New Zealand Women Have a Friend in Fredda Sorensen

Fredda Murphy Sorensen is the new Area Organisation Advisor for New Zealand, a new leadership position in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She joins Cyndee Hamilton and Karen Maurer who are serving as Area Organisation Advisors in Australia. Together the three of them serve under the direction of the Pacific Area Presidency of the Church.

DOWNLOAD

The leaders support Primary, Young Women and Relief Society leaders in New Zealand and Australia by listening, training and mentoring.

Sister Sorensen, Sister Hamiton and Sister Maurer are in regular contact, usually every fortnight. They talk about their experiences and lessons learned. They also receive regular training from the leaders of the general presidencies of the Primary, Young Women and Relief Society organisations.

“I feel really privileged to have the mandate to work with these two wonderful women and the great trust that the Lord has given us. It’s been very humbling.”

Sister Sorensen was raised in Hamilton, attended the Church College of New Zealand and the University of Auckland where she received a degree in music. She is a full-time high school teacher at Avondale College and also the school’s Gospel Choir Director.

She has held many leadership positions in the Church including Stake Relief Society and Young Women’s president and “every music job there is in the Church.”

When her husband, Hans T. Sorensen, was called as stake president and then as an Area Seventy she “had the opportunity to serve in a more supportive role for him but continued serving through music and teaching.”

As for her new calling, she offers love, encouragement and instruction to volunteer congregational leaders ─ particularly when new presidencies are organised.

DOWNLOAD

“I am blessed to be here in New Zealand in that I can physically meet with them and even hug them. In some areas, where the Church is small, I’ve found it’s important to have somebody that they can talk to that has experience in church service. Some need reassurance, someone they can ask questions to and clarify things they are not sure about.”

“It’s lovely to hear about the experiences that these sisters and the people they serve are having as they try to more perfectly follow the Saviour, and to minister with love.

Sister Sorensen says she hopes to “help women gain a better understanding and knowledge about the priesthood and the way they have access to it in their personal life, in their callings and in their family, by virtue of the covenants they have made in the temple.”

DOWNLOAD

“President Russell M. Nelson said to both men and women, that we underestimate the power the priesthood can make in our lives by virtue of the covenants we have made with God. When I talk about that and the light comes on, so to speak, it’s a revelatory experience that is lovely to witness and behold.”

“We have angels all around us. A young woman who has made covenants with the Lord has access to angels around her just like primary children do. Sometimes we may feel alone, but we are not really. We have seen and unseen angels around us that bear us up and are a blessing to us.

“We each have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost who is a bearer of the priesthood and we strive to more perfectly hear him and act upon those promptings. We also know not to dismiss a generous thought, not to talk ourselves out of doing good.

“We have personal access to the atonement of Jesus Christ which empowers us to be better. We don’t realize how much Heavenly Father wants to bless us and empower us, and if we can tap into that, we can find more meaning, purpose and joy in our lives.”