Last Week of a Great Transfer - Week 56

So this week was pretty average, nothing too much out of the ordinary, a lot of work.

On Tuesday we had district meeting on asking inspired questions, and the questions we should use, it was really good! Then that afternoon we went contacting, haha we didn't have too many appointments set up for the day so we went and we knocked on doors and tried to find some new people to teach.

On Wednesday we were having a super awesome day, we went and taught a contact we had the week before and had an awesome lesson with him. His name is Philippe. (Yes, it's french) He had a ton of questions and we played some dominoes and he made us popcorn, but when we came outside to head home my bike had been stolen... yeah I was pretty devastated because that bike costs about $1000.00 Bajan. so about 500 US. I didn't have the funds to get it back so I was pretty distraught. Especially when we had to go fill out a police report... oh man, it was bad news...

On Thursday we went looking for the bike for a bit and contacted a few people, but we did have a great lesson with a woman named heather in the evening, we watched the restoration video with her and her son in law which went really well and I hope they read before we go back!

On Friday we got a call telling us that our bike had been found by Philippe's older brother Pierre. So when we got to their house it turns out that the person who stole it was trying to part it out so the bike was in pieces so we watched Pierre's friend put my bike back together, a little too quickly, almost as if he knew exactly what he was doing... but anyway there was a few pieces missing but other than that everything was good! Then we had an awesome first lesson with a woman named Wendy who just told us straight up that she wants to be baptized and when her friend stopped by we told her about the Book of Mormon and they both told us that they want to look into it and get baptized! It was amazing!

On Saturday we got our transfer calls and I found out that I'll be staying here in Barbados and Elder Barlow is going to St. Martin. That's the second comapnion I've sent to St. Martin. My new companion is a fresh greeney from Tonga. No clue what his name is but I'm excited to meet him on Wednesday!

On Sunday we had great church and another awesome lesson with Phillipe in the evening!

It was a pretty great week and I am beyond excited for the upcoming weeks.

Thanks for all the love and support!

I love you tons and hope to hear from you soon!

Love, Elder Dorrance

Average Week, with Extras - Week 55

This week was pretty average! Just a lot of trade offs!

I don't have a whole lot of time today and I'm sorry, but probably the greatest story from this week was probably when Elder Harding and I went contacting and were able to find this woman who is so prepared for the gospel it is crazy! She loves the Book of Mormon and is so excited to read it and study it!

This week was great with a whole lot of miracles and I'm sorry that you'll just have to take my word for it!

Love you forever! have a good one!

Elder Dorrance

EXTRAS

Response to Mom asking about the Barbados branch:

The branch is strong-ish They have a lot of less actives just like anywhere else, but they have got a good showing every week, so that's good.They have the first chapel in the West. Indies actually... Barbados was the first Island opened for missionary work! Kind of cool... haha. There are some members that are still active that remember President Hintze coming to do the first missionary work! So that is pretty cool! (President Hintze is a member of our stake presidency and the first missionary to work on the island of Barbados)

Response to our ward young men leaders asking for an account of daily activities:

 So in a typical day we wake up at 630 and after waking up, praying, and sitting on the couch for a few minutes to REALLY wake up, we start exercising. sometimes it's just a few push-ups and sit ups, or we go for a run.

Then while one of us is showering the other one is making/eating breakfast. Usually oatmeal here in Barbados because I found instant Quaker oatmeal and some hot chocolate, wakes you right up!

Then at 8 we have personal study where we study the standard works and preach my gospel, then we have companionship study at 9 where we sing a hymn, read the white handbook, share what we learned during personal study, and do a role play or two and make plans for our day.

Then at ten we head out, sometimes it's hard to set 10 o'clock appointments, so we usually end up contacting which basically means we ride our bikes into a place with a lot of houses and yell inside until someone comes out. It's not the most fun, but it works. We do this all the while trying to teach when we find until about 1130 or 1200 then we head back home for lunch.

After lunch we head to any appointments we have set or more contacting. In the area I am in right now here in Barbados we are some of the first missionaries out here so we do a whole lot of finding and contacting. Then we really just do that the rest of the day, we may stop to grab a drink and a snack here and there, but that is really the gist of it.

The fun part of contacting is that you can really just have fun with it, just a few days ago, me and my companion elder Barlow played a couple of guys in dominoes to take 15 minutes of their time in a lesson if we won. Of course we won and we had a great lesson with them! It was awesome!

At about 9 we head home and plan for the upcoming day and then shower, relax a little, maybe eat something, and write in our journal then it's off to bed!

p-day volleyball on the beach

The weeks are dropping off. Week 54

This week completely flew by, I really have no clue where it went! haha

 

On Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning which takes us forever to get to, and forever to get back from, so that took up a good chunk of our day. But we did have an awesome lesson with a woman named Leah! She is really awesome! She wants to learn more and likes us coming over! So it is great that we are finding people that really desire to change!

 

On Wednesday we had a pretty empty day, full of contacting and an awesome lesson with a woman named Tiffany! She is doing really great research about the church and seriously interested! It is so amazing!

 

On Thursday we had our Weekly Planning and some alright lessons, but nothing too crazy. Elder Barlow was starting to get a little sick so we decided to sleep it off and we turned in a little early.

 

On Friday we had some great time contacting in the morning and were able to find some really awesome people. Later in the evening we had a lesson with a women we met contacting! Then that night there was a branch activity where we came together and had some fun playing games like dominoes and uno. It was a lot of fun! 

 

But we had to spend the night with the other elders because no buses travel home that late, so on Saturday morning we were able to start our fast with the other elders and then travel home. We had a really great fast and even on Sunday we had a great turnout at church and a sweet lesson on accountability in Elders Quorum. It was great!

 

I love being here and I know that this is what I'm supposed to be doing! I love  this work and wouldn't want to be anywhere else!

 

I love you all and hope all is well! Have a great week!

 

Love, Elder Dorrance

One Year down, One more to love! Week 53

Hump day tie burning 

So this last week just completely flew by, I literally have no idea where it went!

On Tuesday we were still trying to figure out the bus system up here in the St. George Parrish so we were about an hour late to district meeting, which was basically over by the time we got there... haha, but still a great lesson! Then we headed home and headed out to a kind of sad day of trying to contact people house to house. It didn't work very well for us on Tuesday but that's the fun of it!

On Wednesday we had great lessons with some ladies we contacted the week before. We also found this awesome bakery that sells these rolls that Barbados is famous for called salt bread, they are amazing! They just taste like regular rolls though!

On Thursday we had weekly planning and some great lessons from contacts, but mostly just a full day of contacting. It's kind of what you have to do when you open an area... haha On Thursday I also hit a year mark, which was really cool to see the progress that I've made over the past twelve months! 

On Friday we had some really cool lessons, one with a girl named Crystal who had actually been taught before by Elder Pohl in Black Rock. So that was really cool to see her knowing my last companion, but just another day full of contacting! 

On Saturday we had a great lesson with Tony who we had taught before!

Sunday was area conference, a broadcast from Salt Lake! Elder Holland and President Packer both spoke to us which was great!

Sorry this is short! I'm all out of time!  love you!

Elder Barlow - Bikes finally

These monkeys live in our backyard