10-11-10 "Every time we say goodbye"

I suppose that's kind of a misleading subject line, but I do have a bit of sad news. The family that was baptized a few weeks ago is now moving away. They are still determined to be active in the church where they are going, but we are sad to see them leave so soon after baptism. All their friends in the Church are here, but this feels like the best decision for all involved, almost like the Lord is impelling them to move forward. However, Allen was ordained to the office of a priest yesterday, which was a wonderful thing to see. The gospel really changes lives and blesses families.

On a brighter note, I ran into Elder Judkins on Saturday. We were having a tri-mission conference with Elder Costa of the Seventy. I wasn't sure if I would see him there, but I did, very quickly actually. We chatted for a few minutes. I didn't have my camera with me, but he had his, so my companion took a quick picture of us. Hopefully he will send a copy home so you all can see us together. (I will look the same as I did in the other picture, however, since it was the same day.) He is so much taller than I remember. He seems to be doing well. I only met his companion briefly, but he seemed nice as well. Elder Costa shared some good counsel with us. The other speaker was Elder Gifford Nielsen, an Area Seventy and former BYU and Houston Oilers quarterback. He talked about how often exclamation points are used in the scriptures when the Lord talks about the importance of missionary work.

Things are going well in both wards. We have many people we teach at least once a week, or at least have on our minds and in our prayers. Where it felt a couple of weeks ago like one ward had a lot more work than another, now things seem to be balancing out a lot better. We are teaching the wife of a member. She is from El Salvador and speaks Spanish almost exclusively, but her English is improving quite a bit. We weren't really sure where to go with her next, but we remembered that one of her major questions was about why we need a prophet if we can get answers to our personal prayers. We felt like Elder Oaks's conference talk answered that well, so we asked her to look it up online, but when we did, she started telling us all about what he said and saying we need to pray for the prophet because he has a lot on his shoulders. Just another little miracle of the Spirit.

We are going to the temple on Wednesday. It seems like forever since I have been. I can hardly wait. And every time I go, it's one time closer to when I can go in Idaho Falls again. Of course, that's still far enough away that I have plenty to take care of here, but it really is starting to feel like my time is growing shorter.

The snow in the mountains sounds lovely, Grandmother and Grandpa. This year fall here feels more like fall than it did last year, but I'm sure I would enjoy it even more if I were in Idaho/Utah. The leaves don't really change colors here. Kind of disappointing.

Sorry you had such a rough week, Mom. I can imagine that's really hard, just knowing you'll not have an opportunity to talk to her for a while. But I did crack up when I read about James Taylor meets Howdy Doody. I thought of you all on my birthday, which was wonderful, and on your anniversary. 27 years is a pretty good amount of time. I'm attaching some photos of the Taylor family and some birthday antics.

Love and shining,

Sister Whitney Mikell Sorensen

PS We also saw a HUGE opossum run across the road in front of us this week! Those things are ugly! At first we thought it was a cat, then a dog, then a squirrel, but in the end its huge tail and gross little shimmy gave it away. Yuck!