1-4-10 "Greetings Idahoans and Earthlings"

If this e-mail address seems a little strange, it's not because I was taken to the planet Vulcan. Although I did make the "Live long and prosper" sign with my hands everytime I read those words in your e-mail, Mom. No, it's because all the missionaries are getting new e-mail addresses since they are updating the much outdated missionary e-mail service. (Question: why is update the opposite of outdate? Shouldn't it be downdate? or indate? Curious...) So here it is, my new e-mail address: whitney.sorensen@myldsmail.net. Almost the same as the old one, but a little less complicated. All your old e-mails will be sent to this box, so if you accidentally forget, don't worry, I'll get them. But try not to forget.

Which brings me to the discussion of another address change. Didn't I tell you like two months ago that Sister Kemp and I moved apartments? It was even before Thanksgiving. And I thought I told you my new address at that time, not just last week. (By the way, the zip code here is 77375, just like the old one.) If I didn't, you missed a great story. Well, actually a pretty okay story. That was clear back when the missionary often reffered to as LaBeouf was still here, over six weeks ago. Ced/Ed is still here, but he is on the third companion he's had while serving in this area. Anyway, the great/pretty okay part of the story involves my desk. When we were moving, we had two senior elders plus the Spanish elders plus the zone leaders here to help us carry all the heavy stuff. We lived on the second floor, too, so things were a little tricky negotiating angles and stairs and such. Almost everything was carried out, except my desk. They were out of room in the truckbed and trailer they'd brought, but they still thought they could maybe fit it in. Plus, they just wanted to get everything out of the apartment. So the zone leaders were trying to carry my desk out of the apartment. They got it through the front door, and they stopped for a minute on the landing. One of them looked like he was really straining, and I remember thinking that was odd because a) he's not really a weakling, and b) the desk shouldn't be that heavy. After about a minute, they picked it up again and carried it down the stairs and over to the truck. Five or ten minutes (but not six, seven, or eight) later, Sister Kemp and I were in the apartment...we looked out the window, and what did we see? Two elders discovering two weights IN THE DESK! We're talking the kind of weights you would put on the end of a bar to do bench presses. Probably 30 or 40 pounds, all concentrated on the side of the straining (seemingly needlessly) elder And then Sister Kemp has a revelation: "Oh yeah, I forgot we put those in there!" Apparently, earlier in the summer, she and Sister Cook (her old companion) had been cleaning the apartment and found the weights. Wanting to get them out of the way, they put them in the desk. And forgot about them. I do remember seeing them once myself, but I never used that part of the desk, so I didn't even think to clean it out. We felt really bad. We were sure they thought we'd played a prank on them. We mentioned it to them, trying to apologize and make them see the humor in the situation, but they kind of brushed it off a little. "Sure you forgot about them." Oh well. I still think it's kind of funny. Maybe that's cruel.

Moving onto current events, the first part of this week was spent mostly in transfering Sister Kemp to Katy and transferring Sister Hoskins to Tomball. All the switching happened on Wednesday. I'm very excited to work with Sister Hoskins again. We need her in this area. She has no fear of tracting, and in fact loves it. Hard to believe, I know, Dad, and I'm sure I'll never love it, but doing it with her makes me less afraid of it. I have that goal to become a fearless tracter (not a fearless tractor), and if anyone can help me accomplish it, it's her. We've already spent quite some time tracting, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming, and she's so good at keeping a conversation going that we have great success talking to people, even when they make it clear at the beginning that they don't want to have us teach them. My favorite thing this week has been having people tell us they already have a copy of the Book of Mormon. It's so strange and exciting, because it happens when you'd least expect it. The mission is focusing right now very strongly on using the Book of Mormon, and President Hansen keeps saying that "the Lord has a special blessing in store with the Book of Mormon." I'm starting to think that this is at least part of it. Who would have thought that the Bible belt would be filled with hidden copies of the Book of Mormon? Not this missionary. Apparently, President Benson's call to "flood the earth with the Book of Mormon" is not lost. We're still sowing and reaping its blessings.

On Thursday (New Year's Eve), we had our first district meeting with our new district leader, Elder Bell, aka Ced/Ed. The more I think about it, I don't really think he looks like Ced/Ed at all, but now that that's his nickname, I've got to use it. Anyway, it was one of the best district meetings we've had in a while. I could sense the attitude of the district turning around with the three missionaries newly added to our district. For the last six weeks, all three companionships have kind of been in a finding--and not succeeding at finding--slump. But I have a feeling that's all about to turn around. I am the designated piano player. It's not a calling, necessarily, but we did kind of vote on it. It felt kind of nice to use common consent for something even as simple as that. Like they wouldn't just assume that I would do it. It feels...official. That night before that Sister Hoskins and I were delivering some Gospel Principles manuals to members of the Relief Society who hadn't picked theirs up yet. We stopped by the Carpenter family's house. The Carpenter's are very strong and active, but Sister Carpenter has been very sick. We had such a nice visit with them, during which time I learned that using the title "Miss" followed by someone's first name is a very strong Southern tradition and a sign of great respect. So, Miss Joy, you are a true Southern lady now. The Carpenters also had us over the next night (New Year's Eve, again) for steak. We had to eat at like four, because President Hansen wanted all missionaries "in their apartments, no questions asked" by 5. With the unsaid motive being to avoid drunk drivers.

Friday most of the day was a mission-wide conference to gear us up for the new year. I loved every minute of it. Lately, despite the hardship of feeling like we have no one to teach and worrying that I'm wasting the Lord's time, I feel like I'm hitting my stride as a missionary. Every missionary meeting I just come away with a strong sense of determination and purpose, like I know that I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, and I know exactly where the Lord would have me improve the most. And yesterday I know the Spirit was guiding us as we did our work. I think part of it was it being fast Sunday, so I was feeling closer to the Spirit, but we'd forgotten the ward list at home, so I had to go entirely from memory. We decided to drop a Gospel Principles manual by to some less-active, fairly recent converts whom I'd never met. They have never been home when I've gone by with Sister Kemp, but their name came into my head three or four times, so we drove over there. They were home! She was so excited to get the manual. She even kissed it. She and her husband expressed the desire to come back soon, so hopefully Sister Hoskins and I will be able to get in with them again soon. They didn't express any animosity toward the church, and spoke so fondly of the missionaries that had worked with them. We had a great conversation. After that, I felt that we should go to another less-active family's house, a husband and wife who haven't been to church in ten years or more. Sister Kemp and I have been stopping by on them since I got to the area, but usually when we get there, something crazy has just happened. Once, they were worried that one of their horses' leg had been broken. He was so worried about it. The next time we stopped by, he said that after we'd left, he'd gone inside and just said a heartfelt prayer, leaving it all in Heavenly Father's hands. And the horse turned out to be okay! Skip to me reading through the conference Ensign. I was reading President Packer's talk about prayer, and there's that great story about their son praying for the cow to be all right. I immediately thought of the family, so I'm sure the Lord was telling me to share it with them. So we did. And it was the best lesson we've ever had with him. He really wants to come back to church again, because he has temple work he wants to do, not just for himself but for family. I just feel so strongly that serving them is one of the many reasons the Lord needs me in this area. It's people like them that make the hard times worthwhile. He also gave us some slices of a traditional Southern cake he'd baked: "Sock-it-to-me cake" is a yellow bundt cake with cinnamon and pecans in the middle. I don't usually like pecans, but this was delicious. Not quite red velvet, but approaching.

Wow, I haven't really responded much to your e-mails. Glad to hear you're having a very white January, although I'm not really jealous. I'm glad to have a snow-free (for the most part) winter as a missionary. It's definitely got it's challenges, and who needs snow on top of that? I can't wait to read THE BOOK, but I suppose I'll have to. Something to look forward to, just like writing my own books, and watching the Olympics one winter after they occur.

Oh, I did get the Christmas card/package finally. A lot of mail got lost in transit, but it's all mostly out of it now. The picture card looked great. I'm keeping it in my journal. I played Christmas bracketology by myself. My winner: "For Unto Us a Child is Born." How could anything else win with that on there? It's almost not fair. Next year we should exclude that one. Songs I'm glad you didn't include: "Christmas shoes" (punk or otherwise), "Domnick the Christmas Donkey," and "I Wanna Kill Your Mother for Christmas." Song I was sorry you excluded and exchanged: "Merry Christmas, Baby" by the Beach Boys. I substituted it for "Little St. Nick" because I like it better. I think it actually made it to the final two. Let's just say I think the right side was more competitive than the left.

Okay, I have to go now, but I love you all I'm definitely shining brighter than a vulcan.
Love,
Sister Whitney Sorensen

p.s. Ooh, and I forgot to mention that on the way to district meeting on Thursday we figured out that Elder Bell was also a part of his Scholastic bowl (nerd bowl, as he referred to it) team. He's from Idaho. Crazy small world. We would have been at the same state competion at least once, but probably never competed against each other because he's from a smaller school. But maybe we did. I can't really remember if we ever played against Soda Springs.