The Miracle of the Piano

February 4, 2017

Well hello everyone! It's been a good week with some good updates for y'all. First off we had Zone Conference this week! It was a really fun Zone Conference. We had a good training on planning in 30 minutes where Elder Lyman did an example of how to be counterproductive. It happened with him having Preach My Gospel, the scriptures, and the DVD player around him. He then proceeded to eat cereal and brush his teeth at the same time. It was awesome. I had a cool miracle for Zone Conference too. They needed someone to play the piano, but I was the only one who said yes to doing it, and I didn't know one of the songs and only knew the other a little bit. The one I didn't know how to play was Onward Christian Soldiers and the one I knew a bit was Praise to the Man. I got asked on Monday near the end of the day and was given permission to practice during proselyting time. That left we Tuesday and Wednesday to learn the two songs. I ended up having only about 3 and a half hours of practice between the two days to learn two long tricky hymns. I wanted to help and do it so I said a prayer and went and PRACTICED! I have never practiced the piano with such focus and diligence before, but I knew that if I worked hard God would make up the rest. It worked! I learned the songs and did a good job playing on Thursday! I didn't really stress about it because I knew that God would help me as I worked hard. It was awesome!

We had a really spiritual lesson again with Yvonne. We read over some of Alma 32 and the Spirit is really building her desire to act. The Spirit also taught us that she really loves feeling the Spirit and that is one of the big reasons she keeps having us come. When we were weekly planning for her I felt a strong prompting on what we should teach her which was neat.

I love my ward. I really realized that yesterday. Things here aren't easy, but I have really come to just love it here and I would love to be here for a long time. These are my people. They are my brothers and sisters. I love their qwerks and their strengths. I love it here in Sparks and I love serving the Lord. Keep reading your scriptures, saying your prayers, and going to church everyone!

Love,
Elder Kynan Sorochan

 Ties from Momma Williams

 At Zone Conference

 Zone Conference

Zone Conference

Things are good

January 30, 2017

Ok so I have a fun story from a couple weeks ago to share. Elder Anderson and I were on exchanges in my area and we were street contacting while on our way to try by a less active couple. We were walking along and a lady came out of her house and asked us to keep an eye out for her dog who had run away. We got her number and proceeded to try to talk to her about the gospel. She wasn't interested, so we said we would keep an eye out for her dog. Now people have asked for this help before, but I have never found anyones pet. I don't really expect to. How many times do you see a stray dog in the middle of a regular neighborhood? As we were walking though we see in the distance a dog with the right description walk across the street by herself. We started to track down this dog and ended up catching her! We double checked the tag and sure enough it was the lady's dog. We called her and saved the day! It was fun. I have never caught a dog before. She was very thankful and we helped to build her up for other missionaries someday!

I had sushi this past Monday with Yvonne. It was really good, but I think I am good for awhile. 16 rolls between the 3 of us and then 3 hours of basketball after do not give me a strong desire for sushi again anytime soon.

The missionary broadcast this last week was awesome! There was a lot to learn. They introduced the new missionary schedule to the world, a reform to the key indicators we now send in, and taught us more on how we need to teach repentance and baptize converts. The teaching repentance was the bigger focus in my opinion. They were trying to teach us the baptisms aren't what makes a good missionary or that we should judge all of our success. The key is to teach everyone what true repentance is and tie that to all the other parts of the gospel instead of making a big checklist of everything. They want us to teach EVERYONE repentance. Members, active and less active, and investigators alike. Everyone, repentance means to change, to progress. It means to become better. To stop doing what is contrary to God's commandments and make a change to be happy. It is the path to happiness. Repentance is a joyful choice and leads to even more happiness.

Things are going well in the area. We are teaching a little more and we have a couple of new potential investigators that will help us grow our teaching pool this week hopefully. This last week we taught Yvonne about patience from Preach My Gospel chapter 6. She says that everything she reads or does in relation to the gospel is pointing her to patience and we are now sending her a chapter from the Book of Mormon to read everyday.

Love you all!

Elder Sorochan

 At sushi

 My first sushi

 Octopus.  It was...chewy

Sushi place

 Elder Anderson

 The dog we located

Birthday pie!

 Christmas gift from family

 Christmas gifts from family

 Christmas treats

 Christmas gift

Christmas gift from Jimmie's sister's husband

 Missionary in a box

 Missionary in a shopping cart

 It's supposed to be a goldfish

 Reno!

 :D

Happy To Serve

January 23, 2017

Hi Everyone! I am FINALLY back at the library so this email will be a lot easier to manage. First things first, I know it is a month late, but it time for the Christmas SHOUT OUTS!!!!!

To the Hudson Family, Thank you for the card! The update on what's going on back in the great Edmonton is awesome!

To the Palmer Family: Thank you for the card and picture! The picture was really funny. I enjoyed it.

Thank you to the Hadley family for the card, with special thanks to Sariah for the wonderful art on it. It is an awesome card!

To the Rolfson's, the card was awesome! And the Purdy's chocolate was really tasty too. Thanks!

To Sister Yamamoto, Thank you for the card and talk. It was a really powerful talk and was really helpful.

To the Rutherford Ward Relief Society: Thank you for the Christmas Wishes. Sister Bugga that card was really well made, and thanks Mom and Sister Mosiaco for the little note too! It was really nice.

To the Livingstone's: Thanks for the card and life update! It is always neat to hear what is going on. I always seem to forget things are happening back home. Probably a good thing :D

To Grandma and Papa, Thanks for the 5x5 rubik's cube and card! It will be awesome to learn how to use!

To the Smith Family! The Catan game is awesome! It is a really nice game thanks! And the Lindor Chocolate and Sour Patch Kids were perfect choices. Yum!

To Grandma Sorochan: Thank you so much for the gift! That was very kind of you!

Ok now on to the week. Everyone, I hope you will forgive me when I say this, but I remembered everything to bring for p-day... except my study notes. Whoops. I promise to bring them next week. No really I do. Have faith. Maybe pray for me. Just kidding :D I will do it. You wait and see.
Oh as well, Congratulations to Matthew Loewer on his mission call!!!!!!!! That is so awesome my friend! Montreal is about to become 1000% more LDS.

We have a new schedule as missionaries! It is designed to help us be "agents unto ourselves". It is less strict. They now give us a set of things we have to do in a certain chunk of time, but however we want to accomplish it is up to us. The big changes are companionship study is now in the afternoon, not the morning. Daily planning is now in the morning before we got out, instead of in the evening after we come in. P-day now starts at 8 instead of 10, so we don't exercise Monday morning, instead we do a little bit of personal study, plan, and get ready. Dinner must be completed by 6:30. My favorite part of this is that the evenings are now much more open to journal writing because now all we have to do is update records! The scripture our mission President asked us to look up with this is D&C 58:26-28. Elder Jones however by accident was told to look up Alma 58:26-28, and this was before we found out the new schedule and was supposed to hint at the new schedule. Look it up. You will laugh.

Fun joke for the week is last week in Fast and Testimony meeting someone got up and said that our ward is the IHOP Ward. The Internation House of Old People ward! It's funny because it's true. What else is true though is that it is the BEST ward EVER! I love the Vintage Hills ward. The members here are just fantastic. If I had time I would go on, but this statement shall suffice for me.

We saw Jimmie this week and last week Elder Williams had the genius idea to have her read the children's book of Mormon. It worked great. Jimmie went to the lds bookstore herself and in the first day of having it read the first 12 chapters of it. We have committed her to pray before and after reading and invited her to use the regular book of Mormon along side it.

We did a lot of walking this week just street contacting. We have been working really hard and have been rewarded with a few more set appointments than usual for this week and a referral with some real potential it is looking like. His name is Vinny. Here's hoping!

Elder William's is super great. He is teaching me a lot and we are getting along really well. He is great at telling stories and has a lot of them. Makes street contacting really fun. Fun fact, he was a pole vaulter before his mission!

Everyone, I love this Gospel and how it helps you. How it changes you and teaches you. I love how much my Savior helps me and does for me. As I study the scriptures I really am able to see what He has done for me, and am really able to bring the Spirit into my mind and heart so that I become who I want to be. I am still very new at all of this and struggle to succeed, but it is that struggle that teaches me faith, diligence, love, and hope and many other good things. I learn so much through these trials. This Gospel really is true. I am so happy to serve and to be a missionary.

Love,
Elder Kynan Sorochan

 I got to see Elder McKenna the mission conference

 Oh Yaaaahhhhh!

 Elder Hadley signed the jersey!

 Saying goodbye to Elder Hadley

My new companion Elder Williams

Repent

January 16, 2017

Hey everyone this was a powerful week. I have a new companion named Elder Williams. He is from Riverton Utah. He has been out for about 16 months now and is a powerhouse. It is great to be his companion and it is really helping this area. You really never know what your doing, but he has more of an idea than I do and it is helping.

Ok so I really did not do a good job preparing for this email this week so it is going to be short, but it will be cool.

This last Saturday we had for the first time in Nevada Reno Mission history a mission wide conference. The mission has never been gathered all together before. The occasion? Elder Larkin, an area seventy, Elder Pearson, a general authority seventy, and Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the quorum of the twelve apostles came to our mission. We met in Reno and all gathered in the chapel. It was an amazing meeting. It was only for 2 hours, but Elder Christofferson ended up getting about 1 hour and 20 minutes of it which was awesome. When he got up and started talking, he had us stand up and stretch, and then said it would be a question and answer period. It was incredibly powerful. I got to ask him a question too. I asked "As missionaries we need the Holy Ghost to teach, so what do we need to do individually and maybe as a mission to have the Spirit with us more?" He is fun to talk with because he half the time starts with a little witty response. His witty answer was almost immediately "Repent." He then turned to the seventies there and asked if he was right. They said yes, but then he gave me a Spirit guided answer. I will give my notes on the answer next week. It was funny and I laughed. Not everyday you get rebuked by an Apostle. Good thing I do repent right? It was such a powerful meeting, and I will share my thoughts and impressions next week. Love you all!

Elder Sorochan

The Rains came down and the Floods came up

January 9, 2017

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

Example of flooding provided by the mission Facebook page

Happy New Year!

January 2, 2017

Hello everyone! I know you are all dieing for Christmas pics, but the library is still closed till next week. I will do them next week as well as Christmas shout outs! Fun thing for the week is we have a car! It is only for the rest of the transfer (so a week and a half) but it is still great! Some missionaries went home early for school, so there were some left over cars. Elder Hammond texted us (he is the vehicle coordinator) and said we could use one till the transfer is over. He gave us 500 miles too! We couldn't use up all of that even if we tried! It is nice to have a brief rest from biking, especially since this week is going to be cold. And it means that we get to drive to morning program and play sports with the other missionaries.

We have been doing a lot more finding lately. Some people we have been trying to teach we just decided to stop going to see since they weren't putting in any effort and didn't really want to learn. In the ward we have so far found that over 40 people on the ward list have moved. That's crazy! We have been having some good experiences with street contacting, tracting, trying former investigators, and less active finding, but so far no pineapples. We will keep trying though! The people here are great, and very nice to us. They just don't think they need the gospel. Silly people!

On the 14th we will be having a mission wide conference, where an area seventy, a seventy and an Apostle will be coming! We don't know which Apostle it is, but we are definetely going to learn a lot!

We are starting a new Book of Mormon initiative with the members here that President Chestnut has designed. In it we invite the members to read the Book of Mormon over the year of 2017, and while reading highlight scriptures that are meaningful to them and that might help someone who is reading it for the first time or needs a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and to pray as to who to give that Book of Mormon to. We are to do it with every member if we can, and we have a lot of appointments for it this week. It will be fun!

We got to meet with the Carters again this week! They are making slow progress, but it is progress. They are such a sweet couple. They are very fun to teach. Bro. Seavey has started coming with us and he is good friends with them, so he is a great support. We have been reading in the Book of Mormon with them reading King Benjamins address. We hope that as they apply what he says to their own lives that they will start to do more gospel centered activities like family prayer and family scripture study.

Yesterday was really good for church. The time has changed from 2:30 to 12:30, and it seems to have helped attendance. We had 5 less actives there, three that haven't come before! Bro. Gladstone and the Martins were the ones who haven't been able to come. Bro. Gladstone was only because of the time. His family isn't very supportive of him being a member, so he can only come when church is earlier. Church was a little fuller which was a good sign.

Thanks for your prayers everyone! I have really being noticing a big emphasis in my life of how Christ needs to be the center, and what I have to do to make that happen. I know that this is in part because of your prayers for me. I truly appreciate it. I love you all! Love you Mom, Dad, and Anna!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

Birthday lunch with Elder Hadley (courtesy of Bishop Cocanour!)

Happy Christmas

December 26, 2016

Merry Christmas Everyone!

It was a very fun Christmas! I sent a few pictures and will send more next week. Thank you to everyone who sent me cards and treats! I will thank you all specifically next week when I have a chance to go through everything at our apartment. All our stuff is at a members right now since you can't carry much on a bike. Ok onto the week.

Tuesday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Anderson, Elder Jones's Companion. We got to teach the Carters again. We read out of Mosiah 2 to help them read the Book of Mormon more. They are doing a better job at reading, but not every day yet. It will come!

Ok lets talk about Christmas. Saturday morning we got permission to go caroling with a family in our ward to a seniors home just outside our area. It was fun. There wasn't a lot of seniors where we were, but those that were there had a really fun time. It was so nice to see their smiling faces! In the afternoon we had some weekly planning to finish up then we went and did some service at Ricky and Davids cleaning and helping to paint a bathroom. Then we went to Jimmie's for dinner! It was so fun! I had taco's since they were doing a mexican food night, themeing it Feliz Navidad! Haha. :D I really like tacos. We had to leave dinner early because it happened at 4, and we are only allowed dinner for an hour. We ended up leaving at 5:15 since dinner wasn't ready when we got over there, but we got out as soon as we could. Normally proselyting ends at 9, but because of Christmas eve it ended at 6. Then after 6 we could go back to Jimmie's till latest 9. We played a game liars, had cheesecake, and read the Christmas story! It was a really fun night.

On Christmas we got up as usual and did our studies. Bishop Cocanour came and picked us up since we were skyping at his house. It was so great and emotional skyping. I had a wonderful time talking with my family and at the end I bore my testimony to them. After we hung out and I opened the rest of my presents. When the time came we went to church. We had a wonderful meeting and I even got to play Still Still Still by John Schmidt. One of my sticky notes made two pages stick together, so instead of helping me turn the pages, the sticky note made me stop and fix the pages! It was great otherwise. We then went to the Humphry's for dinner. It was really tasty. It was just the 4 of us, my companion and brother and sister Humphry's. It was nice and relaxing. I very much enjoyed it. We then went caroling with the other missionaries and had a testimony meeting.

I love this time of year. The Savior lives everyone! He is real. He truly did what the prophets say He did. He is always there for us, and we can overcome anything because He lives! Let Him light your world as He lights and powers mine!

I love you all! Merry Christmas! Love you Mom, Dad, and Anna!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

 Caroling on Christmas eve

 Caroling on Christmas eve

 Christmas dinner

 Christmas dinner with the Humphreys

The mini drone Cocanours got me for Christmas!