It's been a week?

August 15, 2016

Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of Elder Sorochan: The Mission Chronicles! I can't believe it has already been a week, that flew by. I'm right now trying to remember what even happened. I think we will start with the fun story of the week.

Now everyone knows I am a genius right? Right, and this here story is going to show all y'all how right your thinking is. It happened on Thursday. We were going over to teach Mark and we brought a new priest with us named Chase. His brother just left on a mission and he just became a priest so we were excited to take him out with us. As we showed up we needed to get a pamphlet from the trunk so I went in got it and closed it. Then I realized that I had left the keys in the trunk. Now, this trunk doesn't have a handle, you have to use a button on the remote or a lever in the car. Fortunately, I hadn't locked the car yet so we went and pulled the lever to open the trunk. It didn't work. We then with the help of Mark and Chase we tried to get into the trunk through the back seats. We couldn't figure out how to get them down, but we could put our hands sorta behind the seat and could tell that it was the way into the trunk. We are in a 2012 Toyota Corrolla and the farthest we could get was getting the bottom of the seat off and moving the seat a little forward to get our hands in there. We then checked the car manual and it turns out the seats do come down but the leaver to do that is in the trunk. Very helpful. Mark eventually had to leave and we still couldn't reach the keys. We used my camera to take pictures of the inside to see where the keys were and they were right against the front of the trunk, not the seats. Eventually Chase went home to get a flashlight and his mom had the idea of calling Bro. Soderborg. Bro. Soderborg is the first councilor in the bishopric and is a really fun and helpful guy. He came over and told us to pull the lever. He listened to the latch not let go. He told us to keep pulling it and he started banging on the trunk. It opened. After an hour and 40 minutes it finally opened. I'm glad Chase has a good first missionary story.

Now for the more spiritual side. This last week is Elder Baker's second last week. He goes home Thursday to be home in time for school. He is our district leader and has helped me a ton since Elder McKenna left. He has helped me through my stress and anxiety and feelings of being overwhelmed these past few weeks and has become a great friend. I had the privilege on Friday to go with him on his last missionary exchange of his mission. We had a great time. We got to do service making Jam and mowing someone's lawn. We went to a fun place for lunch and had taco's with the Comstock ward mission leader. (that was really fun for Elder Baker because he was called spanish speaking) The best part though was what we learned that day. Elder Baker through talking with me and using Preach My Gospel has showed me how much we learn about the Atonement while on our missions. This last exchange was no different. He shared with me the talk by Elder Skousen on what is the meaning of the Atonement or something along those lines. It is a talk by him sharing what he has learned about the need, purpose, and effect the Atonement has on us. It really rang true to me. I have been learning so much about the Atonement and my need to always be supported by it. My Savior is my strength. He is the only way. We can do anything as we come unto Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for Elder Baker, Elder McKenna, and so many others already who have helped me realize this and learn this. All of this, the church, the gospel, everything, is true and is to make us happy. Even though all of this is still hard and makes me work harder than I ever have in my life, I am still happy and am filled with joy because of this experience because of Jesus Christ. I hope all of you can see this for yourselves too. Love you all!

Love,
Elder Kynan Sorochan