Don't say no to Spanish food

July 24, 2017

Hi everyone this was a really cool week and I have a couple neat miracles to share!

First is Robin. We taught her the first half of the Plan of Salvation and she is super on board. We had a good discussion and she committed to be baptized! When we extended a specific date to be baptized on (we are always making sure we are prepared to do this. Our mission has a goal to increase our vision to baptize, not to set quotas of people getting baptized, but our vision) and she wasn't sure. We asked if she would pray about it and she said yes and she would even fast about it too! How cool is that? She also asked if her friend Ken who sits in on our lessons and we teach at his house if he could baptize her!

We this week got to teach the Relief Society about doing missionary work at their Additional Meeting this week, but something really neat happened while we were there. While we waited to teach, we heard the church phone that hangs on the wall in some random place start to ring. No one ever calls these phones so we were super confused at first. We went and answered and on the other side of the phone was this woman named Liberty. She is super interested in the gospel and needs some help getting to her new place because she was in an accident. She has had help from Mormons a lot over the past number of years and wants to investigate. She is not in our ward but she had been calling and calling and we were the ones to pick up and hear her story!

We had lunch with the Rodriguez couple in the Spanish branch. They live in our area and when we passed their house they began to talk to us and invited to have dinner with them. The night they said we already had a dinner and we tried to tell them that and suggest another day but they didn't understand at first and began to get offended! We dodged it though and set something up but woops! Need to really learn Spanish. Dad help me out after the mission. Legitimately help me out!

We participated in a heritage celebration celebrating 75 years since the first stake was created in Elko. It was fun, had my first Tamale, and sang called to serve.

Love you all!

Keep being awesome, and don't forget to smile! Bye!
Elder Sorochan

 Dinner appointment

 At the Heritage Festival

 At the Heritage Festival

Tamale!

And the Wisdom!

July 17, 2017

Hello everyone! It was a really busy week so lets get into it!

First off we have said bye to Carter as he embarks on his mission to the glorious state of Virginia. That kid was awesome I love him and his family. I am going to get to stay in contact with him and one day come back and watch a hockey game with him and his family. They love watching hockey so they just became that much better!

Ok something really cool also happened this week. A few weeks ago we were walking by a house and I saw a car with an Alberta license plate on it. I saw some people sitting on the porch of the house it was in front of and called that I was from Alberta too! They didn't really respond and did not look like they wanted to talk to us so we just kept walking. Well this week we passed a lady pushing a stroller and we said hi and then she asked us which one of us was from Alberta. Turns out she was there on the porch (didn't see her) and we started talking and found out she is from Spruce Grove. She said she was heading up there later this week and asked if I wanted any treat from back in Canada. I asked for some Old Dutch Salt and Vinegar Chips and she said she would get it for me! Now all that has to happen is when we get the chips we talk to her and her family about the gospel, they get baptized, and I enjoy the chips! Bam!

Ok last weird thing we talked to this drunk guy named Kent this week. We cover part of the trailer park section of Elko and while over there we ran into him and he just started talking and talking and talking. He told us many different things including that he was too old to be saved. The lesson he taught us though was what serenity it. He showed us a quote on his phone that "serenity is contentment with the things you can't change, the courage to change what you can change, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two." His drunk buddy bursted out "and the wisdom" loud when Kent said that part. Elder Freeman and I now say and the wisdom to each other.

This week we found a new investigator Robin. She is a friend of Ken and Mary-Anne! We had lesson with them and Robin wanted to learn more about the church. We taught her the Restoration and are teaching her the Plan of Salvation today. Really exciting.

I gained a deeper testimony that the Lord puts us in the place we need to be when we need to be there. We got a referral on Friday and stopped by at 6 but he wasn't home. We had some back ups planned of just some less actives we didn't know in the area. We had just picked some names from our list, but what happened is when we tried one of the names a family had just moved in temporarily with that less active member and they had just been talking about trying to get in contact with the church in the area. They wanted to know what time church was and where at and we just showed up at the door! Later we contacted the referral and then he was home, but if it wasn't for the referral we wouldn't have been in the area. Really cool miracle.

We had Zone Conference and Interviews. At zone conference we had a great focus on Christ Like Attributes. I learned something really powerful about humility. To truly have humility we really need to have an attitude of gratitude. I listened to that talk from President Uchtdorf a couple weeks ago but zone conference really hit it home. Grateful for those meetings.

We also got to attend 2 baptisms this Saturday. One we got to teach the Restoration at. It was for the sisters and the 5th ward elders. It was 5th wards investigator that moved to the sisters area. The other was of Bobby Joe, an 8 year old that Elder Freeman got special permission to baptize. He taught Bobby Joe's family 2 years ago when he started his mission, and right before he came to Elko he taught them again. President gave him permission to baptize her and it was the first time he had personally baptized someone.

Love you all! love you Mom Dad and Anna!

Keep being awesome!
Elder Sorochan

 Bobby Joe's baptism

 At Zone Conference

 At Zone Conference

At Zone Conference

4th of July

July 10, 2017

Hi everyone hows it going? It has been a great week. We had a super fun 4th of July this past week. We started the morning by going to President Lloyd's house (he is the Second Councillor in the Mission Presidency) and having breakfast. That was over in Spring Creek which was cool. We had district meeting out there than had an impromptu lunch at a family Elder Freeman is super close to back out there from his time before here in Elko. We then went and switched our slide phone over to our new fancy flip phone which took way longer than it needed to but we got it done. After we went to over by the convention center and spent the rest of the day with Bishop Howard and all the people over at his bbq. We had brisket, steaks, turkey, it was so good! The fire works were fantastic too! Waaaaaaay better than Carson's last year. Good day.

We found a new gator this week that has some really high potential! His name is Tacio and he is from Brazil. We were stopping by a member just to say hi and try and share a short message but he wasn't home. It was in an apartment complex and so when we walked away from the members door on the adjacent building there was 2 guys out on the patio. We got called over by one of them and started talking to him. Brian is his name and he comes from Utah 3-4 days a week to work and then goes back for the weekend to be with his family. He is a member and we talked with him a little bit. Tacio is his room mate and we started by inviting him to a stake event we are having in a couple weeks. When we went up to the apartment room it turned into us talking about the gospel and we ended up giving Tacio a Book of Mormon. Brian had served a mission and taught Tacio about the Book of Mormon right then and there like a champ! We set up an appointment for Saturday and we went over there and it went super well! Tacio said he believed the things we were saying and was very interested in learning more. He even asked a question about where we go after this life. When we shared with him Moroni 10:3-5 he noticed himself the part about pondering and he said he already believes in what that scripture teaches. That principle he said is how he justify's not going to church very much. Hey whatever helps you sleep at night right? He said though he will probably join us at church soon though. We set up another appointment for the coming Saturday. He doesn't have miner shift work so we can meet with him weekly. HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!

Well everyone I had a neat experience this last week where I learned how to better give up our desires and turn them over to the Lord. I had something happen where some selfish desires of mine were tested. It got to the point where I was willing to do anything to get rid of them. I had already known they weren't right, but I found out I wasn't doing all I could to get rid of them. I cried out in prayer to my Heavenly Father that I wanted them gone, I just didn't know how to get rid of them. I found out the answer is to pray for them to be replaced with Christlike desires and to go forward each day trying to do better. It works. They have not been 100% changed yet, but they are better than before and I feel even happier now. As I keep trying and having faith things keep getting better. I know this will work for you too.

Love you all! Love you Anna, Mom and Dad!

Elder Sorochan

 Grass fire

 Hockey with Elder Freeman

Zone picture

Fear Not Little Flock

July 3, 2017

Hello everyone! First off we must pay tribute to the great man named Elder Clark! What a great companion is he. He has taught me so much about being someone who loves everyone! He is diligent, fun, loving, caring, and just a downright awesome person. It has been some of the best 3 months just getting to be with him. We did some really great work together. We built a friendship that will last forever.

Now the time is with Elder Freeman. He has 5 weeks left in his mission. Let's hope he doesn't get too trunky eh? He he no he is good. He wants to finish his mission strong. The walking around all the time is making him pretty tired. He sleeps real well at night.

This was a super awesome week! On my last day with Elder Clark we had 3 appointments go through! One active member lesson, a lesson with Ciara, Zeke, Daija and Eric, Ruben and Amanda's kids, and one with Clint. The lesson with the Ruiz kids was fire! They joked around with us a lot before the lesson but once the prayer was said they were all business. They did not joke around at all. They really wanted to learn. Eric especially was firing off questions left and right. Since they are teenagers they are having difficulty committing to set times to meet, but Amanda is starting to help us a bit with that which is awesome!

We also had another lesson with Thomas. It was really cool because we had a lesson plan and then when we sat down I felt like we needed to do something different. We were going to teach about following the prophet and keeping the 10 commandments, but instead I felt like we needed to read 3 Nephi 11. We were going to commit him to read that, but we ended up testifying of him truly getting an answer. He said he really wants an answer and he knows in order to do so he has to open his heart. Super awesome!

My thought today comes from our mission's monthly recitation. This was June's:

33 Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.

34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

35 Behold, I do not condemn you; go your ways and sin no more; perform with soberness the work which I have commanded you.

36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

37 Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

I love it for a few reasons. One I love the phrase "fear not little flock" and secondly it just tells us to put complete trust and faith in Jesus Christ. He is our source of hope. As I try to do this work and overcome my inadequacies, this helps me know it isn't about me. I can be humble and know I am just a tool in the Lords hands. I need not fear, for I am with Him. I am built upon His rock. Things may not work out how I wish them to, but they will be how he wants them. Keep being great y'all! I love you! I love you Mom, Dad, and Anna!

Elder Kynan Sorochan

 Goodbye Elder Clark :(

 Happy Canada Day

 Canada Day wings

 Cool shades and Elder Freeman

 Hi Elder Hadley

YSA sisters parked in our spot and left their door unlocked so... :D

 Transfers!

"No one lives here"

June 26, 2017

Hello everyone we have lots to talk about to today so lets gets started!

First off a funny story for you. We were trying a less active in the trailer park area that we cover and we knocked on the screen door. The front door was open and you could see the guy we were trying to talk to sitting on his couch. However after knocking on the screen door we just hear him say "No one lives here." ??? Ok. I said "what?" He said again "No one lives here." I asked "No one lives here?" He said "yep." XD I laughed and said "Ok have a great day!" and walked away with Elder Clark.

Ok now for the next update transfers! Elder Clark is sadly leaving us to go to Reno North to be a district leader woohoo! Sniff, so proud! It has been such a great time being with Elder Clark! He is such a great missionary and has done so much good here. He is going to do so many great things over in Reno North. He is actually going to the area that Elder McKenna went to when he left me. Elder Clark has taught me so much about being happy, being humble, and how to work hard and have fun at the same time. He has become a very close friend of mine that will last well beyond the mission. I am so glad to have served with him. My new companion is Elder Freeman! Elder Freeman fun fact trained Elder Clark and is going home in 6 weeks so I will be his last companion. Fun times. This is going to be a great transfer!

First off from the week we went and had Carter help us get a crib for a potential investigator named Hillary from Ryndin (sp?). One the way there we ended up getting a flat tire. The only way back home was on the Highway and we had put on the spare tire that looked pretty sketchy. We weren't sure whether or not to go back so we prayed and we all felt prompted to drive back to Elko, just slowly. It was cool that we all received the same prompting and got back safely.

We had a zone activity where we went to Brother Stones house. Brother Stone is a big time business man in town and loves the missionaries. His house is super sweet and big and he had a Foosball table and a volleyball net. It was super fun. We sang a couple songs too.

We also got to help with Carter's brother's eagle scout project. We had to talk wheel barrow's of gravel up at least half a mile up a hill. It took about 4 hours and I am still feeling it and it was on Saturday.

We got to have a lesson with Thomas one of our investigators and it was super powerful. We were really guided by the Spirit and for the first time he prayed with us it was super great!

Well I was silly and ran out of time. More to come next week. Love y'all! Love you Mom, Dad, and Anna!

Elder Sorochan

Elder Sorochan in the back of a car with the crib they're helping someone with 

Elder Sorochan and Elder McGee 

 Elder Sorochan, Elder Clark and ward members

 Changing a flat tire

Helping at an Eagle Scout project 

Zone activity 

 Zone activity

My zone!

2 new gator's

June 19, 2017

Heyo! Hows it going everyone? This week was a fun week so listen up!

First off I had 2 exchanges. The first was with Elder Gourdin one of my Zone Leaders. He is from Globe Arizona. Ever heard of it? Me neither. He is super cool and really fun however, our exchange was a little weird. He got sick near the beginning of it and we had to come in for maybe a total of a third of the whole exchange. It was crazy. It was good timing though because back in Elder Gourdin's area Elder Clark and Elder Feichko were crazy busy. They had to go give 3 blessings and get to some other appointments whereas we didn't really have much going on. It was a blessing on timing so that the things the Lord needed to get done could happen and Elder Gourdin could rest which was awesome!

The other Exchange was with Elder Gailey. There was a couple really funny things that happened. First off we were just walking down the street and there was this little girl maybe 4 years old just sitting in the front seat of a car. We said hi and just kept walking. We are asked to be careful around kids so we say hi and just try to appear nice if we don't already know the kids or the parents. After passing the car she leaned out and asked what are names are. She then just started talking to us and asked if she could have a drink out of Elder Gailey's water bottle. We said no, told her to ask her mom instead and her mom came outside. We said hi to the mom and just started walking away. The girl called to her mom and said she had been talking to some weird guys. She just totally roasted us. We also got to eat at Costa Vida for free! We were at Costa Vida and we were just waiting in line and no one really talked to us. However when we got to the cash register this man came up and offered to pay for us! He was a member traveling through from California. Super nice of him.

This week we found 2 new investigators! One is named Matt he is the husband of a less active woman who wants to start coming back to church. We taught them the restoration and he seemed to be thinking about it a good bit while we were teaching. We committed them to read the Book of Mormon and they said they would. They will be gone for a few weeks on vacation but after we will get back to meeting with them.

The second is a woman named McKenzie. Met her while out trying a less active couple and she was outside and we just started talking to her. She has a boyfriend who's parents have been meeting with the Spanish Elders and she said she would be interested in meeting. We saw her the next day and she has no religious knowledge so we started clumsily teaching her from ground zero. It was a good lesson and she seems very interested so we are going to reteach the first half of the restoration again (that's all we had time for that day) from the pamphlet so she has something she can go back to later.

Love you all keep being great!

Elder Sorochan

PS. out of time so pics will come next week

Grad was this week.

June 12, 2017

Hi everyone so they told me I was going to be sent to the desert where it is hot. Well it is currently snowing here in Elko so I guess I'm back in Canada eh? I've got a pic for y'all to see what's going on. This week was also graduation which meant people had some other events on their minds other than meeting with us. We had a couple people forget about our appointments with them and even had a dinner forget about us. (we confirm everything the day before too...:D ) Yeah it was ok though they just had us come back an hour later for a really tasty dinner actually so it was fun.

Anyway so on to the stuff of the week. We had a neat few miracles this week. First off on Monday we ran into Zeke and Eric, two of Amanda and Ruben's kids. It was late at night and it wasn't 9 quite yet so we just went walking around our apartment complex and we happened to run into them as they were coming back from playing basketball. We were able to talk to them for a bit since it had been awhile. That previous Sunday had been stake conference so we didn't see them at church (Amanda and Ruben were in Salt Lake so the kids didn't come) but we were able to talk and they came to play sports with the missionaries in the morning the next day which was fun. Nice little miracles for working all day.

The next night we had dinner with the whole family except for the oldest Ciara who had to work. It was a neat dinner. It started out with us just talking with the kids since there wasn't room for all of us at the dinner table. By the end though we were able to start talking to Amanda and Ruben. We were able to figure out a better time that we can consistently meet with them and we were able to ask all the kids if they would like to be taught. They said they would and a couple days later we got permission from the dad of the youngest 3 to teach them! Can't wait to meet and get going on all of that. Eric who we thought wouldn't be interested said when we asked that he would like to ask some questions before he gets baptized! Boo ya!

There was a good bit of service this week as well. First off we helped Elder Gailey and Elder McGee move one of their investigators to another part of Elko. It was the leased organized, most gross, and just weirdest move I have ever done. It was just sketchy and all thrown together last minute. It's a good thing we were there. We had to use Elder Gailey and Elder McGee's truck to move stuff because the guy we were helping didn't get one. He just asked if we could use theirs. Rather unorthodox but we just went with it. Hopefully that is the worst move I ever do. I will never live in a trailer park. EVER.

We finally got to meet someone we have been trying for forever and his name is Jake. He is a former investigator with a lot of potential. He got put on the back burner for a bit by past missionaries because he is going through a divorce. Things are settling down a little now with it all and next week he says he would like to start meeting again. He says that things were going well and that he felt like he was progressing well back when he was meeting with the missionaries and that he would like to go down this path. He wants to have a good family place with good morals for his son. Isn't that awesome!?! Just to add to it, he is a super big skate boarder, rock climbing, skier guy that lives the word of wisdom AND see's the benefits of it. He was talking to us about not having drank beer in a few months and how he notices the increased energy he has! Jake is so cool!

Friday was graduation and we had no one to see. That was even the day our dinner forgot about us even though they weren't involved with grad. We walked around all day in the hot sun and Elder Clark got really sun burnt. He isn't a fan of sunscreen silly duck. No one was home or available. It was a long day and I was tired all day. For some reason I didn't have any energy. Fortunately Elder Clark is fun to talk to so we talked a lot as we walked. The next day Saturday was looking like that too. We had a whole day of stop by's. Elder Clark was tired of getting burnt so we got permission to go get some spray on sun screen since our lotion kind doesn't work on him. Right after getting it we got a call from the Zone Leaders asking us to go help at a kid's eagle scout project over at the shooting range. It was super fun. The kid was from Spring Creek and the only other people there was his mom, two 12 year olds, a 16 year old that looked like he was 12 and the kids 19 year old sister. The 16 year old was trying to flirt it up with the sister and failed miserably it was really funny. The sister could outwork all the other boys and she was 5'3" and 120lbs. Again really funny. It was a blast though and took 5 hours. We were re-graveling some of the covered area's. That was the day we also got the first referral Elder Clark and I have gotten and it seems like a really good potential investigator. A member of the YSA ward has been working with this girl and it seems like it will work out to a baptism right now. Hopefully it does!

Speaking of that Friday Saturday experience my thoughts turned to Mosiah where king Benjamin is speaking. In chapter 2 when he talks about serving the Lord, I thought you know, the Lord doesn't need to bless me. He has already paid the price for my sins and made it possible for me to be forgiven and return to my Heavenly Father. For that it is my duty to serve Him no matter what it is. However as I keep the commandments and serve Him He blesses me even more. That just shows how much He loves us and cares about us. He didn't need to bless us with those miracles on Saturday, but He did! "And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him. And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?" Mosiah 2:23-24. I am forever indebted to Him. I have nothing to boast of but instead am truly grateful for this amazing experience to be on a mission. I hope you all are doing great. I pray for you. Love you all!

Elder Sorochan

 Elder Clark and Elder Sorochan at the gun range

 Elder Sorochan at the gun range

Trying to get back in time to be there for the picture. Instead I decided to fly.

Snowing in Elko in June