December 18, 2017
Hello everyone this has been a sweet week! First off we got to go to this really funny Christmas sing along event thing in the Reno Stake. I am serving in the Mount Rose stake but they got permission from President Chesnut to have all the missionaries in the Reno Zone come and sing at the event. It was really funny because we had about 20 minutes to learn the song and we had no conductor just a pianist who had picked the song. It was weird. The way the program went is the whole audience all sang a song together and then a group of people sang up in the choir section of the chapel. At one point we were going to sing Winter Wonderland. We had a book with the words we were to sing but she said before she started leading us that she didn't like the middle verse so we weren't going to sing it. What we thought that meant was that we were just going to sing one and three but instead she ended up leading us in a verse that no one seemed to know in place of the second verse. We were all really lost and it was really funny. We also had the congregation try and sing Handel's Hallelujah which actually turned out ok.
It was sad to say good bye to Elder Doig and Sparks but he will do an awesome job there I know! I will miss the Wales and Doug and all the members there but it will all be good.
Washoe Valley and Foothills is so fun. I have some sweet pics of some of the view when we went up a mountain. There was a non member who has member relatives who requested a blessing up in a place called Virginia City highlands (fun fact Washoe Valley borders Dayton (which was my first area). Crazy right?) It is way too far away for us to drive on our very limited miles (we have 1200 a month which is really pushing it. Our area is HUGE) but some ward missionaries named the Rockenfelders drove us so I got some pics. It was cool and a very long drive. It was around 40 minutes one way.
We had an awesome lesson with our investigator Jaclyn. She only recently started meeting with the missionaries because a member ended up somehow talking to her in a park and Jaclyn said that God seems to keep leading her to the Mormons so she agreed to start meeting with us. We read 2 Nephi 31 and she understood it great! She can only come to church every other week due to her work schedule but she came to all 3 hours of church and she came to the ward Christmas party! She is cool and a really solid investigator it is so nice!
We have been doing a ton of service so much more than my last area it is great! One at a food pantry, another at a camp ground and another thing for a guy that works for Habitat for Humanity that I knew when I volunteered there back when I was in Vintage Hills. We get to do a lot of good work.
Hope you all have watched the awesome Light the World video on Mormon.org! If not, do it! Serving others really is a huge part of Christmas. You can't really remember Him unless you go out and live as He lived! I love Him and His work. I testify He lives! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! I might not email next week since it will be Christmas but have a great week and I love you all! Merry Christmas!
Elder Sorochan
Saying goodbye to Elder Doig
Santa!
Transfers
Mountains
December 11, 2017
Well everyone today has been a flury of trying to get school stuff done in time and tell transfer stuff. I am off to Washoe Valley and Foothills wards in Reno! I am so excited to go to Reno I have wanted to my whole mission! This week I had a great lesson with Doug. Elder Doig was out with Elder Schow and therefore I split with Brother Macintosh and handled the whole lesson myself it was fun! Doug also came to church, the Red Hawk Christmas Party and the why I believe fireside it was awesome!
I played the piano in church this week. I played Still Still Still by the Piano guys it was sweet!
Well thanks for all your support. I am doing well. Love you all!
Elder Sorochan
December 4, 2017
Hello yall! This week was sweet let me tell ya! First off we finally contacted for real our media referral Kandy. She lives out in the middle of no where. We had a ton of extra miles at the end of the month (don't tell the zone leaders) so we figured we would use them up and go contact Kandy. Turns out you either have to go through Lemon Valley (which is out of Zone) or through this Indian Reservation with crazy dirt Roads. We have a Corrolla so we weren't sure whether to proceed so we prayed, didn't feel like we shouldn't, and went. Well, we made it the whole way and back and contacted Kandy! There are 11 dogs at the ranch she is at and a couple of Mastiffs. The only reason she came out and saw us was because dogs bark, for which I am very grateful. She isn't the golden catch we were told she was but she will go to church out in Lemon Valley because it is closer than our church building so that's good. One day she will be baptized!
I went on 2 exchanges this week. One with Elder Renninger and on it we got lost in the dark and couldn't find our car for at least 20 minutes it was really funny we were pretty late to our next appointment. They are super chill though so it was all good. The next was with Elder Maiava but the Zone leaders has a meeting and since they live right next to Elder Maiava they dropped off Elder Hambrecht whom they are training with us and we had a very fun day!
Saturday was the best day! For those of you who remember Yvonne she got baptized about a month after I left Vintage Hills. Well she has a daughter Maria who just recently turned 8. Due to a series of events Yvonne asked me to baptize Maria! It was so awesome! It was a shock too I did not see it coming but it was a huge blessing and I was very happy to do it. It was so neat. Maria is really short too I (jokingly) almost needed to kneel down to baptize her.
The Christmas devotional was awesome too! I loved what President Uchtdorf said about how we need to Love others as Christ did. To paraphrase he said although we will fail in doing it perfectly, that doesn't mean we still shouldn't try! That impacted me a lot. I fail a ton with loving others as Christ does, but I still should at least try. I will keep trying with everything I've got! Love you all!
Elder Sorochan
PS go to mormon.org and watch and participate in "Light the World".
9 square with the Zone
Should we risk it?
Cows!
Exchanges
Exchanges
Football
Maria's baptism!
Zone Volleyball
November 27, 2017
Hello everyone! Happy American Thanksgiving! It was so fun but first, something funny. Growing up back home around the holidays the attendance in my ward would always seem to increase. More people were there visiting family. However, as logic implies, if my ward is increasing in size, that means another ward is decreasing in size for that day. I found that ward. It is the Pyramid Lake ward. The Bishop, 1st Councilor, 2nd Councilor, the Executive Secretary, the High Priest Group Leader, and the Elder's Quorum President were all gone. Fortunately, the Stake President was in town, so Elder Doig and I and one other member got to give talks to the maybe 50 people there. Fun story about my talk too. I wrote most of one, but was then on exchanges with the Zone Leaders in Sun Valley. My talk accidentally got left in there car, which was Sunday night, so... I came up with a new plan. It all worked out and I was able to give a good talk for my allotted time but not the one I planned on that's for sure.
Thanksgiving was so fun we got special permission from President to go play football with members early in the morning at 8am. It was sweet. We had so much fun but that next morning I have not felt that sore since before the mission. I forgot what it felt like to be that sore! We got to have a dinner with President Perry who is a councilor in the mission presidency and guess who else was there? President and Sister Chesnut! It was so fun to get to have a thanksgiving dinner with them. I was thankful for that cool experience. We then went to Doug and Lundy's, ate some really good food and played Mexican trains. For some reason that is a popular game on my mission.
The week before I had an awesome exchange with Elder Bond. We had dinner with a former mission president, though he was very down to earth and not intimidating. If I was at a dinner appointment with President Chesnut though, I would feel very nervous. Maybe because he is my mission president who knows? Elder Bond taught so well though. This week I went with the Zone Leaders. They are training. I went into their area with Elder Steck and Elder Hambrecht. I forgot my camera cord in the car so our selfie will be shown next week! It was so fun they are really good and fun Elders we were joking around a ton. We met a basher, and had 2 people poor out their life's problems to us. We taught a couple lessons and found a super solid potential investigator. Sun Valley is where it's at apparently. Not as good as my area but close.
Didn't really teach a lot of lessons this week but did do more of a q and a with Doug again. Sometimes it's hard to keep lessons focused. Oh well. He is working hard to get an answer so I'll keep going.
Let me know if any of y'all have any questions. Love you!
Elder Sorochan
