Missionaries Preaching the Gospel in Denmark—
The painting to the right, (Missionaries Preaching in Denmark) shows a three sided shop (upper left) and a single family dwelling with the missionaries at the door. A family would build one side and then keep adding on until they had formed a four sided square with an inner court. Some structures of course never did get all the sides needed, but that was the goal, at the time. The storks nesting on the top of the thatched roof, are thought to symbolize good luck in early Danish culture.
The Nicolai Sorensen home was built on much the same order and style, as was Nicolai's fathers home, which still survives. The Nicolai Sorensen home, unfortunately was destroyed by fire sometime after it was sold and all we have to remember it by is the descriptions left in the journals and our oral traditions and history. The main building was in the shape of a square, with a small courtyard in the center of the buildings. Starting with one side, the rest were added over time as circumstances would allow and the size of the family required. Besides the four square home Nicolai Sorensen had out buildings where he employed young men as apprentices making wagon wheels, spinning wheels, doors and any items a carpenter shop might make in that day, including coffins as needed. We also got a son-in-law, Andrew Andersen, whom was an apprentice in Nicolai's shop.
The Nicolai Sorensen family was converted from the state sponsored Lutheran Church or faith, the Danish state national religion at this time, to that of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, by Christian Daniel Fjeldsted and companion Ola Nilson Liljenquist. The first contact with the Mormons was on August first, of 1854 and continued into the early summer of 1855, when the first members of the family joined the Mormon or LDS Church as we often refer to it. Abraham and Isaac Sorensen were the first to take up and join the new religion. They were both baptized on June 18, 1855. There was a small lake nearby that could have served the purpose for their immersion. Isaac Sorensen gives us the following candid explanation of just how the Sorensen family first came to know the Mormon missionaries, from his "History of Isaac Sorensen" and their early exposure to the Mormon Elders and the Gospel that they brought and taught with them —
I accordingly gave up schooling at fourteen and remained laboring for father on the farm, but one year after that the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came along. The first time I saw them they came to fathers house on the first of August, 1854, told us they had some paper called tracts to sell, which referred to the doctrines of the church. I did not pay much attention to them, nor what they said, but supposed them to be like many others that traveled around, too lazy to work or like that. But they told us they would preach in one of the neighbors houses in one or two nights after, for curiosity I went to hear them preach, not at that time getting much of an idea of their doctrines. The priest was there to oppose them and several times through the summer did they hold meetings. I attended the most of them for sport or pass time, but along in the beginning of winter I began to read the Bible to see if they told the truth. By degrees I became convinced that it was something more than I had heard by our minister, and took sides with them.
Mother and my brother Abraham and Christina my sister and myself attended meetings regular, but father was backwards as yet. He did not oppose them, nor oppose us going to meetings. There was several of the neighboring families that attended meetings and was afterwards baptized. Although only 15 years of age, I was now a champion for the truth, and it was my theme. On the 18th of June, in connection with my brother Abraham, was baptized. We asked our fathers permission, he said if we thought it was right he would not oppose us, he was not yet convinced himself. We now abstained from laboring on Sunday which at first did not agree with fathers old traditions. We felt as if we had found a great prize but before we was baptized there came near being an apostasy from the belief, Parley Pratt's pamphlet entitled, "Marriage and Customs in Utah" came out and made a great stir but subsequently it was overcome and confidence restored.
The summer of 1855, passed away and we found much joy in our (to us) new religion, the Elders came frequently to fathers house, talked to him and in the month of September of the same year, father, mother, and my sister Mary were baptized. There now remained but three of fathers family, Sophia the oldest, Peter the next and Christina, who were not in the church. Sophia and Peter were much opposed to it. They plead with us and tried to show us all the beauty of Babylon to get us to remain, but all to no purpose, but it was not very long before they all believed. But out of all the relatives on fathers and mothers side there was not one that believed, although we tried with all the power and energy in our possession to convince them but to no purpose.
A branch was organized in our town [Haverup] numbering a great many out of such a little place, it seemed that half of the town almost joined the church. We spent a very pleasant time from the fall of 1855 till the spring of 1857. All new members and most if not all, sincere in their religion. Father sold his place in the summer of 1856 and through the most of the winter I was employed in learning my younger brothers to read and write, for when we joined the church, (although there was freedom in the exercise of religious beliefs in the country) yet father took all from the school, the finger of scorn being pointed at them to a great annoyance
- Isaac Sorensen, The History of Isaac Sorensen, Unpublished journal manuscript. Transcribed to typescript by Rodney J. Sorensen, 3-4 July 1987.
