You gotta look up!

April 24, 2017

Hey everyone it has been a super awesome week for me hope it has all been for you! We have some exciting things on tap so listen up!

First of all the funny thing of the week was really the whole day of Tuesday. It was a day that by the end of the day Elder Clark and I were just exasperatedly laughing!

So Tuesday. On Tuesday we had a FULL day. Appointments out the wazoo! After District Meeting we were heading back to our apartment to have comp study when I looked out the window. It was raining a little. I then did the worst thing anyone could possibly do. I thought to myself, you know, this looks like the kind of day where everything falls through. I AM SO SORRY EVERYONE!!!! The day then proceeded to have our 1 oclock fall through. Our 2 oclock cancel. Our 3 oclock fall through. Our 6 oclock not be home and no one show up to our 730 scripture study class even though we had had someone confirm! By the end of the day it was just so sad Elder Clark and I were laughing hard! We by the end of the day just had no one else to see that we went to go return an umbrella we had borrowed from a member and when we brought it to her it turned out we had grabbed the WRONG umbrella! We laughed so hard at that. It was just so sad that it was really funny! We had a great attitude about the whole thing and weren't really sad. The situation was, but we weren't. That was because we decided to look up! We were serving the Lord and He helped by blessing us with a good attitude about the whole thing. It was a miracle day.

The next morning we ended up helping a lady named Jessica. Her husband had passed away a number of months ago and he was LDS. It had not been confirmed that he had died so we were stopping by to say hi to her and hopefully him. When we stopped by we found her building a swing set and offered our help. She gladly accepted and we had a great conversation. Her husband had passed away and she is baptist. She had some experiences with the church but not all good. We were able to have a nice genuine discussion with her about non gospel topics and was able to apologize about the negative things that had happened in the past. She seemed thankful to me at least. It was a good visit.

After a week full of fallen through appointments left and right Elder Clark and I were finally rewarded on Saturday for our diligence. We met with a Part Member family. The appointment almost didn't happen. We were running a little behind and we weren't going to be able to get to the house on time. As we were walking a member couple happened to be driving by and offered us a ride! Because of this we got to the house on time and caught them maybe 5 minutes before they were about to leave. They had forgotten but we had a 75 talk/expectation lesson with them and found they have some great interest! We set up an appointment for this Wednesday and it looks like this will be an answer to our prayers. They are a great family and the husband and wife have some genuine concerns. The problem in the past is having them keep commitments but I have faith that the time that they have spent away from missionaries will help them change this road block. I'm looking up!

Sometimes we deal with anxiety and we have experiences that create a mental rut into stress and worry. Heavenly Father expects this when He puts us into these experiences. He will also always provide a way out. We must however like it says in Mosiah 24:15 move forward with cheerfulness and patience. We must look up! As we look up we will have the limitless support of our living and loving God! We will feel of His love and support! He will not take away our feelings, but enable us to move and act while in the midst of their attacks. What makes God God is not that He never experiences opposition, but rather that He knows how to act and behave while experiencing them. He has the power to overcome these obstacles perfectly every time and the experiences He gives us where we face opposition are times where He wants us to look to Him so He can bless us with this power to be just like Him. Able to do anything no matter what the circumstance while still experiencing joy!

I love you all keep up your great work! Love you Mom, Dad, and Anna!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

Look what I found! What in the world are they doing here in Elko? (I could ask my self the same question :D )

 Elder Clark being funny

 Elder Clark making raman noodles in the microwave

 On exchanges with Elder Gailey

 Me being silly

 On exchanges

Read...do it!

Great week!

April 17, 2017

Hey everyone is has been a great week. The weather has been really weird. Sometimes it would snow and be sunny at the same time. I don't get it...

First off we had a really great lesson with an investigator named Adam. McKay, one of the youth in our ward came with us. We went and taught the restoration. Adam accepted it really well and at the part of the first vision he did the whole mind blown action after we shared it. We were all feeling the Spirit really well, especially McKay. At the end of the lesson we invited Adam to pray. He was really nervous at first and didn't want to, but we started to teach him about why he needs to. McKay after Elder Clark and I taught shared an incredibly powerful testimony about Joseph Smith and about Adam's potential and some other things and then Adam prayed. You could tell he was nervous, but he did it! Now he will be more likely to do it more.

Our ward is huge. And we have a TON of youth. More than the rest of the stake combined. There are 5 wards in this stake and a few branches. Oh and I'll tell you a bit about Elder Clark. I think I said some stuff last week but this will be a good review. He is from Cottonwood Heights Utah and is really funny. He loves to joke around, but knows to be serious at the right times. He definitely leans to being a lighter type of person, but never at the wrong times. He is really fun and I love being his companion. He loves sports, especially baseball and basketball. The best part though is that HE LOVES CANADA! Really weird for an American. They like to make fun of us and I have gotten pretty good at making fun of Canada eh? :D

On Saturday we got to bring a mini missionary with us from the stake. He ended up being in our ward and his name is Carter! He just recently got his mission call to Virginia and is super excited to go! He is so awesome and he is going to make a great missionary. He is going out for the right reasons, and that is to serve the Lord which is awesome! We had him at one point do a door approach as we went to go visit some less active youth and we got in! It was an easy situation, but he was nervous but ended up doing awesome!

I want to share an experience I had on Saturday after the mini mission. I have been really tired this week and have at points been struggling to have enthusiasm at times about doing anything! I just felt so tired in energy, tired of people not answering the door or setting up appointments or never replying to us on the phone, and I just was trying and trying and trying and just wasn't being happy. I remembered the training on the Enabling Power of Christ's Atonement. I had been thinking about it during the week and trying to treat challenges and trials like an opportunity to grow, but I just couldn't keep myself positive. It all just felt like too much. On Saturday after the mini mission I had a moment to myself where I just said a prayer telling Heavenly Father that I was trying, but that I just couldn't fully do it. I have been trying and trying and trying and I just can't make it work. This is partially from my time in Vintage Hills. I loved it there, but it was very hard, taxing, and tiring. I was feeling this hit me and just asked for help from my Heavenly Father. I admitted I couldn't do it on my own, and that I needed my Saviors help. I needed Him. I gained some more humility. After that I went out from the bathroom where I was and things began to feel lighter. As it talks about in Mosiah 24 I felt my burdens lighten and myself strengthen. I began to feel like myself. I wanted to "submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord" but I just couldn't do it myself. I needed to remember and rely on the Savior, and that it is only through His Atonement that I could be enabled to be how I wished. As I did remember Him I began to feel better and enabled. I began to feel like myself and cheerful. As I expressed gratitude in prayer it increased and stayed. I learned to stay this way I must always remember Him and rely on Him. That is key to receiving peace through Him.

I love this work and I love you!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

 Elder Clark needs protection when he's eating spaghetti

 Elder Clark chillin'

 Conference with Elder and Sister Nielsen

 Elko scenery

 :D

 With our mini missionary, Carter

Now I'm in Elko!

April 11, 2017

Well I made it! 4 and a half hours on the transfer bus on Wednesday and I am here with Elder Clark in the Elko 4th ward. It is awesome here. The ward is really supportive and we have the most amount of youth in the whole stake. Wow. Went from Vintage Hills who had the least to Elko 4th who has the most. Sacrament meeting was a lot noisier but in a good way. It is nice to see little kids again and have an abundance of priests to take out with us. Bishop Howard here is super missionary focused and is doing some really cool things. They have a youth share a missionary experience they had during the week during open exercises in Priesthood and are over these next couple weeks having the youth go out in companionship's to members houses to have a "dinner appointment" with them and share a message on the Plan of Salvation. It is super awesome! We also got a list of people from the ward council to go invite to our Easter Sunday church services.

Ok now some neat stories. This last week we did a LOT of service. There isn't usually this amount, but everyone seemed to be moving out this last week. The Steve's, a part member family were moving out so for a morning and early afternoon we helped them empty their storage units into a massive u-haul. There were so many boxes. We then after got a call from Bishop Howard about someone moving out of some apartments. A lady's husband had died just a few days ago and she was moving all of the stuff out of the apartment. One of our new members saw that they were doing it and him and us converged on the scene. She was very grateful so that will plant some seeds with her. We also while trying by some potential investigators ran into a couple moving out of those same apartments. We offered our help and they gladly accepted. Apparently they were going to be having some family come and help them from Atlanta, but due to the storms going on over there the flights got cancelled and they weren't going to be able to make it to Elko in time. They didn't know how they were going to do it all since there was some pretty heavy stuff. The fridge we moved slightly bruised Elder Clark's arm! Anyway they were very grateful and we were able to come to the rescue. They took us to lunch and we talked to them a bit. They aren't very religious, but the wife has met with missionaries before. She decided it wasn't for her, but at the end of us helping we were able to give her a pass along card with our number, told her if she or any of her friends ever needed help to call us and invited her to watch the #PrinceofPeace Easter video. We helped build her faith!

Yesterday we got to have Elder Nielsen of the Seventy and his wife come and talk with us. It was an amazing experience. There were so many good parts of it, but I will only highlight a few. The beginning was really neat. He invited us to put out of our minds anything that might be bothering us or distracting us while we were in the meeting so that the Spirit could be there in greater abundance. It worked really well and I was able to feel a lot of peace and comfort during that meeting. I received a lot of inspiration and direction and was even happier while in that meeting. I learned while there that putting things out of your mind that don't matter is an incredibly powerful exercise that I will trying to be using more. His wife talked about how to be a good companion. She said that instead of just tolerating them, we need to embrace them fully as they are and learn from them. I have learned to do this with previous companions, but sometimes the hard way. They way she talked about it was she used her children and them getting married and her sons on their missions as examples. Elder Nielsen taught about the Enabling Power of Jesus Christ's Atonement and how it can change us to become like Him. Elder Nielsen really wanted us to understand how through focusing on and developing Christlike attributes we can become happier and have our missions and our lives be what our Heavenly Father wants them to be. He taught us about how to work with members, more specifically less active members. They often have many non member friends and as we help them receive the gospel, they will be able to invite others to hear the restored gospel.

I love this work and am excited to see what happens here in Elko. We weren't able to meet with many people this week, but this week we hopefully will.

Love you all! Love you Anna, Mom, and Dad!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

 Brother Moss my ward mission leader in Sparks

 Goodbye Elder Williams

At La Fuente with Elder Williams, Elder Latham, and Elder Burgett

 I really need new shoes!

 So I got some!

Elko!

 My new companion Elder Clark

 On the way back from Winnemucca

 My new bird friend Pickin'

Elko here we come!

April 3, 2017

Hello Friends and Family! It is so nice to be emailing you all again. Hope you liked last week's long email because this week will be tiny. I wish it wasn't but I have no time. I am getting transferred and there was lots to take care of and do so this week will have to suffer unfortunately. I will repent next week I promise.

My time in Vintage Hills has come to an end. 4 transfers here and 2 companions. It has been a really fun ride. I have really come to love the people here in Sparks. The Vintage Hills ward is amazing and the members here are just the best! They have done so much for me and given me many wonderful memories. From Christmas at the Cocanour's and the Humphry's to dinners at the Smith's to getting rides all the time from Bro. Moss and lessons with Yvonne, Jimmie, and the Carters, it has been really fun.

I am now going to be transferred to the Elko 4th Ward in Elko Nevada. I'm going on an East side trip where there are a lot of miners and the members are amazing. I am in a really big ward. My new companion will be Elder Clark from Cottonwood Heights Utah. He is a big guy and I've heard he is pretty easy going. He is a newer missionary so it should be fun to work hard together with him!

This past General Conference was spectacular. I will list my favorite talks. Both of President Uchtdorf's, the one from the general sessions and priesthood session. Elder Eyring's Priesthood session, Elder Rasband's, Elder Oaks, Elder Stevensen's,and of course the Prophet Thomas S. Monson's talk. It was great and I will share more on what I learned next week.

Again apologies. I love you all and hope you are doing great. My email will be on Tuesday next week because on Monday we are being visited by Elder Neilsen of the seventy for a mission tour.

Love you!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

My 10 ounce burger, fries, and a shake. I ate it all in one sitting. It was yummy but not fun :D

 The Carters

 The curling team is formed!

 Elder Williams signing of the companionship jersey

Baked Bear ice cream