Note from Elder Sorochan's mom - Over the weekend there began to be flooding in the Reno/Sparks area due to heavy rain and snowfall. This caused the Truckee River to overflow it's banks. Elder Sorochan and his companion were not directly affected by the flood in that their apartment is on higher ground away from the flooded area. However, their ability to get places and see people over the weekend was affected and will continue to be so for the next few days.
Hey everyone! Today has been crazy. There has been flooding so finding a place to email was crazy. The governor said that he didn't want any state workers working unless it was absolutely necessary, so that meant a closed library. In a half fortunate way, Bishop Cocanour wasn't able to go to work because of the flooding so he let us email at his house again. He also took us out for lunch again in honor of Elder Hadley's birthday last month/because he is leaving. (Elder Hadley doesn't like to celebrate his birthday so we used the other one to help him feel a little better about it) We went to Olive Garden. It was super good. The weather has been so crazy this week. On Thursday we had to stay in for most of the day because of some snow and ice on the roads. It wasn't that bad by my standards, but I am from Canada, so oh well.
Monday was so much fun. I know I said we were going to go bowling, but with everyone off of school there was so many people there that the wait for us to have 2 lanes we would have had to wait an hour, and we didn't have that kind of time. We instead went back to the Rock (our church building) and I said I had a game for the whole of us. For those of you who know me, I love playing the group game called werewolf. I quickly wrote out the different characters on the drive there, we got a circle of chairs, and the game began! I had 15 players which made it super fun! Everyone had a blast and people were doing a really good job at playing. It was such a good time!
We got to go on splits with the ward finally! They are now every week and I got to go with Brother Garfinkle to see the Carter's. They are doing great and we also taught Brother Carter this week how to use gospel library on his ipad.
We did service with the food bank this week in the rain. Fortunately we had tent coverings and my job was to hand people milk. It was really busy for the first 60-70 minutes and then it died down. We talked with Jennifer and told her where we were from. It was a really good contact. She has worked with missionaries at the food bank before, and we hope one day she wants to listen to our message.
We do volunteer work at the restore for Habitat for Humanity and we have been having really good contacts with a man named Johnny. He is really noticing the Spirit coming from us and other members of the church. He feels like there is something wrong at his church and he is unsure about it. We thought awesome! And invited him to the baptism on Saturday and hoped to invite him to learn the lessons from there. He unfortunately didn't come but we will keep trying!
Yesterday I had some really neat times testifying with the Spirit yesterday. I have been really trying to have the Spirit more with me. I have struggled with doubt and worry and fear on my mission, which really drives away the Spirit. I have definitely had it with me on my mission, but I need it more so that I can not have these weaknesses hold me down. Fear and faith can not exist at the same time. Yesterday I fasted to know what I can do to have the Spirit with me more. One thing I learned is that we need to give our wills up to the Lord. All of our desires, and that includes our fears. I started saying an individual prayer in regards to all of my fears, doubts, worries etc. and giving them to the Lord to deal with. I felt each time relief in my heart, and the Spirit has been with me in greater abundance ever since.
There is in the end, only really 2 options. It is to have faith in Christ, or give up. Giving up is not worth it. There is nothing happy or rewarding about it and in the end, it is harder. Having faith in Christ is sometimes very hard. It sometimes feels almost impossible. If we don't back down, but cling to faith, we will be happy and it will be rewarding. It is in the end, easier. There is no better option. There is no where else to go. If we don't choose Christ, we can never be happy. We have to feel the pain of life sometimes, but in the end all we will have is happiness. I experience this in such little ways, and sometimes bigger here on my mission. There is much more to come.
I love you all. Talk to you next week!
Elder Kynan Sorochan
Example of flooding provided by the mission Facebook page
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