that is doing poorly. We are working hard. People just aren't open right now and that isn't our fault. Trials come and this is what God needs me to learn. He needs me to show Him that I will do this work in whatever situation He see's fit to put me in. I can be happy in Him and see that I am committed to this work. Whatever comes after is up to Him. We will find people. We don't know when but they will come.

Something really great that did happen though was yesterday night we met with the Bishop of the Dayton ward for the first time since I've been here. Really since the Dayton ward has had Elder's and not Sisters. I didn't do much talking but Elder McKenna talked to him about all the work that has happened over the past few months and it really seemed to build his trust in us. He hasn't had much contact with us and missionary work has been struggling a bit there but now after this meeting we are going to be going to every ward council which is twice a month and helping the ward leaders start doing more missionary work. He is really excited now to do work with us so things are looking that they will be able to pick up in the Dayton ward. I'm excited to see what comes next.

Love,
Elder Sorochan

Shrimp scampy

Bowling with the Zone

Guess which score is mine (hint - it's #4)

More bowling

Breakfast at Cracker Box

Garbage can mailbox

1 Month!

Hey all the people of the world! I really love being a missionary. Sometimes it's hard because of all the rules that there are but when you really break it down, they are pretty great. I am striving to give everything to this work. It isn't easy, but that's ok. Over time I will learn. The big thing I learned this week is just kinda that. I am always learning. I will always be learning. That's the point of life. It's exciting! I will always be learning to be a better missionary! Learning scriptures is hard. There is a lot to learn so it will be awhile before I can use them as effectively as I want but I will get there.

America Day was fun! I didn't get to go hiking because I ended up with some missionaries who didn't want to go which was sad but oh well. Next time. The fire works were amazing. The Bowders took us to see them and fed us ribs as well. Oh yeah. It was good. They also gave us glow sticks so you know it was a party.

This week was really slow. Lessons just weren't working out and we have not been finding people. Elder McKenna has been really helping me have a positive attitude on life though because you know sometimes this is just what missionary work is. What was really hard though was Jesse asked if we could put teaching on hold for now since he is so busy so we won't be teaching him for a bit. We have some hopefully good referrals to try so here's hoping! I got to go on my first exchange this week! It was with Elder Schow another greenie and we ran his area on bikes. It was an adventure to say the least. His tire got flat and my pants ripped and we were toast by the end but it was amazing. Had a couple good lessons and scheduled some more with lots of people. He actually amazingly enough got to teach Braulio the guy who randomly came into my class at the MTC while he was at the MTC and Braulio is going to be baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So great. What a crazy world. 

Hope you all are doing great. My last bit is my testimony of the Holy Ghost in teaching. We can truly be inspired as to what to ask and say. On Wednesday when we were visiting a less active couple named the Hart's I tried to look for little promptings as to what to ask and 2 questions came throughout our conversation. I knew it was the Spirit but after Sister Hart specifically thanked me for the questions I asked! It was so amazing. I felt so happy. The Holy Ghost is real and is the key to missionary work. We can't succeed without it, no matter how amazing we may be. We don't convert. The Holy Ghost does.

Love you all!!!!!!!!!!! Keep it real.
Elder Sorochan

Happy America Day!

Happy America Day everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited that we have P-Day on 4th of July we are going to go on a hike in Carson on a hill called C-Hill which has a giant C and American Flag on it. We are as well going to have a BBQ with the Bowder's in Comstock ward and as well we have permission to go see fireworks. It's going to be so fun. I'll see what I can do for photos of it all. I had a great Canada where we went to the Sonerholm's house for dinner and had steak and mashed potatoes. They are a very american family so it was good. I sang Oh Canada in the morning. Before bed I took a photo with all my very Canadian things it was great.

Ok funny story. We are teaching this 8 year old boy named Conner who is such a cool kid. Or as Elder McKenna would say, "he's such a G!" He is from a less active family but they want to have him baptized so Bishop Hamblin of the Dayton ward asked us to teach him. He is pretty much ready. He is such a smart kid. Elder McKenna said that after Conner was taught the Plan of Salvation he went and taught it to some of his friends! What?!?!? I didn't do that when I was 8 I don't think. Anyway his mom comes and sits with us in the lessons too and helps teach and is relearning from us too. His dad doesn't yet unfortunately. Conner really likes hotwheel cars and he usually asks us to try to figure out how to apply what we are teaching to his track and cars. It works pretty well. A couple weeks ago we taught the 10 commandments and following the prophet and there just happened to be 10 track pieces and then the loop so each track piece was a commandment and the loop was following the prophet. This last week when we visited we actually before hand played a game called bean boozled which for those who don't know is where you have to eat a jelly bean that will either taste really good or really bad. Between a rotten fish flavored and spoiled milk flavored I almost threw up. Woohoo! We then used the beans to teach Conner about tithing. So fun.

Now a little bit on my amazing trainer Elder McKenna. He is a VERY funny guy. Very good at telling jokes and stories he keeps me very entertained. He however also knows when to switch to serious mode and is very attentive. That is very beneficial for me since he helps make sure that I in all my craziness am always improving. Especially in just the little things in what to say or do with people he helps make sure I am becoming my best. He is very good at following the Spirit when giving me advice. We have fun. He likes to make LOTS of Canada jokes. Everything I do he pretty just pins on me being Canadian. All fun and games. Love the guy. He is a great trainer.

So I am very excited for this week. Turns out the whole mission has been having trouble finding because we got a text saying the assistants to the president would like to have everyone fast for us to find those who are ready to be taught so that is encouraging. With all the faith being put into this we are going to find those people! We have an interesting potential investigator named Tony. The Olsen's in Dayton ward are friends with him and have lots of good gospel talks with him. He is a very interesting guy and has lots of questions about life and God. The Plan of Salvation would answer most of his questions so we are really hoping to get a sit down lesson with him. On monday we had a great discussion of just talking with him after dinner at the Olsen's. They are the ones who help us with Jesse and have our lessons with him at their house.

Missionary work is really great. It is really hard and drives you to be motivated. I know this is what I need to be doing. So much has already happened, I am so excited to see what adventures still wait ahead. You all are great. Keep being amazing. Love you!

My very Canadian Canada

A cooler as a mail box. 'Murica

After stopping by a house a couple times that we got as a referral, they put this up. lol

On the brink of something

Hello!!!!!

Ok so this week has been cool America is so weird. I wear my shoes all the time I almost never take them off when we are out of the house. There are so many nice cars here and people riding motocycles. We saw this one guy riding down the street with a rifle in a case across his back. 'Murica. Everyone here in Nevada has a dog. Usually more than one. They are very nice to use as doorbells. Haha. It is getting so hot here. Almost everyday it was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I am learning to use that temperature now too. Hottest it got according to our car was 98 degrees. I love having a car. I might have to deal with the heat next week though. There is another elder being trained in our district and his companion is our district leader and for exchanges he wants to put us greenies together and neither of us are authorized to drive yet so... bikes! Yeah I haven't rode my bike yet we just park the car somewhere and walk around. Our area is too big to bike especially covering 2 wards. The town of Dayton has just a few thousand less people than Portage I think. The area is just huge. There are a couple of places that we have that we never go because they are so far away. Virginia City and Stage Coach. Stage Coach is where people who want to hide from people go and Virginia City is a tourist town so it doesn't matter too much. We might get to go there for 4th of July fireworks. I am so excited for that.

So this week didn't have many huge highlights. One lesson we had was with a really solid investigator named Jesse. He is 17 and really wants to be baptized. He can't till he is 18 because his parents say that they baptized him catholic and he can do what he wants but that starts when he is 18. They are fine with us teaching him though. He asks so many good questions it is my favorite. I love to answer peoples questions about things to do with the gospel it makes me so excited. We taught him a lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ which went really well. There was a good Spirit there. We had it in the home of some members named the Olsen's. Bro Olsen was a stud in the lesson he did such a good job of bearing his testimony and when he said things. Love it when members do missionary work. I am so going to do a better job of that after my mission. :D With the hard time we are having finding new people to teach and finding people who want to progress I have been really turning to the scriptures and prayer. What I am learning is that I need the Spirit in my heart. I need to feel Him more and be more in tune with His promptings so that I am doing what will bring success. As well making sure that the Book of Mormon is what I learning how to use to teach. I am doing this by applying the promise in Mormon 9:21. It is so powerful and very true. Well my time is up I will talk more next week!

Love,
Elder Kynan Sorochan