MeRRy ChrIsTMaS - Week 48

Well Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you were able to have a wonderful Christmas! It was so great to Skype with you guys!

I guess I will start with Tuesday as usual, on Tuesday we had a whole lot of stuff fall through mostly because everyone was trying to get things set up for Christmas and had to go into town to do it. It was kind of a bummer, but we found things to do and some cool people to teach! 

On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, we couldn't find a single person to talk to or teach. We ended up having some member ask us to help them clean their house on Christmas eve. Here in St. Vincent most everyone has a funny tradition that on Christmas Eve everyone stays up until the wee hours of the morning cleaning and baking cakes. Then they sleep for a few hours and get up and eat and relax all day. It's kind of funny, but they sure know how to make some good cake.

On Thursday we woke up and had Christmas breakfast. In Elder Pohl's family, for some reason, they always have banana splits after breakfast on Christmas morning. So, thanks to the Pohl family. I was able to enjoy some wonderful Ice Cream early on Christmas morning. After getting ready we walked up the hill a little way to a members house where they fed us lunch. After filling ourselves too much we headed back down the hill so that I could Skype my wonderful family, and then back out the door to another members house to be fed another pile of food. After which we went back down that hill and up another to get another... yes you guessed it... another plate of food! haha I thought I was going to explode! But we eventually made it home and slept it off.

On Friday they celebrate something called Boxing day here, now I have a Canadian companion who also celebrates boxing day and from what I have figured out by asking anyone I could, no one knows what boxing day is or where it came from, so that was cool. But it was pretty hard to see anyone on boxing day either, everyone was recovering from Christmas.... 

On Saturday we had an awesome lesson with Calicia and her boyfriend. Which is way cool because Calicia is scheduled to be baptized this upcoming Saturday! She is super excited for that! So lets all pray that everything goes according to plan! haha. We also had a wonderful lesson with Tammy who has committed to pray about a baptismal date and hopefully when we go see her tomorrow she will have set a date herself!

Yesterday we got invited over for a little post-Christmas lunch which was fantastic and had some great talks in Church about remembering Jesus Christ.

I have had a wonderful and weird first Christmas from home, but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way!

I love you all and hope you have an awesome new year's eve and an even better 2015! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Love, Elder Dorrance

(I don't even come home in 2015... weirdness...)

 Added pop tarts to my banana split (pop tarts are a Dorrance Christmas stocking tradition)

A p-day visit to Fort Charlotte.  From Google:

Fort Charlotte is an historic fort with spectacular views overlooking Kingstown. It is located just to the west of Kingstown and perched at 600 feet overlooking the bay - a short drive from Kingstown.

Constructed in 1806, Fort Charlotte was a significant fortification that housed around 600 troops and a battery of over 30 canons. The canons were mostly pointed inland, to defend against Caribs.

With wonderful panoramic views of Kingstown it is certainly worth a visit.

Elder Albis was photographed by Elder Perez who was photographed by Elder Gutierrez who was photographed by me.
We thought we were pretty funny.

with Elder Gutierrez

'Twas the Week Before Christmas...Week 47

So this week was kind of great at times and kind of really slow at other times.

On Tuesday we had a Zone Meeting kind of following up about Zone Conference which was really good and some interviews with the district leader after that which went really really well. We talked about some cool stuff that I want to put into practice that I hope will help the area... But that took a good amount of time and we had the rest of our appointments fall through for the night so that was kind of a bummer.

Then on Wednesday we decided to go into an area that we don't usually work and found some kind of cool people, but it was a Wednesday morning so a lot of people weren't home. After lunch we went up to see a young girl named Calicia who is really cool and open to the gospel! We also had practice for the branch program which was extremely funny and very successful.

On Thursday we had our appointments fall through in the afternoon and headed down to the church to set up for the Christmas program. There were a lot of dances and songs and skits, us four missionaries did a few of the old Boy Scout skits that these people just cracked up over... We did the invisible bench one and another one called the ugliest person in the world. They were pretty funny. But the one that was the funniest was the last one. It was hilarious. You would just need to be there, sorry... haha

On Friday we went back up into these areas we don't visit as much and found some more cool people and had some great lessons. It's really cool to be able to see if someone is going to progress towards baptism in a contact based on whether or not they are interested in the Book of Mormon. It is such a powerful tool to help find those that God has prepared to receive the gospel!

On Saturday we had another wonderful lesson with Calicia and set a baptismal date with her for the 3rd of January. She is really excited for her date and moving towards it really well!

Yesterday it rained a lot in the morning and so we had kind of a poor turn out to church, but it was still really great, especially some of the talks about Christmas in sacrament meeting.

It was a great week. I hope you all have a wonderful week and a very merry CHRISTmas. Don't ever forget the first and best gift given to us by a loving Father in Heaven.

I love this work, I love this Gospel, and I love my brother and Savior, Jesus Christ. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Love, Elder Dorrance

Branch Christmas Party Hosted by Elder Wilson and myself

Pretty Empty Week and Mission News - Week 46

Flew to St. Lucia for one night for zone conference and the airport is right by the beach so we studied while we waited for our plane.

Well due to medical and not very exciting events, this was a uneventful week.

On Tuesday, one of the more exciting days of the week, we woke up a little early and flew to St. Lucia for a Zone Conference with President and Sister Mehr and the Assistants which was wonderful! We focused on real growth and talked about how we as missionaries can help in the branches that we serve in. It was a really great day of listening to these inspired leaders!

On Wednesday we woke up early again to fly out of St. Lucia, but our flight was delayed and luckily there was a beach just right off of the airport that we were able to go hangout and study on. When our plane finally landed we flew back to St. Vincent, studied, ate lunch, and headed over to the church for a branch coordination. 

Then Thursday was the day that things started to slow down. We woke up and headed into town so that a member could show us the way to a medical clinic so that another Elder and myself could get ingrown toenails cut out. So that wasn't too enjoyable, but it was a little better than last time and also a little worse. I didn't get any injection to numb it up first for some reason which was better, because (take my word for it) shots in the toes are the worst. But it was worst because it wasn't numb... haha but we went home and weekly planned and spent the rest of the day inside.

Friday we spent inside also. But I did get my package from home which was very much needed! It was so great to have a little Christmas in the apartment, and candy, while I was just laying around... haha

On Saturday we didn't have any morning appointments and I was told to rest but in the afternoon we had a lesson we needed to get to so I ponied up a little courage and we headed out to visit a member referral named Calicia. She is super cool and has come to church for the last 3 weeks! She should be right on track to be baptized within a month or so!

On Sunday we had a pretty good turnout to church which is always a good thing and we were invited to participate in the branch choir so we had practice yesterday and we are coming along pretty nicely... haha

But it was a slow week, but a good week for the future! My toe doesn't hurt anymore and it should help so I don't keep whining to Elder Pohl whenever we walk... haha

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Respect!

Love, Elder Dorrance

News from President Mehr

Dear Elders and Sisters,

I have been authorized to announce by the First Presidency that as of July 1, 2015 the West Indies Mission will be split. The new missions will be named Trinidad Port of Spain Mission and the Barbados Bridgetown Mission. 

The Trinidad Mission will consist of Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana and the ABC islands off the coast of Venezuela.

The Barbados Mission will consist of the Islands north of Trinidad already in the mission including French Guiana that is part of the Guadeloupe District.

I will receive from the missionary department further instruction on what to do to prepare for these changes and I will let you know as soon as I do.

Please continue to work as you would normally. 

I sure love you all,

President Mehr

Merry Christmas from Home!

Gotta wear Crocs because of the sore toes

Hard Labor - Week 45

Elder Miyasaki

It was a pretty good week! We were able to meet some new people and help out with a HUGE service project handing out wheelchairs!

On Tuesday we had a good Zone Meeting and some alright lessons. But we weren't able to see very many people. We just had a lot cancel on us. And sadly we had some really awesome missionaries getting transferred out which was kind of a bummer... 

On Wednesday we had everything fall through again. It was a rough day mostly because not even contacting or tracting was working out. Nobody would even give us a minute so that was kinda tough, but we had a really good lesson with a less active family!

On Thursday we weekly planned in the morning and then headed to help pass out wheel chairs. It was so sweet to see all of these people who had maybe been paralyzed or what not their whole life just have their whole life change! It was sweet! And we were able to have an amazing lesson with a woman named Tammy about the Plan of Salvation! It was awesome! I think she really loved the idea of knowing where she's going after this life! It was so sweet!

On Friday we were needed again in the morning to help out with the wheelchair thing and after that Elder Pohl and I headed to a part of our area that we hadn't really worked before and had a member show us around to a few of their friends so that was really cool!

On Saturday we were able to have an awesome lesson with a members girlfriend who is super prepared for the gospel and is really excited to keep learning more and more! it was such an awesome lesson talking about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

Yesterday on Sunday we were blessed to see 93 people attend sacrament meeting, which is a ton more than i've seen the whole time i've been here so it was so awesome to see so many people come out to church!

It was a pretty great week! nothing too crazy going on! Except for tomorrow morning we are flying out to St. Lucia for zone conference with the mission president so that should be really great! 

Hope you all have a great week!

All my love, 

Elder Dorrance

St. Vincent Zone Conference

View of Kingstown, St. Vincent

Short and Sweet - Week 44

This week had its ups and downs but it was still kind of good at times!

I'm kind of out of time but the main highlights of the week were probably a lesson we had with one of our investigators named Tammy about prayer! it went really really well!

We also were able to have a lot of fun helping unload and test out some wheel chairs for a service project this week which was a whole lot of fun!

I found out that I am staying here in St. Vincent with Elder Pohl and I am really excited for it! It should be really good! 

We had a great Thanksgiving feast last Monday by the Senior couple which was amazing and tasted better!

I'm sorry this is short and random but I lost track of time! I love you guys tons and hope you have a great week!

Elder Dorrance

Testing out the wheel chairs that were donated by the church.