*Cough* *Cough* - Week 21

Power went out so we had a lesson by lamp light

Berbice Guyana District

This week was going great.... Until...

On Tuesday Elder Sherren invited me to help him teach district meeting which was way cool! But before district meeting even started there was some Elders who had to leave because they were getting transferred. Then we were able to head out and teach some great lessons for the day.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with a brother named Charleston Skeet, he and his wife are expecting their first child before the end of this month. He seems pretty excited about the gospel and finds it pretty interesting I think... So we were able to set a baptismal date with him, it was really amazing to see him make a goal for himself to be baptized. We plan on setting a similar date with his wife this week. Then we also met with a young couple named the Dyal's. They are super cool but live extremely far off the main road, and how everything works in Berbice is that everything lives off of just one road through the whole country. So when going to this lesson at the Dyal's we headed down this road in the evening light, and when we finished an amazing lesson it was pitch black. Luckily Sister Dyal gave an awesome closing prayer and asked for us to have safe travels home! Which we did! I was a little worried, but we made it home great! We got to the main road and caught a bus home almost instantly! It was amazing!

Then on Thursday... Oh Thursday, this is where the Until comes in... On Thursday we had our regular studies and weekly planning in the morning then we traveled into town to get some lunch, well we had planned after lunch to go to a branch Elder's Quorum activity. While we were at lunch we ran into our Elder's Quorum President buying some food for the activity, well we decided to finish our meal and they would probably end up giving us more food at the activity! Well let's just say the food we ate at the activity probably wasn't cooked all the way because about an hour or two later both Elder Sherren and myself felt terrible! We couldn't even walk it was so awful! haha, so we called it a night and headed home hoping that we would be able to sleep it off that night.

Well onto Friday.... We didn't sleep it off.

We spent all of Friday inside completely bored and miserable. It was the worst I have felt on my mission. But decided that Friday night would help us sleep it off that time.

It didn't

Saturday definitely wasn't as bad, but it was still bad, so we called the mission doctor and he told Elder Sherren to get some medicine. (Elder Sherren got it quite a bit worse than I did...) So we had to go to the pharmacy which was over the bridge which took all day to do. 

Sunday was definitely a wonderful step up! We woke up with some crazy loads of rain! We were all ready for church and waiting for a little break so we could get to the church without getting soaked, but the break never came. So we basically sprinted all the way to church. Even though we ran we still got wet, I think I heard somewhere you actually get more wet by running through rain than by walking, but we ran so we got wet. At church because of the rain there was like 5 people there at 9 but by the end we had close to 20 which was really nice! After Church we headed home to grab some lunch and then back out again! Good news, the buckets of rain had stopped, but the bad news was that we had no power, the power actually cut out at like 10, halfway through church. But we ate some bread and cold cheese then went to go see the Bajnauth family, who a couple of them have baptismal dates for next Saturday! Hopefully they will be able to be prepared for that! But they have a ton of kids living in that house, so when I went to get my scriptures, I put my camera on the table and they flipped out wanting to take pictures! So we took a lot.... 

Now up to this point the power was still out, so we were having a cool firelight lesson with the bajnauth's, but when that got over we caught another bus the village where the Narine's live. We were able to sit in the dark with them for a bit and share something! While we were sitting with them I noticed that it was getting pretty close to when we were supposed to leave, so we headed back out to the main road to try and catch a ride back home. But let me tell you, trying to catch a ride home late at night with no street lights is no easy task that's for sure... So after waiting for over an hour the street lights popped back on and we caught a car just a few minutes later, pretty lucky!

So that was my crazy, boring week! Hope you all had a wonderful/magnificent week and hope everyone is doing amazing!

I love you all!

Stay safe!

Elder Dorrance

This is only a small part of all the pictures these kids took.  So fun! "one more, one more!"

54 People at Church! - Week 20

This week was pretty out of the ordinary but wonderful all the same!

On Tuesday we had district meeting as usual but it was taught by the Zone Leaders and it was a lot about what they learned from their leadership council meeting they had in Trinidad the week before. They reminded us of a few rules and implemented a few more! It was really great! I love district meeting, it helps me remember that there are some awesome young men out here serving the Lord! But after District meeting I was able to head back to Rosignol with one of our Zone Leaders for a trade-off. I went with Elder Hendry from Canada. He's an awesome missionary and we had a lot of fun working in Rosignol together and he gave me a few things to work on too! It was great!

Then on Wednesday I got Elder Sherren and we headed out in the afternoon to go see some people especially the Bajnauth family who yelled at us to bless their daughter! They're doing great and reading everything we leave with them! They didn't make it to church, but hopefully we can help them get there this Sunday!

On Thursday I went on another trade-off with and elder named Elder Brown, he's actually from Woods Cross, and I'm sure I have seen him play football before. This guy is a stud and I loved going out teaching with him. One of our recent converts actually has her daughter living with her now who seems really interested that me and Elder Brown got to start teaching! It was a great day! It is crazy to think that I have to go to a different continent to meet people that live like 10 minutes from me! haha.

Then on Friday I went on another trade off with an elder named Elder Chapman from Rexburg Idaho. He is great! He is actually planning on going to BYU- Idaho after his mission which is like a stones throw away from his house so if I go there I could see him! But we went to go follow up on a referrel from the same recent convert who's daughter is interested and found that the person we found has the same name but isn't the person we were looking for. But they invited us in and we taught them a great lesson! They seem pretty interested and should hopefully be great investigators!

On Saturday we traded back and had a regular day of a few let-downs, kinda cruddy, but it was better on Sunday! There was an upside though! We got a phone call telling us if we were staying or going and we are both staying in Rosignol for at least another transfer! which I'm super happy about! I love the people here so much! and we hope to have a lot of success this transfer! 

On Sunday we had church which was great! We had 54 people there! That's like 20 more than the last few weeks! So that was great and then we went and met up with a family who had their relatives pass away a few weeks ago, so we went to a funeral and had some amazing food! The rest of the day was great also! We went and met with the Narine family who has a son, Leon leaving on his mission this upcoming Wednesday to Leeds England. He's a great guy who is going to do amazing things on his mission! Ahh I love him bad!

So all in all it was a pretty successful week! I'm loving the work couldn't think of anywhere I would rather be!

I love you all and hope you're having a great summer!

Love, Elder Dorrance

Picture of the missed family trip to Moab (We missed him a ton)

Alligator Wallet (Sending some of these home to the family soon)

Happy Birthday! Week 19

Elder Sherren

So this week has been pretty good! I guess as good as any missionaries birthday can get! haha

The rest of Monday we spent with a less-active family who is kind of going downhill, but the good news is that they all came to church yesterday, so there was a reason to our madness! They are great and hopefully with a little bit more push they will be there every Sunday for the rest of their lives!

On Tuesday we had our regular district meeting and then headed out! We actually were going to check on a referral from a member to see if they would be interested and while walking we heard a faint cry for our assistance, there was a disturbance in the force. When they got our attention we realized that there was an older lady yelling "pastor" at us and telling us to come over. When we got there, it was about 5 or 6 women and the oldest one was just going off about some story that her granddaughter wanted to kill her own baby and hurt her mom. It was pretty crazy, but everyone was calm and they just wanted us to pray over them, so we taught them :)  They are a pretty cool family who are part Hindu and part Christian and have been reading everything we have left with them! They are progressing forward and no one has killed anyone yet, so I think they are on the right track to baptism.

Then on Wednesday we got a call in the morning that our branch president wanted to go and see people with us. We had already planned out a day the night before but we said, what the heck, if someone wants to help build the kingdom of god, Why not!? So we met up with him and he told us he wanted to go see some people, so we decided it wouldn't be terrible to push a few appointments back to have him show us some people! well it ended up being an all day thing of seeing a whole lot of members! It was great and I think it really helped, but it just really helps build my testimony seeing an ordinary guy going out and telling his friends and neighbors what he knows is true! I love it!

On Thursday we had a great day of visiting with people but the best was having a wonderful Family Home Evening with a strong member family who we taught about missionary work and is excited to refer us to some of their neighbors! Working with members really is great and is the single best way to do missionary work! I have a strong testimony of that!

On Friday I guess it was alright, I had a birthday or whatever which was cool I guess...;) But we taught some great lessons and then headed over the bridge so that Elder Sherren could interview someone over there for baptism. Then we headed over to the senior couples house to pick up some things we ordered from LDS.ORG and while we were there Elder Sherren may have mentioned that it was my birthday so we got some ice cream and cinammon rolls there! Then we headed back to Rosignol to meet with the Persaud family who made an awesome Chocolate Cake for me! It was amazing! haha, not like my mom's but still a pretty great way to end my birthday!:) On the way to the Persauds the Mission President's wife, Sister Mehr, called me and wished me a happy birthday too! It was pretty great of her! It was really nice!

Then on Saturday the excitement had to drop a little because we met with a few investigators who aren't keeping commitments and will most likely have to be dropped during this upcoming week which is sad... but Hey! that's the way things go!

Yesterday we had church in Bushlot and then had some great studies after that. I love reading the Book of Mormon and it is such a blessing to get time every single day to read that amazing scripture. Then we had a good time going to see a few families that are less-active. 

It was a wonderful week! And I thank you all for the messages and prayers that are being sent my way! I love you all so much and couldn't ask for better friends and family!

Hope you are all doing well!

All my love,

Elder Dorrance

Do or Do Not - There is No Try - Week 18

Not a terrible week, it went by pretty fast though!

On Wednesday we just taught some good lessons, we have a couple of great investigators including the Cho family! Who is way cool, but it's kind of hard to see if they have real interest! Hopefully they will be able to see us tomorrow to give them a baptismal date!

On Thursday we spent most of the day talking to people about church and going house contacting, something I have never really done much of so it was nice to learn how to do that with Elder Sherren. Also, I hit my four month mark which was kind of weird, but I still feel kind of young. Earlier in the week Elder Sherren hit his 15 month mark, which doesn't help me feel any better about being so young, but everyone has to go through being young to get old! haha.

Then on Friday we had a pretty good day until about 5 when we had to travel over the river to see someone in Canje who Elder Sherren had to interview for baptism. Which wasn't so bad, but we just barely caught the very last bus back over the bridge which was leaving at like 8 o'clock. So that was kind of scary. Then on Saturday it was an alright day of just seeing more people... Nothing too exciting...

On Saturday it was pretty much the same thing, we saw some great less active families who keep telling us they are coming back to church but never do, so that's kind of frustrating. I like to do this thing when they tell me they will try to come to church. When they say they will try, I hold out my pen and tell them to try and take my pen. When they take my pen I tell them to give it back and try to take it, don't actually take it, try to take it. haha, it is always good for a laugh.

Then yesterday President Mehr came to church with us in Rosignol and it was great to have him bear his testimony. Then we had a little time with him and the branch presidency talking about things with the branch! It was nice to have him back us up and encourage the members to do missionary work. Then we had the rest of the afternoon to go and teach a few investigators, but sadly a lot fell through yesterday...

Funny story, usually it's nice to start a fast at like noon on Saturday and finish right after church on Sunday. But we forgot until Saturday night and then decided to just eat a big breakfast on Sunday. So all day Sunday we didn't eat until this morning, Which wasn't terrible, but it was nice to be able to participate in the fast.

I love the work and I love you all! I hope everyone is doing well! Have a fantastic week! I know I will!

Love, Elder Dorrance