On Tuesday I had my first zone conference. It was a really cool experience. The focus of the conference was repentance through the atonement of Jesus Christ. It focused on how the atonement can help us become more like Christ on a deeper level than just allowing us to repent of our sins. We also learned more about how to help people come closer to Christ through short, sweet messages. One of the things President Alder said that really stood out to me was, "When you face rejection, you are not alone. Christ is by your side facing that same rejection." That was an amazing fact to think about and ponder on. Christ truly is by our side through everything.
On Wednesday we went door knocking. While we were knocking on doors we came across a really small fire hydrant that was extremely skinny. I thought it was really funny, because Sister Bastian said, "It's a fire hydrant on a diet." After that, We knocked on this old man's door and asked how he was doing. He said "doing good until you got here." My companion and I thought it was the funniest thing, but neither one of us knew how to respond. We simply told him to have a nice day and left.
Right after we left the neighborhood we were knocking in, we went to visit some gray dots (people who have been in contact with missionaries in the past, but have not had recent contact) at an apartment complex. We got there and decided that was not where we should be considering that it was surrounded by police cars and there were cops with their guns drawn. There were also people handcuffed and a lot of screaming. It was so fascinating, but we did not stay long for obvious reasons.
Later Wednesday night we were driving behind a car that could not stay in the lane to save their life. We were really questioning their driving skills, so when they switched lanes to turn and we were passing them my companion told me to tell her who was driving. I still do not know who was driving the vehicle, there was junk piled up in the car covering almost the entire window - including the windshield. No wonder the person was such a bad driver, they could not see out their windows.
On Friday we had one last lesson with our friend who last week told us she had no intention of being baptized. We talked about our purpose and told her we loved her, but it was a hard conversation to have. She is a super sweet person, but is stuck in her ways. She told us that we are on two different roads, but are all trying to get to the same place. Both my companion and I were trying not to cry her entire lesson.
We had a really good lesson with some of our other friends on Friday night. We were teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ with objects to represent each principle. It was a really good lesson where both of our friends were super engaged. One of our friends during the lesson kept apologizing because he would think of something then go on a tangent (most of his tangents had something to do with the lesson). My companion told him it was fine and then proceeded to tell him that I also go on tangents (100 percent true, but she completely exposed me). It was a really good lesson where we definitely connected better with the people we are teaching than we have in the past.
Saturday we were busy all day visiting people and did not get home until 8 pm. Around 7:30 at night we got a text from the bishop telling us that a youth speaker had backed out of speaking and asked me to share my testimony of family history and temple work in its place (3 to 5 minutes). Thankfully that is a super easy topic, because I had about 12 hours (8 of which I was sleeping) to plan what I was going to talk about.
To make it even funnier the ward music person texted Sister Bastian around 7 am and told her the special musical number had canceled. She asked if she could play something in its place. So completely last minute Sister Bastian played the piano in sacrament meeting. We joked that we were keeping the ward from completely falling apart.
Sunday was crazy busy. We got almost no personal study the entire day and were going from one place to another the entire day. We had really good lessons with both of our friends who are on date and both of them are still progressing wonderfully.
Also, Why is it snowing in March? It was 30 degrees yesterday and snowed. I was a little thrown off, because indiana is not even that far north (plus I am in southern Indiana).
Since I seem to have a craft project every week… One of the members in the ward was super excited to show us how to crochet a hat on the peg looms. I made a pink and blue baby hat this week. I think it turned out pretty well.
Quote of the week by Russell M. Nelson, "The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do the the focus of our lives." I love this quote because it is so true that life is only what we make it out to be. We can choose to focus on everything that is going wrong, or we can make Christ the center of everything we do and find joy despite all the upside and downs.
I am so happy to be able to help people draw closer to Christ and experience the same joy of the Gospel as I know and experience in my own life. It is wonderful to know and be able to testify that Christ is always by our side and when we are struggling, we can always lean on him.
Sister Sorenson
Pictures:
- Zone Conference Photos
- Zone Conference Sisters
- Fire hydrant on a diet (the photo does not do it justice)
- My friend sent me a picture of the record board at the MTC (I am on it for pull ups)
- Baby hat I made
- My Companion and I
- More chick heads from last week
Back Row: Sister Jeri Strong, Sister Leah Doutt, Sister Olivia Redmond, Me
Front Row: Sister Kate Mounts, Sister Samantha Holland, Sister Karmen Smith,
Sister Ginny Bastian, Sister Paige Sandberg, and Sister Hailey Mills
Back Row (Left to right): Elder Gabriel Anderson, Elder Nathaniel Black, Elder William Sonne, Elder Jarret Fairhurst, Elder Ethan Hill, Elder Dallin Edwards, Elder Aidan Lam, Elder James Turner, Elder Dane Harmon, Elder Isaac Ballard, Elder Dallin Woodruff, Elder Cole Reeves, Elder Nathaniel Ashton, Elder Spencer Ginther, Elder Conrad Bellon, Elder Connor Valentine, Elder Benjamin Belcher, Elder Alta Ragan, Elder Blake Gubler, Elder Ashton Pettit, Elder Kyle Seely, Elder Jared Ferguson, and Elder Jacob Schwartz
Front Row: Elder Tanner Truman, Elder Jantzen Marcum, Elder Matthew Pollock, Elder Camden Bywater, Sister Jeri Strong, Sister Hailey Mills, Sister Ginny Bastian, Me, Sister Olivia Redmond, Sister Paige Sandberg, Brother and Sister Alder, Sister Leah Doutt, Sister Karmen Smith, Sister Samantha Holland, Sister Kate Mounts, Elder and Sister Judd, Elder David Melby, and Elder Mark Bagwell
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