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 

I'm going home, back to the place where I belong

So this letter comes in a bit of an unusual way – via Facetime with my Dad.  So he will be providing this week’s update from me to him to you.

Yes, it is true, I will be going home very soon.  The date has been set for April 26^th flying into Salt Lake City. The actual transfer date is May 1^st, but since I plan to start Spring Semester at BYU Provo, I spoke with my Mission President who said, well just go home a few days early.  Which really isn’t early because I will hit my 18th-month mark on April 10^th – so I will have served 18 1/2 months on my mission.

That said, even though I will come home a few days early, that only gives me 3 days before school begins – YIKES!!  (seriously I question if this is the right thing to do, but after much prayer, I feel calmer than ever about where I’ll be living, who I’ll be rooming with and starting school so quickly – I guess I’ve learning to trust my Heavenly Father when he provides me with answers to my prayers.

The reason why this letter comes via Facetime is because my dad and I met at our storage unit where all my earthly belongings are stashed.  Yup, about 12 plastic bins of clothes, books, and various souvenirs and mementos.  We went through 6 of those bins of clothing so I could have my dad bring some “non-missionary” clothes to Utah with him.  I feel like I did pretty well considering the circumstances and my Dad’s lack of skill with the camera phone, haha. 

I left one box of t-shirts and stuff, two of winter clothes, one overstuffed box of clothes for Goodwill (yay me just getting rid of stuff I don’t need) and just two tiny little bins for my dad to somehow pack into a suitcase and bring with him, and like 10 pairs of shoes – easy right.  And it only took us 1 ½ hours to go through all that!!

Anyways, I’m excited to come home, see all my family and friends I’ve missed so much, but boy will it be hard to leave my Nampa Idaho Mission and all of the wonderful members and friends and great missionaries there, but I know I’ll be back up there again soon

.

Love you all . . . and see you soon,

Sister Aase

The Beginning of the End

Welp, it is happening.

This is my last transfer. It feels really weird but at the same time, I am so excited about this transfer because so many amazing things are happening. But first, let me tell you what did happen this week. Richard decided to move his date up. He will now be getting baptized this weekend. He started chemo this week and God is moving him along and helping him every step of the way. He amazes me every day and reminds me of the reason why I'm out here.

Hailey and Cynthia both came to church this week. Man, did that make me happy. They are both just such amazing girls and really just need positive role models in their life and I'm so happy we can be that for them.

We did service this week which was so fun, painted nails, painted a shed, and sang karaoke to old people. I love service.

... and now the sad part. On Saturday we found out that my dear friend Sister Hansen was leaving. I have loved being with her and have learned a lot. I now have Sister Vaughn. She is from Paradise CA. She is so sweet and I already love her. Also, we are living in a new place. Our ward mission leader realized that we were not living in our area and so he decided he would let us stay with him and his family. He also owns a palace so that is a plus. So I will be ending my mission with a bang! 

I love you all. Thanks for all you do 

Sister Aase 

Cows Vibrate . . . FACT!

Hello everyone! 

So this week I was able to go on exchanges and go to a little town named Letha. It was awesome because Letha is the place that my dear "mom" Sister Soelberg went when she left me. She used to tell me about it all the time. It also was super crazy because my whole time on my mission I've stayed within a 20min radius, including all my exchanges, but Letha is out in the boonies. It was so weird to leave all of civilization for a day. 

When we were driving there, I kept on looking out the window and then saying to Sister Frandsen (my comp for the day) "where are we?" "Are there houses here?" "Do you live in a house?". She was getting a kick out of it... but I was legitimately concerned. Ha. 

Anywho so that was fun and she reminded me that conference is only like a month away! Craziness. I love conference so much and I'm way excited for it! 

Also while I was there, I kept on oddly hearing my phone go off. But every time I checked it, there was no notifications bo nothin. I finally asked Sister Frandsen at the end of our exchange if she heard the weird vibrating noise. She then laughed and told me it was all the cows outside mooing. Yep, that was a thing. So cows mooing apparently in my head sounds like a phone vibrating... fun. 

Man lots of service happening this week. It’s our new mission push. We want to be doing community service as much as possible. It is also pretty fun and breaks up the day a bit so that’s always good. 

Richard is doing so well and is really excited about his baptism. He starts chemo tomorrow and we are just hoping that it goes well so he can continue meeting with us and learning and growing. We are also trying to figure out how the logistics of a baptism will work because his immune system will be so weak and he will be hooked to an IV. Lots of things. So pray for us to get revelation for a solution and pray for him that everything will go well -- would be very appreciated!

Thank you for all you do. 

Sister Aase 

YOU'RE HOT & YOU'RE COLD

Hi everyone!

So it happened. It was bound to happen. People guessed it would happen. Even I knew that it would eventually happen... I got sick. This was the weirdest illness I have ever had. Positives - no running nose, no congested anything, no upset stomach yeah none of that. I will now try to describe what my symptoms actually were. It felt as if I had just done a full body work out and depending on the second, it was either in Antarctica or the Equator. Fun times right. yeah literally every 5 minutes I would go from sweating to having freezing sweat on my body. It was insane.

YOU’RE YES AND YOU’RE NO

So we met this sweet Ukrainian lady this week and afterward she immediately invited us back so we could meet her single 25-year-old son.  ... this happens quite often when your companions with Sister Hansen. But we are missionaries so of course, we came back. When we showed up guess who wasn't there, the single 25 years old. Apparently, he was a little offended that his mom was trying to set him up so yeah he was a "no" to hearing the gospel, but you know who was a "yes" Ludmela the Ukrainian lady and her husband Roy. It was great. 

I would finish the rest of the song but I don't really know how to tie it all into the rest of my week. But just know Nampa is still on fire, God is still so good, and the Gospel is still truer than true. 

Love you,

Sister Aase 

Pray for 

Richard Swegman (Baptism day March 30th)

Dylan Knudsen (Baptism day April 13)

Arianna Manning (Baptism Day April 5th)

Santana Griffin (Baptism Day April 13th )

Hailey Drennon (Baptism Day April 27th) 

Cody Jonstun (Baptism Day May 11th) 

I Love Being a Missionary!

Okay, I realized that I haven't done one of these in a while. So here it is-my top reasons why I love being a missionary. 

~I love teaching people who have been prepared for our message

We taught this girl named Arianna this week and we asked her what she likes to do for fun and she told us, "well I like to read the scriptures". What a cutie! We had our first lesson with her and put her on a date for March 23rd. So excited!  

~ I love it when we are expecting people at church and then they don't come.

Sounds odd huh? But here is why I love it. When that happens, we are absolutely devastated and that means that we love them with our whole heart and soul, and that, my friends, means we are doing our job! 

~ I love it when we think someone didn't come to church but really, they just snuck in the back.

Man! that is always such a cool thing. Dylan did that to us this week. Then after the meeting, she came running up to us because she was so happy she came and wanted to show us her curled hair that she did for Church and HER DAD CAME! whoop whoop. She is planning on being baptized March 16th and hopefully, her dad will baptize her. 

~I love having companions and missionary friends that make you laugh until your sides hurt 

Have I mentioned how much I love Sister Hansen? She is the best and we are always laughing and getting ourselves into funny situations. We also love jamming to music, which is always the best. 

~ I love service projects 

This week at Zone Conference, a lady told us all about JustServe and how we should log into it online. I already knew about JustServe but this just ignited my fire to use it more. We have a service project coming up with our district that we are super excited about. It will be great. I'll send lots of pictures next week

~I love being a servant of the Lord and having the Spirit with me always 

Life is so good. We had an amazing lesson with this man named Richard this week and during the lesson, I was able to promise him all these amazing blessing because that's what I can do as a missionary. How cool is that? Richard is amazing and is planning on being baptized March 30th. We are so excited for him. Please send prayers his way. He is starting Chemo in about a week. He is a fighter and super strong but prayers are always good. 

Okay love you all and I hope you all had amazing weeks. 

I will see you soon 

Sister Aase 

Pictures:

1) So we started our walking week and two blocks in I realized that I was already starting to get a blister so I had to sit down on the ground and put a band-aid on... oh the joys of the work. 

2) Me and cute sister Hansen. 

 

What the Hail?!!

Wowzers what a week! 

First I just want to clear somethings up for people. So yes! We can indeed call and facetime and text our families now on our preparation days (usually Mondays). It’s super awesome and I can see multiple benefits from it.

•Doing the "come follow me" program with your family

•Helping your family get involved with missionary work

•Giving struggling missionaries a chance to get some good motherly advice in "person" 

•Creating habits of communicating regularly with family members (college prep man) 

•Figuring out future plans easier like college classes. rooming etc. 

So so so many good things. So now that this topic is out of the way, let me tell you about my main girl Hansen. Hansen and I are rocking the world out of Nampa. We are finding so many people and getting so many people on a “date”. It’s amazing and I love the work so much. Also, what I love about Sister Hansen is she knows to have fun with the work. For example, Thursday is our weekly planning day and boy howdy is it a long day but man I don’t think I've laughed so hard my whole mission. 

I'll share just one quick miracle this week. We taught this boy named Cody this week. He is 11 and has autism but his family really feels like it’s the right time for him to learn and be baptized. So, it was our first lesson with him and we had only met him briefly before, so we really didn't know how it was going to go. So, as we were planning for our first lesson, we really were trying to listen to the Spirit for inspiration and "bam bam turkey and ham" it came. We ended up having a great lesson with Cody and he seemed like he caught on to what we were saying. It was amazing.

So, lots going on here. I hope you all are staying alive out there and loving life and helping others to love it too. 

Love Sister Aase 

p.s. It hailed this week... like 3 times so that was our catchphrase of the week... hence the title. 

Photos

1) This is a bunny I held at dinner

2) These are the McCleary’s. They are my favorite people

3) Elder O’Connell’s birthday was yesterday and we celebrated with a pinata we called Tina. It was grand. 

Snowy, Snowy Blessings

Hello Everyone! 

Okay so I know I can't complain that much about the cold because half of the people on this email just went through a crazy POLAR VORTEX but let me tell you the craziness that happened this week. Sister Hansen and I share a car with the Elders in our district and we exchange it on Friday mornings. We had a snow storm Friday afternoon.... right after we gave the car away. It was crazy, but you want to know something? God loves and blesses missionaries who walk. So let me give you a rundown of what happened after we started walking.

·      We gave out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon

·      We put someone on goal date for baptism  

·      We found 2 new people to teach 

·      We had 5 people come to church (3 of which are not even investigators...yet) 

Also, we ran into a crazy lady which is always SO FUN. Here name is Elizabeth and she really liked touching our hands and praying with us. Super crazy.

Well, I love all you guys and I know that God is aware of us and will bless us when we choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong. 

Love you

Sister Aase 

Sister Ellett Don't Goooooooo

IT’S TRANSFER DAY!!!!!! 

I love transfers but they are also such a confusing time. You are excited but nervous, happy but sad, pumped and amp for change, but soooo exhausted. It’s just crazy. 

So transfers for me?  I am staying here (yay) but losing Sister Ellett (not yay). We are so bummed we won't be together anymore. I'm getting Sister Hansen. I've never met her before because she was "born in banishment" (which means she started her mission in the corner of our mission boundaries so she hasn't been around a lot of missionaries for basically her whole mission.) So I'm excited to meet her and get a new friend. 

So let’s talk about the week. This “Come Follow Me” program is amazing! We have been using it to reach out to people who don't go to church anymore. We study the program with them and the Spirit fills their homes. I love learning from the New Testament and studying Christ's life. It's so awesome. 

We also visited this girl named Aubrey. She has been meeting with missionaries forever but we have had the hardest time setting up a time to meet with her. Then this last week we went over and when we were about to leave, she asked if we could come back next week to have dinner with her. We are excited to continue this friendship and hopefully get her progressing in the Gospel. 

Anyway, that is all that I have folks. Hope all your weeks were wonderful. 

Sister Aase 

Pictures

These were from last pday when we went ice skating as a zone. I love ice skating.... even though I'm really bad. 

I Wish I Was Sister Nymoen

Wow, this week is a complete blur. It is weeks like this where I wish I could be like my dear friend Sister Nymoen and just write an amazing inspirational email even if it is made up of nonsense stories. Sister Nymoen is the best. 

We had zone conference this week which was amazing and inspiring. I loved it. I recorded a song and posted it on FaceBook this week. That was really fun. The most amazing thing that happened this week though was my dear friend Dylan came to church with her dad! Wow, that was an amazing sight to see. She loved it too. AND THEN later that night during our lesson, she said she wants to be baptized but she doesn't know when. WOW. It was way cool to see her be excited like that. There are still a bunch of things we need to work out with the family because the worst thing we could do is let her be baptized and then have her just become a less active member. So we are trying to get the whole family back. Good thing we have amazing members right. Bro. Douberly is already on it to friendship the whole family. I love that man. 

Anyway, I think that is it. I will include some pictures. Including ones of last week because I forgot those. 

I love you all 

Sister Aase 

Photos

~The primary activity we do with the Wheelers. They are the best little kids. This week we acted out scripture stories. They loved it.

~Photos with my friends Sister Pace and Sister Hansen. I was companions with Pace when we were both little babies and just 4 months out, I just lived with Sister Hansen last transfer in Meridian. 

~Me happy with my uke

~This member taught us how to flavor profile and make this Scandinavian type of bread thing... I forget what it is called... but you basically just put yummy things on rye bread BUT you have to flavor profile first. ALWAYS FLAVOR PROFILE!!