Libbi: For now I will just trabalho trabalho trabalho!

Bem Vindos (I think that means welcome eu nao falo Portuguese)
 WOW!!!!! with hand gestures and all....this week has been crazy fast and just plain crazy. First mom thanks for your e-mail I love the details and Danny congrats on a killer homecoming i´m sure it was awesome and that you were an amazing disciple of Christ. Oh Brazil!!! It is amazing! This morning I went to the Sao Paulo temple and had a wonderful session. They have a special English session because there are so many missionaries...the temple is not particularly big but an American temple worker gave us a tour after and it is so beautiful....like every person and place here! I LOVE IT HERE! It is different and overwhelming at times but so very good. I know that one day I will be able to understand Portuguese and perhaps speak. But for now I will just trabalho trabalho trabalho. My second day here I went out of the CTM and passed out BOM...oh what a humbling experience that was! It is totally different speaking Portuguese to people that ACTUALLY SPEAK IT! They speak fast but they are the most loving, kind, and patient people I have ever met....even the missionaries here are so nice to us as we speak in broken Portuguese and they know more English words than I do Portuguese. I have the same companion and I´m so grateful. We traveled here together technically she has been senior companion since we arrived in Provo but it is a very well balanced companionship and I love her with all my heart. We have our differences but I think serving someone makes you love them and I know her heart is gold. I feel like I have lived a lifetime with her and now she is my comfort. After my experience passing out BOM I was pretty discouraged...it was hard to talk to people and even harder to understand after you did...but I know that all things are possible through the Lord. He will provide a way and I must trust and work! My teachers here are Irmao Rameo and Irmao Viana they are wonderful. Romeo is engaged and is a big teddy bear...we are working on focus and though and the culture makes everything here feel so layed back and easy going. I love it! but I have to work hard to focus and get done what I need to. Irmao Romeo- served with Jake Sorensen...Sarah cate´s age and used to be in our ward way back when...small world. Oh so much to tell and so little time. Oh Kirsten CONGRATS ON YOU MISSION PAPERS!!!! I´m SO SO SOOOO excited to here where you will end up and I know where ever you go it will be where the Lord wants you and you will change lives! This gospel is amazing! Irmao Romeo is a convert and only member in his family and I think Viana also. Wow! Such courage and strength from these members here they are truely amazing!!!!!!! I love it! I love this gospel I so very much believe in what I am doing! I know it is the only way back to our Father in Heaven and I´m humbled everyday by how blessed and loved I am!I love you all so much! know you are in my thoughts and prayers and if there is anything else you need me to pray for let me know! I want to very much to see all of you succeed in what you are doing! Let me know if I can help! I am safe and happy and exactly where I need to be! I love you all muito!!!!

Love, Sister Libbi Sorensen

Sarah Cate: It was a big week for me...

Aight family! Happy B-day Jessica and Calder and Kate!!! ITS GOING TO BE DADDY'S DAY SOON. SO I LOVE YOU DAD!!

How do i sum up everything that has happened. Well nothing too life changing for the outside world but for me, it was a big week. Personally: emotionally. I have been informed that my spelling needs to improve. Meg said, and I quote "its horrible". I die inside when i think about all my mistakes posted on the internet....on "the blog" that exists in the great unknown out there.

This week i received some of the most amazing encouragement. I can tell mom has been talking to a lot people. I love vicariously living through who my mother has talked to. I can tell what she has talked to them about by the things these people write me. I am blessed to have a mother that loves me and is concerned with my well being.  I am also blessed to have many people who love me in this world. I felt that this week. I have been considering many options on my mission with how to proceed forward. I have had many thoughts of self-doubt and of my capabilities on my mission. This week I had an interview with my president and I explained several things I was feeling to him. God blessed me with a great mission president. God knew I would need a president who is much like my family, who will give it to me straight and who will push me to be my best. I felt so much better about things after  my interview. An ever-constant thing on the mission is change. I am not a big fan. He told me that I will be leaving this area after this transfer. (if I didn't, I would have to be in Del Rio for 7 1/2 months and that does not fly.)

The next day we had a Zone Conference about being more believing. It was down in Eagle Pass so we went down there for the day. I loved it. It made me so happy. It was like a spiritual pep rally. I loved it so much. La frontera rocks. I just want to say that much. I am sorry i don't write y'all back faster. I am truly working on it. Its extremely difficult to explain anything about the mission I've decided. Its becoming harder to describe to people the "day in the life" of missionaries because its a lot of the same. Every day is an emotional journey but all good.

Jackie, our dog lady, was confirmed a member of the church yesterday. It was very beautiful. She explained that she doesn't need the elders to come visit her any more. We were  absolutely elated when we heard that because it meant that she has a relationship with the lord and not with the missionaries. Its gonna be hard to leave her. I love her a lot. But, life is full of hard things and things we don't want to do. We have to do them. Life is hard and its time I got over it.

I guess just because i don't have anything remarkable to share or anything cool. just my feelings and my emotions. I apologize. The work is going though. Here is some insight into some of the wonderful people we've met. There is a "less active" family (not active at all) in the branch. It's just a husband and a wife. They are the Von Weerd family. I absolutely love and adore them. Both are returned missionaries. He has his entire body covered in tattoos and grows his facial hair out like Peter.  He reminds me a lot of Peter actually....if Peter were to have forgotten all about his mission and done a lot of hard core drugs and really burnt himself out and then decided to come back to the church. :) No, I think its his eyes. He has the same eyes as Pete Pete. I think I love going over to talk to them because I feel like I'm talking to family. They know what is right. Well ANYWAYS, we met them earlier in the week and they had signed up to feed us (they have never fed the missionaries before) and they canceled. We were going over to check if everything is ok. They both have really crazy bipolar so they get very emotional...not in the tears....well she does but he gets angry and has blinding rage. They help to balance each other out.....sometimes. Well we set up another time to eat at their house and to pick them up out of their "funk."  They've even started to joke around with the Elders. Some of their stunts are pretty funny. We'll just keep working with them. 

Nothing else too crazy going on here. I love the children in both of our Branches here. I have several friends I've made in the 7 and younger category. They are life-long friends. They pinky swore it to me! I will miss them the most.

I love you all so much. Thank you for your love and support. Don't ever forget how much i love you!   

 

Hermana Sorensen

 

Libbi: She made it to Brazil

Libbi will continue her missionary training at the "CTM" in Sao Paulo.  Here's the first photo we received shortly after her arrival in Brazil last Wednesday.

Sarah: "You Have No Idea What This Means To Me."

Alright. Alright. Alright.

 

Heeeeyyyy fam! Word on the street is that my twista brosta cuz cuz has made himself home! Yaaahooooo! Congratulations Danny. I feel like i am bout one million years behind you. One day i'll see you again in person. Thanks for the e-mails. You are so awesome. I also hear that it is ELSIE'S B-DAY TODAY! AND SUS AND GUS'S WEDDING FIESTA!! That is so cool. Happy Birthday Elsie baby. HOpe YOur day is amazing Sus and Gus. thank you for your example of eternal marriage. Thank you for loving and supporting me and my family and showing us how its done! Thank you! I love you all so much!

 

So this week was interesting. Yes. My first week with my new companion. She is quite the driven little soul. She is studying Journalism and Cinema studies at NYU. Her mom passed away three years ago from Cancer. Her parents were divorced before that so she has a Dad and a step mom and 9 step siblings. She has a huge passion for Missionary work and inspires me every day to keep it posi. She takes rejection really well and has helped me to see it differently. I really appreciate her example. She heads home in August. She is determined to work hard until the end. I am determined to be a good missionary. She lives her life by the white hand book and is very much a letter of the law type of person. I am impressed by her determination  and her ability to beat herself up when she feels like she has "broken" one of the rules. -of course she has not but she likes to be hard on herself. I really appreciate her. She could not be more different from Sister DeLeon but all this adds to experience.

 

I am growing a lot. The dog lady Jackie was baptized this last Sunday. The spirit was so strong. I was blessed to see her go through the whole conversion process. I really love her. when she went into the bathroom to change after she was baptized, she put her head in the towel and started to cry and said "you have no idea how much this means to me". It was absolutely inspiring to me. what a cool thing that the elders have had to change her life. I love her for letting me share a part of it with her.

 

We are looking for new people to teach every day. We get rejected constantly and we are constantly trying to improve our Spanish. I love the Spanish language. I never feel like its a burden to learn it. It makes me so scared sometimes but i love it. I love it because that is a time when i can see the lord helping me, help other people.

 

Well hope y'all are having fun with your rain and snow. Its about one billion degrees here every day. I am going to need to get new shoes here because my shoes get worn out extremely fast. I am surprised. Thank you for all of your love and support. Lolly i love you! Thank you for your letter and your talks. I miss ya tons. Hopefully i can catch up on some letters today so expect letters soon....i hope :) I love you all. Don't forget it!

 

Hna. Sorensen

News about Libbi: It's Official

Libbi called on the phone with the official word that her visa arrived and she will be leaving for Sao Paulo Brazil on June 8th.  She will be in the training center (the CTM) in Sao Paulo until the first week of July and then its off to Cuiaba, the jungle and the heat.