It's getting colder

November 21, 2016

Hey everyone! It is starting to get colder here. We had snow for a solid 45 seconds one day. Haha I love Nevada. The people here are great. This week has been a good week with some great miracles.

Monday was an interesting day. We had our Zone Activity where we cooked food (I'll send pics next week) and then in the evening we had an interesting meeting with a less active who we are pretty sure was intoxicated. He might not even be a member since we can't seem to find his records. We will keep trying.

Tuesday we went on exchanges and Elder Roundy got to go on his first exchange ever! It was fun. His bike tire got flat just before we got to our really hilly area so we walked up to where we wanted to go. We were able to schedule a lesson with some people who haven't been coming to church much lately, and we had a good gospel discussion with Bruce. He wants to know the truth, but how he expects to find it shows that he isn't fully ready just yet, but he one day will be.

Wednesday we got to finally have a lesson with Amanda and Gordon! Amanda is a member and Gordon is not, but she wants the family to come back to church and he is totally open to learning and joining! They haven't been in much contact with us, but we stopped by and caught Amanda during her lunch break while she was at home and set up a lesson that night! We taught the restoration and it went down very well. We committed Gordon to be baptized but have not set him with a date yet. The biggest challenge will be coming to church since he has to work on Sunday's right now. We will see what happens. We met someone on the street named Ray and we asked him if he would be interested in learning about how God has called a prophet today and he said yes! We are having some trouble with his schedule right now, but it will happen.

Thursday it was cold so for the morning Elder Hadley wanted to walk. Haha he is great. He wants to be an emergency doctor and loves sports. We are kinda opposites but it works out well. We helped out at habitat for humanity and did a lot of moving around tiles. We taught a less active named Jimmie. She is awesome and fun to teach. We are hoping to help her come back to church.

Friday I got sick but was good enough to keep working. We had exchanges for half the day since Elder Hadley needed to do a baptismal interview later in the afternoon. Elder LaBrum and I went and dug holes for a lady named Glenna for her gardening. Elder LaBrum did most of the digging since he is 6' 4" and super strong. He digs really fast. We dug 3 holes 2 feet by 2 feet and 18 inches deep in 2 hours. It was great.

Saturday we had a lesson in the evening with the Carter's. We asked the Hammonds to come and we all taught an amazing Plan of Salvation lesson. There was great testifying and a very joyful Spirit there. I loved it. I felt so happy after and had a glow in my heart I guess you could say. I live for those lessons.

Sunday was good and it rained a bit. Had a Q and A lesson with Amanda and Gordon.

I want you all to know that the Gospel blesses us as individuals, as well as it blesses our famiies.

Love you all!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

It's not always Peaches and Cream

November 14, 2016

Hello to all my family and friends! Hope you all had a great week. It has been a great week of learning and growing. I wrote a lot in my journal this week too which I am very happy about. I am really pushing to do that more. I'm sure you are all wondering what in the world the title means, well let me tell you. About a month ago I heard a conversion story where the speaker kept using the phrase "it's not all peaches and cream." I found that phrase very entertaining but over the past couple weeks I have been pondering the phrase quite a bit. This has been another difficult week of work, with no new investigators again. Just can't find them. With this phrase though I thought about how delicious something like Peaches and Cream sounds, and then why I would know that. Things like that are only delicious if you know what something that isn't quite so tastes like. The larger the contrast, the sweater the delicious food would taste. You have to know the bad so you can know the good. Looking at me, I have been raised and (for the most part) like getting the hard part out of the way first. My life has shown me that this principle is one that Heavenly Father likes to use with me. He has me go through the hard first, and in the end all is well, usually more than well. I have to first show that I am worthy to receive the blessings. I have to work hard through the things that I would find very hard before I can be blessed with the things that I desire most. I have to come close to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ first. Although it is not always Peaches and Cream, we will always get to have the Peaches and Cream.

This week I did some fun things.

Monday we helped the Zappes move out of our ward. Sister Chestnut gave us permission to help them since they are active members and normally we can't do service for them. They were a senior couple that served in mission office for 25 months! They were doing a stay at home mission and needed to stay an extra month and they were really helpful. I also got to play some tennis which was super great.

On Tuesday I had a really neat experience. We were having Zone training and someone mentioned something about the Spirit. I just started looking around the room and just wondered, "is the Spirit really here?" I was wondering if it really is there with us. I felt this small, but powerful feeling and had the thought "Yes, I am here." I felt that He is with me in this work helping me even though it is hard.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with the Spanish Elder's and almost fell asleep in a lesson because it was 8:30pm and I couldn't understand a thing because it was all in spanish. Haha.

Thursday we had most of our lesson cancel expect for one less active lady named Jimmie. She is great and we are helping her want to come back to church. She does want to and as we keep encouraging her we think she will!

Friday was Zone conference and we got to learn about record keeping from the Assistants, table utensil placement and manners from Sister Chestnut, and about the sacrament and better Sabbath Day observance as well as things about the Atonement from President Chestnut. He also wants us to cut down on mission slang. At the end of the conference I went to thank him for his training and he thanked me for being a lifter in the mission. :D

Saturday we had 6 hours of service. 3 raking leaves. It was fun. Sunday we had George one of our investigators drive us to church with his kids. He liked it. It was the primary program. Who doesn't like the primary program?

I want to close with my testimony that God is our Loving Heavenly Father. He is the literal Father of our Spirits and He loves us perfectly. He wants us to be happy and as we come to Him and follow His Son we can be blessed forever!

Love you all!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

 Cool fire car!

 Me and Elder Hadley at a dinner appointment

This is Elder and Sister Hammond. They are a Senior Couple that works in the mission office and they are amazing! I love these two. Elder Hammond is our vehicle coordinator and Sister Hammond is our mission nurse and referral coordinator. They leave at the end of December, and I will miss them. They have been so wonderful and helpful. Took this at Zone Conference.

 I'm in a sombrero!

Me and Elder Hadley at Zone conference

Weird week

November 7, 2016

Hey everyone! This has been a weird week. First off funny stories.

First we met this guy who when we said hi told us to go away. We asked why and he said, "I'm Satan." We said no he isn't, but he just replied "Yes I am you just don't know it yet." and then walked away. Those people you just tell to have a great day.

The other person was from California. When we told her I was from Edmonton she said "Oh I've been there!" And then proceeded to tell us a story that I never really needed to know. First she said the she doesn't shave her legs but that is not something that we needed to know. Apparently it is because the rest of the story doesn't happen without that knowledge. She said when she was there that Edmonton was so cold, that while she was outside wearing nylons that the hair on her legs stood up and through her nylons. Thought you all needed to know that just as much as I did.

Anyway now on to more spiritual things. We did not find any new investigators this week which is alright. We are trying. We are just getting all the people who aren't interested out of the way first. Right now I am doing what is called the purification process where you give up some things of the world to help you have the Holy Ghost as a more constant companion. One example is giving up receiving hockey emails to know how the Oilers are doing. It works, and we have an experience from this week that shows that. We were trying by a former referral who wasn't home and we were biking back from his house. While biking Elder Hadley saw something on the ground by a mini van and stopped to pick it up. As he did so we noticed a woman in the van. She was not doing very well. She and her husband had gotten into an argument and he threw a paint can at the car apparently. We started talking to her. She didn't give us her name since at that time she didn't trust anyone. We did share a scripture from Alma 7:11-12 and that seemed to help. We testified of Jesus Christ and His ability to help her and that she could trust Him and our Heavenly Father. We then said a prayer with her and I said it. It was all guided by the Spirit. The words that I said in the prayer just kept coming to me. I haven't really had that happen in a prayer before, but I definitely felt the Spirit and the words were mainly advice for her so she can be helped by her Heavenly Father. We will try to stop by her house this week since she hasn't contacted us. Hopefully it works out.

The other awesome things of the week are that we found two less active ladies, one also wants her husband to be there when we come too, to teach. One of them, Sister Martin, is a 4 time cancer survivor! As well we didn't have anyone signed up for dinner this last week except for Sunday, but the Lord provided every night! One night a member took us out for dinner, twice the Beutler couple, a senior missionary couple, happened to cross our path, ask us if we had a dinner appointment, and invited us over! Another was an investigator who we did service for fed us and some guy we did spontaneous service for gave us money to go out to eat since we said no to regular payment! This time in my mission is showing me so much that as we have faith in God, He will provide us with the experiences for learning that we need, and bless us in other ways than what we might want to show us that He really does care about us, that we are in His hands, and He will lead us in the path that is best for our learning and growth. I love this gospel and know with a surety that it is true. Read the Book of Mormon, it teaches of divine truth and will always lead you to Christ. Hope you all are doing amazing. If anyone has any questions, gospel or regular life, please feel free to email me and I will answer next week! Love you all!

Elder Kynan Sorochan