Last Email - Week 104

President and Sister Egbert

3 John 1:14

“But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.” 

With Love,

Elder Dorrance

Left to right: Elder Hagood, Elder Dorrance, Elder Naylor, and Elder Prestera

Elder Kong

Small bakery around the corner from the apartment in San Fernando where we would go on Thursdays to get snacks during weekly planning.

Monkeying Around

"Stay Bless and Take on no Stress" - Week 103

Carnival Costume 

This week was alright, we had a lot of stuff fall through and basically no investigators wanting to let us teach them.

On Tuesday we had a really cool zone meeting in the morning on what we learned in MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) which went really well. And after having a lesson fall through on us we got a call to go give a blessing at the hospital. After we had just left from where we were parked a car came flying around the corner on wet road and just smashed right into us! It was pretty crazy and that basically took up the rest of our day at the police station so that day was basically gone...

On Wednesday we had a really great lesson with a family who came to church a few weeks ago who before that hadn't been in a year and some months. It was really a powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon trying to help them to read it more and help them to understand the importance of it.

On Friday we had a pretty good day, we got invited to a members house for a little bit that night to see her costume for something called Kings and Queens for Carnival here in Trinidad. She makes tons of money from these costumes and is one of the strongest members in the Ward! It was pretty amazing to see it all put together!

On Sunday we spent the whole afternoon and night in Siparia with President Nandlal visiting members down there which went really good also! 

Things are going great here in Trinidad and I'm loving these last weeks that I have to serve the Lord! 

Thanks for everything,

Elder Dorrance

Got into an accident on the way to a lesson where someone lost control in the rain. Smacked my head on the window, pretty scary experience.

What a week! Week 102

This week was pretty sweet! We had a lot of really cool lessons and some cool experiences! 

On Tuesday Elder Naylor and I came prepared to talk about something for the district meeting and President Egbert showed up and basically made it into a discussion the entire time which was way better than anything we could have taught about so that was super cool.

We also set a baptismal date with an awesome couple who actually stopped Brother Ramesar and I while we were walking on the road. They are way cool and read the tract and committed to be baptized if they know that what we teach is true. Super powerful lesson and even cooler family!

On Friday we had a mission leadership council in Valsayn and Elder Cornish was there who is a member of the 70 and we talked all about the atonement and the Book of Mormon! It took all day and I was completely spiritually drained for the rest of the day.

Saturday was a great day for sure, we cleaned the church and helped someone power wash their driveway and yard and stuff and the best part was probably a lesson we had with a less active member who called us a few days earlier at like 11:30 at night and wanted us to come visit him so we had  really spiritual lesson with him and then went to an active members house to read Alma 5 with them and just talked it out. President Egbert really wants us focusing on the Book of Mormon and helping members and investigators to really understand the Book of Mormon and what it can do for them!

It was an awesome week and I'm excited for another one!

Love always,

Elder Dorrance

Goodbye Pictures with some of my favorite missionaries at the missionary leadership conference:

Elder Peterson

Elder Hood

Elder Albis

Elder Ahanonu

Elder Bowen and Elder Naylor

Some of the missionaries I came home with,
Elder Clark, me, Sister Wood and Sister Christiansen

A members home we were asked to visit

Another Week another Dollar - Week 101

Visiting the zoo on P-Day

This week was unfortunately kind of a joke for missionary work. Here in Trinidad people really take vacations seriously and milk them as much and as long as they possibly can. So that makes it next to impossible for us to get to see anyone or meet anyone new.

But on Tuesday we had a sweet lesson with a guy and his wife for the first time since we first met them and it was an awesome lesson! Later that night we also got to go and visit a part member family with the mission president's son-in-law who was in town visiting for the holidays which was way cool to get to have him teach with us! 

Wednesday was way cool because we were able to do work with the Assistants and we had Elder Hansen with us who is an awesome Elder I've known for almost my whole mission. So it was good to get to do some work with him on Wednesday.

Thursday we drove down to Point Fortin to support the sister missionaries with their baptism of a guy named Kelvin. I was able to go in the ocean and be a witness too which was super sweet!

The rest of the weekend was a lot of trying to go finding but a lot of people were having house parties and were still a little hung up on their parties and things they had done the last few days so nobody really wanted to talk to us. But we had a sweet lesson with the Defrance family about grace and how we need it in order to change.

Earlier today we drove down to Port of Spain to go to the zoo there which wasn't AMAZING but it was pretty dang sweet for this little country! They had tons of stuff and I fed a giraffe so i was pretty satisfied... haha

Hope you all had an awesome new year's day and an even better rest of the year!

Bless up!

Elder Dorrance

This member in Point Fortin loves his dog!

Witnessing a Baptism

Elder Hagood, Elder Hansen, and Dorrance

Sister Tilby, Sister Cole, Elder Hagood, Dorrance, Newest Convert Kelvin, Elder Naylor, Elder Prestera, and Sister Buckhave

Merry Christmas! Week 100

Elder Hagood and me in front, Elder Prestera and Elder Naylor in back

drinking a coconut

Well it was a fantastic Christmas week! 

We had an awesome week this last week. We spent Christmas eve doing some service in the morning which was really good fixing up someones lawn and we spent that night caroling in the neighborhood around the senior couple's house! It was tons of fun! On Christmas day we spent the entire day at sister Persauds house skyping family and eating and helping her out! It was an awesome day and it was so great to get to see everybody! ​

On Saturday it was Boxing day and we were able to go with the branch President of the Siparia branch to one of his close family friends house to have a little lesson with all of them about gratitude. They had this get together because they were thankful for a great year! 

Sunday Elder Naylor and I went back to Siparia and spent the whole day there. We went to church and spent all day visiting members there in Siparia. The branch is really close to shutting down because of how much it has been struggling and so they really want us to focus our efforts on priesthood holders to try and get them back so that the branch can stay open. One family in particular we were able to see just knew everything about the Restoration! Even the kids knew most of the facts, they were 11 and 8 and they remembered everything from when they were taught years ago. It was an awesome day and I'm excited for another one ahead! 

Thanks for everything! Have a great day!

With love,

Elder Dorrance

Local Mosque

New Missionary and Christmas - Week 99

P-Day down on Point Fortin Beach!

So this week was pretty hectic for sure! We had a ton going on and had a ton of fun adventures! 

We did a lot of service and I got to skype with Elder Hagood (new missionary) on Tuesday to get to meet him which was super sweet! We also had to drive back down to Point Fortin to pick up the elders because one of them was getting transferred to Guyana which took all night long... haha Brother Ramesar and Elder Hunsaker and I all drove up to Chaguanas to drop off Brother Ramesar because his six weeks were up and headed up to the mission office to drop off Elder Hunsaker and pick up Elder Kong and Elder Hagood and spent the whole day driving around. Apparently Elder Hagood got a phone call because his luggage got lost so we drove like 20 minutes to the airport to find out that the airport didn't actually have his luggage and so we made a few phone calls and found out that the lady who did have it had taken it by mistake and so we drove to Arima to go pick it up at this ladies house which was pretty awkward...

On Friday we had Zone meeting which went pretty well and had interviews all day long with President Egbert which was really great! It was funny that night when we went to check up on a less active member and ended up painting her house in the dark which we hoped looked good...

On Sunday we spent the whole day after church in Siparia and we had a bunch of cool lessons with members down in the little branch. One in particular with a member and his wife who is Catholic. We had a great lesson about the plan of Salvation and she had a ton of questions for us! 

Yesterday we had a big get together in Valsayn with all the missionaries in Trinidad and Tobago. We went caroling at a mall for like an hour and then had Christmas lunch and a devotional and watched "It's a wonderful Life" It was a super sweet day and I'm excited for this Christmas weekend! 

I hope you all remember the reason for the season and Keep the Christ in CHRISTmas!

With love always,

Elder Dorrance

Trinidad Christmas Party at the mission home watching  "It's a Wonderful Life"

Our district: Elder Naylor, Elder Prestera, Elder Hagood, me

Elder Prestera Growing an onion for fun

Caroling at the mall

Screen shot of us trying to recreate a white Christmas with a cup of fake snow and a tiny tree.

Sorry so short. Week 98

Haha so I'm really late because we went from Point Fortin and then to Curepe to get Elder Naylor's package and we got caught in awful traffic. This week was great. I'm training this next transfer for my last 6 weeks and I couldn't be more excited. I'm going to miss brother Ramesar and I sure love Christmas... #randomemail #onelove

Love, Elder Dorrance​

Ward Christmas Party:

San Fernando Ward Christmas Party

Elder Prestera

Guess we ate too much at the ward dinner