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
November 20, 2017
Ok quick email this week. We had a good lesson with Doug where we started to read Tad R Callisters talk "The Blue Print of Christ's Church". I had super sweet exchange with Elder Bond who is a rock solid missionary. We had a mini missionary named Nathan with us. We had a day that was a little slower, but it gave us a chance to really get to know him. He sometimes struggles with his attitude and serving his family like he knows he should, but because of the day we had we were at the end able to give him some good Spirit directed advice out of love and I think it was impactful for him. Here's hoping. We found a new investigator in Pyramid Lake! A youth had a friend who wanted to meet. I am out of time but I will give more details on that story next week. I had some extra emails to write this week so this is the shortest ever! New record! We also got to go to the Face to Face yesterday with Elder Ballard and Elder Oaks. It was powerful and funny! If you haven't watched it, I would invite you to do so! It was awesome! Looking forward to thanksgiving this week. Love yall!
Elder Sorochan
With Elder Clark
With Elder Hadley
With Elder Jones (Elder Sorochan trained Elder Jones)
On exchanges with Elder Bond
Nathan - the not so mini missionary
Zone conference
Zone conference
Zone conference
November 13, 2017
This was a fun week, but first the funny story. Monday night we were going and trying less actives. We had planned to go try the Clintons who seem by the notes like they might let us come back. We went up to the door and there were more cars in the driveway than usual. Perfect lets go up! As we walk toward the door we hear noise coming from inside. At first we thought that it was maybe party noise. Perfect. Let's knock. As we get closer though, the noise seems, more aggressive lets say. We stop before we knock to listen. We hear a little mocking laughter and some loud comments. Then we start to hear some swearing and some very, attacking comments we'll say. At this point we realized that the couple was fighting. Loudly. At this point you might hear of a story where the missionaries knock on the door of the fighting couple, they see it's the missionaries, they repent and we all go on missions and to the temple and what not. We on the other hand were smart and realized that doesn't really happen and since the Spirit was not yelling at us to knock we just moved on to the next house.
On Tuesday we had a stellar lesson with Doug. He is so close. We finished up the temples and families lesson and he said that it filled a few gaps for him which was excellent. He wasn't able to come to church because of Lundy and her back but he texted us saying he read the scriptures instead since he couldn't come. Hey, he may have not been able to come, but he made an effort to do something which was very admirable.
Wednesday was Zone Conference. I forgot my camera cord I so silly sorry next week you will be overloaded with pictures I promise. It was a good zone conference. We got trained on the Light the World initiative. We will be getting pass along cards for it and working with our wards to share it. Our bishops wife in Pyramid lake is helping to set up a live nativity that will promote light the world at the Spanish Springs ward bishops farm. Oh and we won one of the cleanest car awards so we got a Walmart gift card! It was sweet I didn't expect to get it. We aren't messy, but...
Friday I had a super fun exchange with Elder Flores in his area, Sun Valley, Spanish Speaking. There were so many cool miracles that happened. We made the commitment to talk to everyone and the first person we talked to was not interested in barely talking to us, but the second person we talked to said we could come back! It was sweet! We got to talk to someone else that when we asked who she knew that needed a message on Christ she said her! It was so great. We taught the Plan of Salvation twice, once to a recent convert and once to a less active couple. Elder Flores was really smart and included me by telling me what point to teach and he would then translate. I would also once each lesson read a scripture in the Spanish Book of Mormon. I know what it says in English and I know how to read spanish words, so it was so fun! At dinner we had quesadillas and someone at the house we were eating at tried to argue with Elder Flores, and Elder Flores shut him down! He didn't combat he just bore testimony and taught doctrine it was cool, and all in Spanish.
Saturday we did service for a part member family helping load rock onto a place in their backyard. It was a fun project a ton of the Red Hawk ward came and helped. The wife is active and we are going over for dinner tomorrow. Super fun! We also that day talked to two people in this one circle road called Sacred Circle, where two people said we could come back! One even set up an appointment with us right there and the other said he would like to feed us and his wife might be a hidden less active member!
Sunday was a good day. Talked about light the world, first time ever got into Red Hawk ward council, and had a good fhe with the Healys who came to church! Sister Healy's schedule changed so she doesn't work on Sundays anymore!
That's all for this week. Till next time, don't forget to smile! Love you more bye!
Elder Sorochan
November 6, 2017
Last Pday was super fun. We went to Wendy's with Hunter and talked to a homeless man I met last time I was in Sparks. We went to Scheels and then played games at his house.
This week we got to help with the Baptism of Annie. She is a neat girl who is 9 years old. She has the mental age of 4 but her parents decided on having her baptized with her 8 year old brother. It was interesting to teach her but it was great for the family and they are so great. They are so nice and generous. The Mom gave us a hair cut, they always give us a ton of leftovers from dinner, and just overall they treat us great! There is a longer story to this family but I can't share it over email so one day!
We have been having some hard days of going and trying person after person and having them not home or not interested. I sometimes struggle with taking rejection personally. There was two things that happened this week that helped with that though. One was a visit with Greta. We stopped by and she was home. There is now a plan for her to be taught by some other missionaries. It's kinda sad because I would love to teach her, she is awesome, but it is what is best for her so it is ok. She works for the Sparks PD and we were able to talk about how to be neutral in dealing with people. It helps not take it personally. I am excited to try it this week. The other time was having dinner with Bishop Kahumoku in Pyramid Lake. As we were talking about people we were able to give info and reports on people. It was a big confidence booster.
We on Halloween got to go to a Halloween party for a bit! We were allowed to go to "ward activities" and a member invited us to come. We were able to associate with some people and be seen for a bit it was fun! The rest of Halloween was taken up by a short lesson of reading the Book of Mormon with a less active and a 3 hour medical trip for some biking area elders. Office miles! We had to go in early at 7 that night too.
Got to go to a meeting and see Elder's Jones, Hadley, and Clark it was super awesome! A great meeting too.
Had a fun family home evening last night with the Mundt and Healey family. The Healey's aren't active but live with members so we teach them at family home evening.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Sorochan
October 30, 2017
Well hello!
This week was a good week. There were a couple days that I just zonked out when we got in I just could not stay awake. It's hard for me to not let myself get stressed sometimes, but fortunately after I go through little bouts of stress I realize what's going on and can learn how to let go. It's always a bit of a different situation so it is a learning experience which I am very grateful for.
Pday was short last week because we got to go to the temple. That was so great to get to go! It's such a nice place to relax and feel the Spirit! Love that place.
We had two lessons with Doug this week actually. First on Tuesday and second on Thursday. Tuesday was cool because that morning I felt like we needed to change the lesson plan and it turned out to coincide with answering part of his concern. He is having trouble overcoming the fact that there is one true church. This time we were able to talk about temples and the work in them to tell him about how everyone has the chance to accept the gospel. We didn't get to talk as much about it because he and his wife and the members we bring are very good at going off on tangents. It's all good though.
I had exchanges with Elder Maiava. They were fun. Met with a less active who told us his story and explained where he is at. He isn't ready to come back yet but he was very open which made our life so much easier! I will get picturres with these people this transfer because today is transfers and the district is hardly changing. No elder moves it's great!
Got to go to the Pyramid Lake trunk or treat! There was a magician and I was the Bible! Elder Doig is obviously to Book of Mormon it was so fun. Tons of people took our picture. Solid!
Had the why I believe fireside and had Daneil come. He is a recent convert from Reno that moved into our area. He is super cool. He is black! There is so little diversity here!
Ok, well, I know this wasn't great, but today I needed to chill sorry. Next week will have more effort. Pinky promise.
Love y'all!
Elder Sorochan
Emailing at the library
At the temple
At the temple
At the temple
Ward Halloween party
Ward Halloween party
Zone activity carving pumpkins
Zone activity carving pumpkins
Ours in a moose! Cause we're both Canadians!
Elder Sorochan and Elder Doig
October 23, 2017
Hello everyone! First off we have some birthday's we have missed so we will start with those! Happy Birthday Greg on September 13th! Happy Birthday Noelie on October 20th! Happy Birthday Benjamin on September 13th! Happy Birthday Jeremy tomorrow! Happy Birthday Tyler on September 18th! Happy Birthday Maggie on September 29th! Happy Birthday Aaron on September 26th! Happy Birthday Thomas on September 26th! Happy Birthday Emmett on September 27th! Happy Birthday Megan on September 11th! And last but certainly not least Happy Birthday Clair on October 31st coming up!
Ok so now the cool miracle from last week. We have a member of the mission Presidency in Pyramid Lake ward, President Perry. A couple of Sundays ago we met with him and his wife to get to know them and to talk about missionary work with them. We had an opening for dinner and they said they would sign up. They also told us that they love it when we bring people to dinner when they have us. We thought that was a really awesome idea so we worked hard all week trying to find someone to come to dinner. We don't know a lot of people we could invite yet but we tried those we did know. One of the people we had talked about was a lady named Greta, who was baptized in October of last year. She has had some trouble staying active for a bit with health and work but she is an amazing lady really smart. We had tried everyone we could think of, but then we realized that we should try to invite her! We hadn't caught her home yet, but we thought it would be a really good idea because she is really good friends with the Perry's and Sister Perry is her visiting teacher. We tried a few times and it was Friday and we still hadn't gotten ahold of her. We tried Friday morning and nothing. We planned to be down in her area later that day so we decided to just see if there was a sign of life at her house. We drove by AND HER INSIDE DOOR WAS OPEN!!!!!!!!!! We were so excited! We talked to someone outside on the way to her house after parking a little ways away. He was nice but was very not interested in religion. That's ok. When we knocked on Greta's door she was home and was super nice. She also accepted our invitation to come to dinner! It was a tad scattered the invitation. I was so excited she was home I forgot to introduce myself! haha it worked out! Dinner was awesome the Perry's are housing our first Muslim convert in the mission and so between her and Greta we got a lot of conversion story telling. We committed Greta to do the New Member Lessons because she got baptized just before Elder's replaced Sisters in this ward so it seems like she just slipped through the cracks. All is moving forward though!
This week we taught Doug and Lundy about Tithing and the Law of the Fast. He was totally cool with it and didn't really have any concerns. He was really funny though because when he explained his text as to why this Sunday would be the official start of them coming to church, he said that they had discussed it and that they were settled in enough now into the new house and healthy enough so they could come to church. While walking around Saturday we ran into them when we passed their house and he again said that they would be there. At church we didn't see them come in which at first was super sad. After Sacrament meeting though Elder Doig saw them so we went and asked when they came in. Apparently they came in about 10 minutes early and we somehow did not see them. THEY CAME THOUGH! It was so awesome!
Got to help someone prep to move to San Diego this week. She has a house in Red Hawk and was recently baptized in San Diego. What was cool though was her mom came to help who isn't LDS and we ended up teaching her the Restoration. She ate it up! She throughout it was saying that it made a ton of sense! She is in San Diego too but she is so prepared those missionaries there have a great investigator coming their way!
That's all the time I have for now! Next week will be pics of the pumpkin we carved for our zone activity from this last week! Take a guess at what it was hint: it's Canadian themed!
October 16, 2017
Ok everyone saddle up we had a great week this past here 7 days. First off cool thing happened this morning. Got to see a Model X Tesla! This lady parked almost right beside us at Walmart and we obviously noticed it was a Tesla. Her door handles were really funny so I asked how they worked. She said they just push in and to try it. I did and it is like a button! You press it and the door just opens. The coolest part though was it opened upwards not side-ways like normal and the radio station that turned on as the car did when the door opened just happened to be playing the Star Wars theme song! I almost peed my paints with excitement it was so cool!
Alright this week was awesome! First Tuesday we met with Doug and Lundy again. We brought Brother Macintosh and a former Temple President in our ward Brother Tsukamoto. We knew he was a convert but it turned out that he had been in the same religion that Doug had been growing up, Presbyterian. They talked about it for maybe 30-40 minutes just Brother Tsukamoto telling his story. It was long but really really good. He wasn't able to make it to church this last Sunday but when we texted him saying we missed him he texted us saying that next week is the official start of them coming to church and they would elaborate more on Tuesday during our next lesson!
Wednesday we finally got to meet with Kevin and Teeara again. It was a really powerful lesson. We brought the Mundts with us. It was a really cool miracle because Sister Mundt is someone we wanted to bring for Teeara and at first she couldn't find a baby sitter but last minute she could and could come! The Mundts hit it off with them and we taught a powerful lesson on Obedience and CPR (Church pray read)
Thursday I had a less active fix my bike for free! It has had very little maintenance over the past year so it was pretty beat up. He fixed it up and said we could come read the Book of Mormon with him so double score! We also got to have dinner with the Non-member family we helped move in a few weeks ago. We shared 2 Nephi 25:26 as a spiritual thought and both Mom and Dad accepted Book of Mormons and said they would check them out! It was so cool. We after had a visit with a less active man who has a crazy story about why he went less active. Won't go into details but he was very open and respectful and it was one of the most legitimate stories I've heard about going less active. He was just super cool about everything made life so easy I wish all less actives were that open about everything.
Friday we had interviews which were really powerful. President Chesnut is so good at what he does. I compare what he does to a puzzle. I have all the pieces and I know what the picture looks like, but he shows me through the Spirit how to put the pieces together. He helps make it clear because he is so good at bringing and following the Spirit. I am so grateful he is my mission President.
I am out of time but for next week I will have an amazing miracle to tell y'all about so stayed tuned. Love y'all!
Elder Sorochan
