January 22, 2018
Well everyone this week was weird. Or at least some really weird stuff happened and we will get into a few of those. First though something really cool happened last week on PDAY while shopping. If any of you can remember back to the Dayton days there was a couple we were teaching named the Millers. Sister Miller was not baptized and couldn't be while I was there. Recently in our mission newsletter the "High Desert Disciple" I saw her name in the list of people who were baptized! I couldn't believe it I was so excited. Then by the tender mercies of the Lord and by divine design while we were shopping at Winco, this place a lot like Costco except you don't need a membership, I saw them in the meat section! I went and said hi and told her congratulations. It was so cool to see them. If we hadn't had a house inspection that morning, we wouldn't have been there at the right time either. It was really nice.
That night too we had Chicken Wings and fries at Sister Knox's house! She asked what we wanted and consented to chicken wings it was sweet!
Tuesday we got to watch the Special Broadcast with President Nelson it was sooooo cool! The Q&A that they did was awesome too. President Oaks was especially spot on in it. I know they have been called of God and President Nelson is our new Prophet and President. We also that day got to go to the temple which was really enjoyable. The more I go the more I like going.
We helped at Davis Creek again this week. It's for Justserve.org. We rake up pine needles. Woohoo!
Saturday is the more weird day that I will talk about. It started in the morning with us planning. In my prayer for it I asked for something spontaneous to happen. I don't ask for this all the time but sometimes I do and something usually happens. Well, this time was no different. On our way to the first person we were going to go try that morning, we met a man named Don. He is an older gentleman who was looking for his hearing aid that had fallen out of his ear while running. He really wanted to find it because they are $700 a piece. We offered to help him find it and at first he was hesitant to accept but we just kept talking with him and he finally accepted! We looked and weren't able to find it but he still drove us home. He is a devout catholic man who goes to Mass everyday. Apperently if you want to be a true devout catholic that's one of the things you do. Who knew? But he said he was very impressed with us and that we had really given him a high opinion of our church which is awesome!
Then we went to the Ballards. They are an old couple only the wife is a member. They are 90 years old! The husband isn't a member but is a 32nd degree Mason! They have a crazy house keeper too! She was not happy with us trying to get to know the Ballards before we tried to share a message or anything. She made us teach and then continued on after Elder Christiansen's closing prayer. The people you meet!
We also finally got to teach Jared most of the Restoration with Brother Huston our Ward Mission Leader in Washoe. It went really well. Jared is really progressing well. Love yall!
Elder Sorochan
January 15, 2018
Hello everyone! You know, to be honest, it wasn't the most eventful week. Some neat things happened, but not too much. We will start from Monday.
Monday was fun because we had a zone activity. We got to go bowling which was so awesome! Have been campaigning to go since I left Dayton. My first game was bad with an 85 but then I killed it in the second with a 153. Not too shabby. Then we went and had fun all together at the church building. Some people bleached the Nevada flag into some shirts but I didn't have a shirt I wanted to use but it's all good.
Tuesday we had a fun district meeting and then had interviews! They have been changed up a bit by President Chesnut. We used to have interviews with just him but last transfer we also have them with our Zone Leaders where they talk to us about how our area is going and train us on some skills we can use to in our area's.
Wednesday we helped at the food bank again and we actually helped a less active in our ward grocery shop at the dollar general near our house. He has an addiction to alcohol and when he stopped by he said he was going there to get some fool. We decided that we would walk with him and talk with him. There was something there Elder Christiansen wanted to get so we used that as an excuse to go with him. We went in with him and he didn't buy any alcohol! We considered that our good deed for that day. ;)
Thursday for part of our weekly planning we did a little bit of cleaning in our kitchen. Our dishes and what not had gotten a little bit much so we fixed that up.
I got to go on exchanges with Elder Hambrecht again. He was being trained by the zone leaders in sparks while I was there but is now in my district. It was the first time that he had taken over his area and he did a great job. He is a good teacher too we got to teach the restoration to a less active member who is returning. She and the member we brought were talkers so we only got through about 3 points but Elder Hambrecht did this expert redirect back to being on topic. Not bad for 11 weeks out.
Saturday was a day of service. We had planned our day then after someone called for our help in the morning so we went and helped dig a trench. Just a shallow one. Then we helped Mark who works at Habitat continue to build a room in his house which is just down the road from us in the afternoon. There was a lot of good service.
Sunday was a lot of church. With meetings we were there from 7am till 2pm but it was really fun. Felt like I was fasting by the end though lol. That night we read with Sister Johnson from the Book of Mormon and her non member husband joined us! He didn't really say much just listened mostly but he kept the Book of Mormon I gave him to read from! Sweet!
Love yall!
Elder Sorochan
January 8, 2018
Hello Everyone! How's it going? This week was good. I have some good updates for you. First off I saw a turkey in Washoe Valley. Someone is keeping this very poofy turkey in Washoe Valley, another turkey, 3 dogs, and some chickens. When we were walking by the house 2 of the dogs started freaking out at us as dogs do. The other one just seemed so happy to see us but the 2 were barking a lot. We were just ignoring them when all of a sudden this turkey comes waddling over and it is BIG! It was so weird because you never imagine anyone owning a turkey. This turkey slowly came over to the dogs and then started making its turkey noise at the dogs. The dogs then ran away from the turkey! The turkey was in charge. The turkey then just seemed annoyed at the dogs and would occasionally walk towards them and gobble at them again and they would run away. It was awesome! There was also a dog walking down the street and this old Ford mustang pulled up to it, the dog got in, and then drove off sitting in the front seat like a human. #washoevalley
We had a super cool lesson with Jaclyn this week. It was at the Crossman's who are awesome! Brother Crossman is in the bishopric and they are both RM's. Jaclyn started by telling us this really awesome story about how she was led by the Spirit to be able to get the perfect apartment for her and her daughter! It is unfortunately in Carson but it was so divinely guided like so many things that have been happening with her that it's all good. She will be where she needs to be. She then after the prayer told us how she has been praying and thinking about being baptized. She then told us she wants to be baptized and how does one have that happen. We hadn't even asked her to do that! At the beginning of being taught she would not give up coffee, and she was very adamant about that but now she is fine doing it! She has set a date to quit smoking and is now listening to the Book of Mormon which is working way better for her in terms of comprehension. It is awesome!
I got to go on exchanges into the richest area of the mission, the Galena ward. It has the stake center in it which is, fun fact, the Edmonton building. There are some Canadian cities as street names and Edmonton is the one the Church building is on! It was a fun exchange with Elder McBride.
We also at church had a cool miracle. There is a lady who only in the more recent past has started coming back to church. She taught the lesson in Sunday school and asked about how to understand the Book of Mormon better. We offered, after talking about other things, to come over and read with her and whoever else in her family would like to sit in. She has a non member husband who might sit in! We met him at Christmas since they invited us over for dinner on Christmas. We are really excited about this!
Well, that's about all for this week. Love y'all! Love you Mom Dad and Anna!
Elder Sorochan
Elder Christiansen and I got a lot of potatoes from this food pantry we help out at and we decided to try deep frying and make fries. Worked pretty well. Except for when the smoke detectors... :D
January 1, 2018
Ok everyone I'm back! Happy New year! First off funny story. Ok, Washoe Valley has some interesting people. There is this one man named Garth. He is a sweet spirit. We love Garth. We were doing some service for Garth moving pieces of wood into his garage. Randomly throughout Garth would just tell us random stories about just something in his head. At one point we were moving wood into his truck and his tail gate was down. He had to move the truck and right before he told us to never drive with the tail gate down no matter how short a distance. Then without closing the tail gate he went into the truck and drove with the tail gate down. Garth!
Ok from 2 weeks ago I got to go on an exchange with Elder Miner into the Reno YSA ward. It was one of the most fun exchanges I have ever been on it was awesome! We just hit it off and were in our beds talking till midnight. I have not done that on an exchange in months. We talked just all day we just kept talking. We tried less actives during the day, went to Asian Garden for some solid chinese food, got to go to the hospital to give someone a blessing right before they died, and taught an investigator named Robert! We just had a really fun time and worked hard it was great!
Update on Jaclyn. We have had a couple of lessons but the first one a couple of weeks ago was powerful. For the first time that I knew it was happening while I was talking an investigator felt the Spirit really strongly. We were reading Alma 7 and I was explaining something about Christ's Atonement and after Jaclyn said while I was talking she felt this powerful feeling that everything is going to be ok. There is a lot going on in her life and it was a very important thing. Over the past 3 weeks she has come to church twice and stayed all 3 hours and loved it it is awesome!
The Christmas Party was so great! We had a mini Zone Conference before and President Chesnut said something that to me was incredibly powerful. He said "Don't let a solution to a problem become more important than a person who needs to be loved." That is so true!
Christmas eve and Christmas we spent a lot of time with the Curtis'. They are so fun! They are an awesome family who have helped us out a ton! We even got to play some games and decorate some cookies both days it was sweet! Skyping home was cool. Always good to see the fam jam.
Love yall! Bye!
Elder Sorochan
Chinese food on exchanges
My Christmas package was beat up by the postal service
President and Sister Chesnut
At the mission Christmas party
At the mission Christmas party
At the mission Christmas party
At the mission Christmas party
At the mission Christmas party
