Letters from President Sorensen

Released from her Mission

Abby's Home !!

Sis Abby Aase is Coming Home this Friday!!!

Abby has finished her 18 months of service in the Idaho Nampa Mission and is flying home this Friday, April 26th to the SLC Airport.

She is coming in on SkyWest/Delta Flight 4031 arriving at 12:37 pm in the afternoon.

If any of you (who are in Utah) would like to meet us at the airport to welcome her home, I know she would be so excited to see your happy smiling faces and receive your welcoming hugs. 

Hope to see some of you there,

Flemming & Kristi

Change

On my mission, I have experienced a lot of change. Phone to no phone to phone, pants to no pants to pants, Nampa mission to Boise mission, emails to face time, constantly changing companions, jumping from area to area, the list could go on and on. 

When I was growing up we moved around a bit and I quickly learned to hate change. Change hurt. Change was uncomfortable. Change… well it makes you change. (And sometimes change makes you pack! And I haaaaaate packing. Doing it 11 times on the mission did not make it any easier. It just made me hate it more. But I digress) 

Coming out here to Idaho I was excited to "change". As a kid, I just heard people tell return missionaries all the time "wow you've changed so much". So every morning I would wake up and I would look in the mirror and analyze how I acted to see if I had "changed". And every morning I would be disappointed because I was still just me and I couldn't see any sort of change.

In the Book of Mormon, there is this phrase that comes up a lot "a change of heart". Now in the scriptures, this phrase is talking about people converting to the Gospel and their hearts receive this mighty change, but let's take the phrase more literally for a sec. If someone had a bad heart and wanted a new one (a literal change of heart) what would the process look like? A person couldn't just walk up to hobo joe with a knife and an organ in hand and say "do you mind just changing my heart really quick?". A person couldn't do this even with someone like President Nelson who is a trained heart surgeon. The process is different. It takes a little more time. You have to prepare yourself for the surgery. You have to hire the best heart surgeon. Then you have to let the surgeon do their finest work. A spiritual change of heart takes the same process. It takes time. You prepare by humbling yourself. You ask the Savior, the master physician, and you let Him do his finest work. The Savior is truly the only one that can change your heart. But here is the thing at the end of the day the literal and the spiritual new heart receiver could look in the mirror and say "nothing looks different. I guess I didn't change". That is simply not true. If we humble ourselves and go to our Savior He will change us and make us better every time. 

So here I go ready to experience one more big change in my life. Am I scared? More like petrified. But I know that God has prepared me for this moment just like He prepared me for this amazing mission. 

God is real and so so good. He sent a Savior, our brother, to the world who atoned for us and made it possible to live with our families and Him again. He restored His church on the earth through a prophet named Joseph Smith. We are still blessed this very day with an amazing prophet who is helping us prepare for that day when Christ will come to the earth again. The scriptures are true and filled with answers to our soul's greatest questions. We are never alone. Our Savior has felt it all and if we come to Him he will wrap us in His arms and help us get through another day. I know that He lives. I know that He loves us. I know that this Gospel is true and as we live it, that is how we are changed. 

-Sister Aase 

Move Along, Move Along, Like We Always Do

Yep, that’s right your favorite lil' vagabond is on the move again. 

Last Friday after visiting with our favorite old Russian couple we noticed that the APs had called us. The APs are in our district so we honestly thought nothing of it, but here is how the phone call went.

"Hey guys sorry we were in a lesson. What's up?"

" Oh with the crazy Russian couple. How are they doing?"

".... They’re fine"

"Oh good good ... so you’re moving."

"..."

" It's a really nice place... well not as nice as the place you're living in right now but still nice"

"..."

" and it’s pretty far out of your area so you're going to have to have a car full time"

"Wait we are gonna have to have the car full time?" *me acting completely chill.

"Yeah is that okay"

"Yeah sure it's whatever." *me internally screaming 

So yes! We now have a car full-time woot woot. Out here in the field, we have this term called a "dying wish" which basically means one thing that you want before you finish your mission and go home. A lot of people ask for certain companions or areas, haha not me. A few months ago, I told President that my dying wish was to have a car full time again, and he looked me dead in the eye and said Sister Aase you will be dying unhappy. HA! I guess President loves me after all. 

A lot of events happened this week. We had Zone Conference. That was super fun. Since Sister Vaughn and I had a baptism during our zone conference we got to go to a different one in Caldwell. I got to see so many of my friends. I loved it and cried my heart out when I had to say goodbye to them. Mission friends are just the best. 

Also, two of our wards had amazing ward activities that were so fun. 26th ward did this amazing missionary activity where everyone met up and then got a name of a person to visit. It was awesome. So many people came and then we had people come back to the church to have treats. It was great. Then the 8th ward did this insane talent show. SO MUCH TALENT! It was great to see. 

Also, Arianna was confirmed yesterday and we just saw so many small miracles happen this week. 

This gospel is so true and God is so good. 

Sister Aase 

Some FUN Photos

Arianna got Baptized!!

Hello my friends. How did you like General Conference?!?! I loved it so much. Prayer, repentance, love of God. Those were just a few of the big points that stuck out to me. 

Busy day, so not much time to write.  Here are some highlights:

This week Arianna was baptized. It was such a special experience. I love that girl and I love this gospel. I also got to go on exchanges with Sister Bentley. That was so fun. I love Sister Bentley. 

Okay, I hope you all have good weeks. 

The gospel is true. 

Love,

Sister Aase

Not Every Week can be a Miracle Week

Happy April Fools day friends!

So I am going to update you on these past two weeks. Last week I just had no energy to make a weekly letter, but let me tell you last week was amazing. 

So Richard got baptized last week. It was such a sweet experience. It was the first baptism where I felt the Spirit so strongly. He is just an amazing person. Also, Arianna decided to get baptized earlier. How exciting! She will be baptized this Friday. It was a great week. 

This past week was...super hard. And that's just how it goes sometimes. My friend Elder Dalton explained this to me early on my mission. He said as a missionary you are always a tool in God's hands and on the hard weeks that is when you are being used as a hammer. Haha. God gives us hard weeks so we grow, learn to trust Him, and humble ourselves. He never abandons us. If there is anything that I have learned on my mission it is that. And that is no April Fool's joke ;)

Love you 

Sister Aase