Christmas Party!

December 19, 2016

This week was fun! We had a mission Christmas party! A couple transfers ago the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve sent out a notification saying all that from now on we are to have interviews with our mission president and zone conferences every transfer, as opposed to every other. For this transfer President Chestnut had us have a west side Zone Conference for 2 hours followed by another 4 hours of our Christmas Party! The Zone Conference was great! There was a huge emphasis on coming unto Christ. President used the story of Peter walking on water and how the Savior will always help us and be beside us. He is such a great teacher! The party after was so fun! I got to see Elder McKenna and play ping pong! I played nine square too. It was a blast. Everyone got a present of a towel with the Nevada Reno Mission logo on it. They are nice towels! Christmas blessings!

We are starting to do more tracting since we are starting to stop seeing some people who are no longer productive and trying to find more. What was really neat was the first house we tried no one was home, but as we were leaving the front porch the wife of the family who lives there pulled up and we talked to her! She is open to having us come over after the holidays and talk with her and we hope her family too! They are catholic, but she was nice and open so this is a good sign. Elder Hadley and I prayed as to where to go tracting and the place he felt we should go found her! No one else was interested, but we had some good contacts which was nice. No other real potentials, but as we keep at it we will find people!

The weather has been getting worse. I do not recommend biking in the rain. :D Snow is better, but hurts a little on the face. Biking area's are the best everyone. Really they are. I am getting in really good shape and people have been telling me I have lost weight (which I have) Diet and exercise is the key. To this I testify!

We had a lesson with Jimmie this week where we read President Nelson's talk about finding joy. It was really good. She really enjoyed it and we talked about how she has had times in her life where she did not have joy, but she did know Heavenly Father loved her. She says she will work on trying to always have joy in all things. I found it very useful for me because having joy in missionary work is what you need to have to do it properly, but Heavenly Father doesn't always make it easy sometimes. As I practice though, it gets easier, and I am finding I am able to have more joy in more things! Even though it is very hard, I am so thankful for this experience to be tested and to see what Heavenly Father really wants me to learn. Jimmie at the end of our lesson invited us over for Christmas Eve! We didn't have a dinner that night yet, so we said yes! It was great! Her nephew I think it is who she calls 007 will be there. He has done all these top secret black opp's type stuff for the CIA or something. He can't talk about most of what he's done, it's that top secret. He is a pretty awesome guy I hear. It will be fun.

I love being out here. It is the most difficult and challenging thing that I have ever done. Sometimes all I can do is just not give up. I am really just not good at this. That is the Lord's way though. He turns strengths into weaknesses, but He has to have us go through the weaknesses first. Fortunately, Christ's grace is sufficient to make up for any weakness. I'm am so thankful for this, because I need it more than ever. Thank you for all your love and support. Merry Christmas to all and to all, a Merry Christmas. Love you! Especially you Mom, Dad, and Anna!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

 Biking in the rain

 Awesome Christmas lights

 A dead duck!

 Elder McKenna (my trainer) and Elder Hadley (my current companion)

 Elder Peterson (my Zone leader from Carson)

 Elf hat!

 Ping pong at the Christmas party

 Me and President Chesnut

 Me and Sister Chesnut

Me and Elder Jones in the snow

Mission posterity. Elder McKenna trained me and Elder Nye on the far left. I trained Elder Jones. This will be one of the only times we will likely be all together at the same time, and Elder Nye had to blink ;)

You never know what will happen!

December 12, 2016

Well it was a good week. There was some really neat miracles that happened.

First I wanted to talk about was exchanges this last Tuesday. I went with Elder Hadley's MTC companion, Elder Stotts, into his area. It was fun because that night we were going to be going on splits with the priests in the Red Hawke ward. Good thing I know the area. Sike, I didn't. I was just kinda going along to do whatever the priest I was with felt like doing. We had a plan to go visit home teaching families which was good. The first priest I went with had the first person we stopped by not be home, so he decided that we would go try a priest aged boy who doesn't come to church. When we showed up where he lived, we found it was a gated community and that we didn't have the password to get in! We were about to turn around when this truck pulled up behind us and opened the gate! Miracles! We talked with the boy for a little bit and committed him to come to church! It was fun. The next priest I went with and I went and taught one of his families, well, single sister, the importance of home teaching to active members. She is active but doesn't fully get it.

While doing service for this lady named Glenna this week on Friday, she gave us Christmas presents! She gave us a heater for our apartment, since we need to get the thermostat fixed (yes mom we contacted the land lord) and she had gotten Elder Hadley a winter coat! He had been borrowing the inside liner of mine because all he had is a trench coat and you can't bike in those! So great!

Ok the big story of the week involves Jimmie. Remember last week when I said she came to church and she bore her testimony, well there is more to the story. When we met wit her on Thursday, we found out something really neat. By the way she fed us and it was super tasty. She told us that on Sunday while she was getting ready for church she felt prompted to bear her testimony, but she said no. That continued throughout the day and she kept saying no. While at church during the sacrament, she always is praying during the whole thing. She kept feeling that prompting and so she said to Heavenly Father that if one of us (the missionaries) would get up and bear our testimony, she would too. President Chestnut has asked us missionaries to bear our testimony frequently and so I was planning on it this Sunday. I wanted to follow the Spirit though as to when I should go up, and after the sacrament I felt I should go up as soon as possible. It was just a very simple testimony, nothing fancy or special. Little did I know though that it helped Jimmie get up and bear hers and she shared a very sweet testimony. Just goes to show you never know what will happen if you try to do what is right. God is a God of miracles. Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season, I love you all! Merry Christmas to my friends and family, and a big hug and "I love you" to Mom, Dad, and Anna!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

Canada Dry for the Canadian! 

A picture especially for Mike

 This is the bishop's daughter Elsie.  She loves missionaries.

 Thanksgiving game time at Bishop Cocanour's

 Someone likes inflatables!

 A marshmallow platypus

 The new large Sparks Zone

An Elder Sorochan original 

Santa! 

 Riding my bike in the snow

The Beutlers

The Lord will always provide a way

December 5, 2016

Hello Everyone!

Hope you are all having a good week! It was a pretty calm week. Transfers came and went with not a lot of changes for our companionship but lots in the Zone. First off the Sparks West and East Zones have now been combined. Elder Latham for those of you who remember him is now my zone leader again and Elder Jones is now in my district. He and Elder Anderson got double transferred into 2 wards. How amazing is that? It is going to be a fun transfer with the new zone.

This week we had a lot of good less active work. We had 3 less actives come to church that had not been in a very long time. One of them, Jimmie, we have been inviting for awhile. She really wants to come and she finally did! And she bore her testimony for the first time in 20 years! It was so great to see. Sis. Punzalan another we are working with came which is really good for me actually. In our lesson this last week she told us she is scared she won't keep her job in the new year when her contract needs to be renewed, and I felt a small prompting to promise her that if she would come to church every week she would keep her job. It felt kinda scary to do it, but I did and so far so good!

So far in my mission, finding has been very hard. I just can't seem to find people to teach. It has now become like English class. I do it because they tell me to, but I don't put in all that I could and I don't always enjoy it. I want to change this, but it is very hard with all that I have experienced so far. I decided that yesterday I would fast for the courage, faith, and enthusiasm to find people to teach. That night I learned something profound. In 1 Nephi 3:7 it talks about how God will always provide away for us to accomplish His commandments. I likened that to now. Heavenly Father knows where He has put me in this mission and what would happen with my attitude with finding. He knew that would happen. He also knows how to get me out of it, and I know that He will help me and show me the way to do a better job at finding. He will one day bless me with greater success in this area, just like He will with everything else. Nothing will ever be perfect, but I know that He has a perfect plan to make all things better and greater!

I love my God and I love my Savior. They truly make everything possible. Love you all and until next week, have a very merry Christmas Season!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

 Elder LaBrum - We went on exchanges

 Sparks West Zone

 Chicken and waffles

 Tostados

Raking leaves

When Heavenly Father Loves you Enough

November 28, 2016

Hello everyone.

This letter will be a little different than previous ones. I won't really be talking about missionary work, because I have something different I wish to tell all of you. It concerns a personal change that I have just had over the past couple weeks, and especially yesterday. I hope that the Spirit will help me properly describe these things to you, and as well that you will understand.

For those who do not know, yesterday marked the 7 month anniversary since the time I officially entered the MTC and this whole journey began. It has been an amazing experience, with so much learning and growth and many great things happen. Many hard things have happened as well.

One of these hard things has been of my own cause. I have not truly/fully in my heart been able to have lasting peace, joy, and contentment. Now don't misunderstand, I have not been unhappy, or not had joy, peace, and contentment, but they have not lasted. I have always felt in my heart that there was something missing. I have also questioned why this mission experience hasn't fully been what I expected it to be, or why I am not as good as I want to be or expect to be. In short, I have been prideful.

Over the last couple weeks, our Heavenly Father has been kind enough to me to show me some of my biggest weaknesses. First one is how I seem to have this habit of always wanting my situation to be more, "something" than another missionaries. For example, if a missionary is receiving more success and seeing more miracles than me, I am jealous. I want to have more and better than that missionary. As well, if a missionary is experiencing something harder than me, like their area is more difficult, I wish that I was in their shoes so that I could say I am going through more. it is very selfish, and I don't like it. It is not a fun way to think. For some reason, I was able to see this and was able to notice how silly it is. I have been working to stop this, but have love for other missionaries in whatever they are experiencing, not comparing their circumstances to mine.

Another thing I discovered is that I am very prideful. I think I deserve a lot of prestige. I think I am very great and should be having lots of recognition and receiving lots of leadership. This is not good. It is not right, but I have a habit of thinking like this. Again, I don't like it. Again, the Lord has loved me enough to show me that I had this negative habit. Of course I want to get rid of it, and He has kindly shown me in a greater light what I was doing that was causing me unhappiness.

Now there are other small things that are there that I do wrong, but we don't have time for those and really, I can't think of all of them right now. I did however want to give you a couple examples so you got the idea. Now of course I do not think that these are all I define myself by. We all have weaknesses and things that we do but shouldn't. My intent in sharing this all with you is that I in my mission desperately want to be what the Lord wants me to be. I want to do all that He wants me to do. This desire has been growing to the point where it is at the top of all other desires. Because of this growth, the Lord has brought forth to me a new way of doing this missionary work. Over the past weeks, while showing me my many weaknesses, I have asked Him what I need to do to change all this. To truly enjoy all of this, to fully in my heart, 100% love this work, and be content and joyful. The answer came yesterday.

Elder Hadley and I were out doing missionary work and I was really feeling down, and this feeling kept getting worse. I felt so bad at all of this, like I was failing in my mission, and I didn't know how to change it. I felt very depressed. I could not feel happiness. I felt so bad. I wondered if I was seriously depressed. Now this didn't seem right. I am on a mission and have been promised that I will find great joy in my service. I knew something needed to change. My feelings of depression stayed as we went into sacrament meeting. The great thing about it is it got my thoughts beginning to be directed toward Jesus Christ. We had talks on gratitude, and by my focus on the Savior and through other things said and read throughout the day, I learned that that my lack of true love and happiness for all things came because I was not relying and coming unto the Savior to the extent I needed to. I have in the past, but my reliance and need of Him and His Atonement was now greater than it had ever been before, because it is time for me to become better. My answer on how to become better was to use the Atonement, and follow and become more like my Savior.

My answer was something I love to teach people, but for some reason was not applying with myself. In my sadness I began to wonder "How do I do it? How do I gain access to this power and receive the help of my Savior?" I didn't see how, but it came to me. To follow the Savior, I need to become more like Him and be like Him in all that I do. I need to develop His attributes. Charity, humility, faith, patience, etc. My experience earlier in the day truly humbled me. I felt like nothing for awhile. However, because my Heavenly Father loved me enough to have me feel that way, it opened me up to see that if I am to be the missionary I want to be, and to be happy in the way I want to be happy, it all needs to come from Christ. It cannot come from anyone else. I need to become like Him. I need to put off all these former things that I mentioned before and have all things I do be motivated and directed by Christ and His attributes. When I realized this, and committed to do it, from then on I have had this feeling in my heart that my path is right. That what I have decided and am trying to do will bring me the joy and love that I seek. I feel that support from Christ and Heavenly Father that I didn't know how to access. It comes from doing our best, focusing on Him and who He is, and following His commandments. I know I won't be perfect, but I know that as I work with all my heart, mind, might and strength, that I will be able to become better and who I want to be and more importantly, who the Lord wants me to be. I love my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know they love me. I know they will always help me and that it will all work out how it is supposed to.

I love you all. Hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you Mom, Dad, and Anna especially.

Elder Kynan Sorochan

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