Another Crazy Fast Week! Week 82

Beautiful Trinidad Sunset

Well this week was pretty ridiculous for sure!

On Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning with the Assistants and the Sando Missionaries and then we were able to have Elder Nebeker come out with us all day! And because the other A.P. can't drive the transfer van which is a manual, they took our car and we rode in the van all day! It was pretty fly! But it was cool because we had a couple of appointments fall through but we were able to meet some forreal awesome people! Like we were just walking and walked right into this birthday party where they invited us in and gave us food and drink and were pretty cool. A couple of the younger people were even pretty interested in meeting with us, so that was pretty sweet! 

On Wednesday I headed out to an area called Princes town for the first time where there used to be a church branch but now there is just a bunch of inactive members that we need to go and check up on. When we got there it turned out that the member who shows us around couldn't make it so we kind of had to stumble around up there on Elder Little's memory which turned out to work pretty well for us! But we met with the Ramnarine family who are so poor it hurts me. It really took me back to the days in Guyana where a ton of people just really have nothing. There are like 7 people in this little one room house and everyone shares a bed. The dad is a cocaine addict and the family is just so sweet and puts up with his crap. They are super sweet and love the gospel and would come to church in a heartbeat if they could afford to come out. It was really a pretty humbling experience. It was also pretty crazy today because of how much it rained, it seriously rained for like 3 hours straight! It was ridiculous.

On Thursday we had a cruddy day... We have really been trying to rebuild our teaching pool and we are just getting rejection after rejection. Nobody will talk to us... Thursday was a day jam-packed full of rejection... But we had a super effective coordination meeting and an interesting lesson with the Dennis family that night. They are less-active and I'm not sure why, but they just are. They love the gospel and have testimonies, just don't come... super weird!

On Friday we had a ton of people that we taught and had a pretty alright day! We had a sweet lesson with Marjorie and her Grand-daughter Jasie-Ann who should be getting baptized on the 5th of September! Super exciting!

On Saturday we had an actually great time finding! Saturday was the only day of the week that we actually found anyone cool that we were able to contact into! Like this one lady we called into her house and her son came out and didn't look too interested so we started walking away and he yelled back after us that his mom is coming. So she invited us to sit down and got us some water and then she started talking to us about her beliefs as a Muslim which was cool and she even gave us a Quran. It was super nice of her to let us share a little bit about what we believe and then she was able to share with us! 

On Sunday Anisa, Marjorie, and Jasie-Ann all came out to church which was pretty awesome! All 3 of them should be getting baptized in September and they all really loved chruch! San Fernando ward is probably the best ward or branch I've ever seen on my mission that fellowships with investigators so amazingly! They immediately just took Jasie-Ann and Anisa into young womens that was super cool. And we even got a text later that evening from the young womens asking for their numbers to invite them to a young women activity this week! That has never happened on my mission before and it was just a real testimony builder for me of the power of member work and fellowship!

This morning though we got to head up to Curepe to have th All Trinidad Sports day which is always fun! All the zones get together and hangout and play sports! It's super fun to get to see everyone!

It was a fast week and I hope everyone else had a good one!

Much Love,

Blessings,

Elder Dorrance

Grateful to Elder Little for the pictures since my camera broke...

Trinidad Sports Day

Holding hands with Elder Little because we LOVE eachother

Elder Dorrance, Elder Ahanonu, and Elder Sheen at Sports Day

Elders Bingham, Clark, Dorrance, Perez-Uri

Elder and Sister Francom

2014 Corolla - What I get to drive everyday

Mission transfer van

Elders Little, Nebeker, Dorrance

Goodbye Sange Grande, Hello San Fernando! Week 81

Elder Little - San Fernando, Trinidad

So this week was pretty crazy, that's for sure! Had a lot of goodbyes to say and a couple days straight of just being lost in this new massive area! But it's definitely been an adventure! 

On Tuesday we had Zone meeting in Grande which was nice to have the whole zone out for the last meeting together before the transfer, but directly after the meeting all of the new trainers were supposed to have a meeting​ with the president and all of their new trainees and we had it set up to do it at a members house. The member told us that he would be home for sure, but he wasn't... So of course because I was the only one who knew the whole Grande ward everyone was looking to me to try and find a new place to have this skype meeting and there was no other members around so we all just headed to this public internet cafe hoping that it would be at least a little bit private. 12 missionaries crammed into this little cafe and at about 12:45 got it working and found out that it was over... So that was a bummer for the trainers but we did see the Suepaul's in town and they bought us lunch so that was super cool of them! We tried to go and say goodbye to a few people and then had to leave to drive Elder Hopkins to the airport so that he could catch his flight to Tobago and then it took us over an hour and a half to get home because of some political rally in Grande. But we did get home in time for Brother Samaroo to have a doubles eating competition with us and the Sisters which was super fun! I ate like 7 and I thought I was going to die...

Final Night in Sangre Grande we had a member buy us doubles which was very kind of them!
Dorrance, Sister Paul, and Elder Peterson

On Wednesday morning we went and said goodbye to Brother Bisnath and then the long day of driving began. We drove about 45 minutes to Valsayn to wait around for a few hours just hanging out with missionaries until we could leave to show the new sisters in our zone how to get to their apartment because they are blanking.(blanking = Working in a new area where there wasn't missionaries before) But it turns out that Elder Little never had the chance to get his driver's license yet on his mission and this is his last transfer so there is no use getting it now, so that means that I am the driver of this sweet 2014 Corolla. We left the office at about 2:30 and followed some other zone leaders to Couva so that some sisters could trade cars, which they ended up not doing, and then drove all the way down to San Fernando to drop off Elder Naylor and pick up elder Albis to take elder Albis and Elder Ahanonu to Point Fortin which is literally the tip of Trinidad and because of traffic that took us about two hours so when we finally got to Point Fortin it was like 6 o'clock and we had been driving all day long so we took a breather and sat for like 10 minutes and got back in the car to drive back to Sando and get home by like almost 8:30. It was a long day for sure!

On Thursday we did our studies. A tradition they have here is before weekly planning starts they walk down to this bakery and buy some pastries. It was a change of pace from the usual Thursday morning 4 hours of studying and planning. But we had a sweet lesson with a woman who is going to get baptized the first week in September named Marjorie and her granddaughter Jasie-Ann! They are super cool and super understanding! it's so nice to be able to teach so many nice, teachable people! We had a super funny lesson with an investigator and we were able to take the Ward mission leader Brother Simmons with us! He's a pretty old guy, but dresses like he's 25 and he's just hilarious! Best Ward Mission Leader I have seen in my life though! We were teaching and the investigator mentioned how a few months ago she got really depressed and started drinking and smoking and Brother Simmons said "I used to smoke four packs of cigarettes a day and I have drinken enough of that (points at empty beer bottle) to float a ship!" It was classic!

On Friday we had a funeral in the morning for a recent convert's father who was supposed to get baptized two saturdays ago but went to the hospital the day before and  passed away the following Monday. The whole ward was pretty shaken up about it. It was a really nice service and then we went to this place called the Creek and there they do cremations, but they build huts out of wood and put the casket and body inside and light it on fire. It is pretty crazy and big traditional thing here in Trinidad. But it was pretty crazy and hopefully we are able help some people strengthen their testimonies on the plan of Salvation! But we had some sweet lessons later in the evening, one especially with this cool active member family named the Basdeo's! We read an article out of the Liahona with them and talked about how it applied to them! Super cool family!

First day in San Fernando we went to a funeral where they burned the deceased.

On Saturday we did a ton of finding to get our investigator pool up. So we met a bunch of people and spent a lot of time in the hot sun! But we saw Marjorie and Jasie-Ann again which went super well and were able to go and visit them again! But we saw this member family in the evening and their tradition is whenever a new missionary comes over they have to sing a solo for the whole family... Elder Little knew, but failed to mention it to me before hand, so yeah... That was interesting and awkward to get to sing a hymn in front of this family I don't know... But they are super cool! They've been sealed in the Salt Lake City temple and when they went they stayed with some friends who live in Kaysville, so that was really cool to get to chat with them for a bit!

Sunday was amazing! Church here in Sando is run so well it hurts! There was immediate fellowship for our investigators and everyone was super nice! The bishop here is amazing and really loves to work hard! But we had a sweet lesson with a cool member family named the Bings! It's kind of my goal these first couple weeks to just meet as many people as I can, with over a hundred people coming to sacrament meeting each week it will definately take some work! haha

It was a great week and I'm excited to be here in Sando to kill Elder Little on his last transfer! We should have some really cool success these next few weeks and I'm excited to keep pressing forward!

Love and Blessings,

Elder Dorrance

Thanks to Sister Samaroo in Grande for the following pictures and for the awesome tacos:(my camera batteries has died so there may not be many pictures for awhile)

Transfer Week! Week 80

On Sundays we eat lunch at the Suepauls who live pretty far away from town, about a 25 minute walk, also there is no taxi's running on Sundays, so we would walk most weeks.

 So this week was pretty crazy and lots has happened!

On Tuesday I taught district Meeting about Conversion and how conversion happens, It went really well! Then we had to run some errands with Elder Bevins to figure out some things with the electrical bill, so that was kind of a bummer for sure, but that took up most of our day,but we had a  sweet lesson with Ricky's step sisters about our purpose and little bit about the Restoration!

On Wednesday we had a completely overly long coordination meeting, but had a sweet lesson with a missionary's mother, Sister James, about the Restoration! It was way cool! She committed to praying about baptism which she was very excited about! We also had a great lesson with a member family talking about adversity and the blessings that come from facing our challenges with faith and hope! We watched the mormon message called "The Refiners Fire" It was cool to see how this woman's experience impacted this member family in Trinidad!

On Thursday we had a pretty rough day,lots of rejection and fall through's, but we had an alright lesson with a young woman named Jamie who is the girlfriend of a less-active member! She's pretty cool and likes the idea of a prophet on the earth, so she is open  to our message and that for sure makes it easier!

On Friday I got to go on a trade-off with Elder Haderlie here in our area and we had another sweet lesson with Sister James as well with the Joseph family who just barely hit a year from being baptized We got them excited for going to the temple which is a huge sacrifice for people in the Caribbean. They are planning to go in September if everything works out! It's way cool to see what people will do to go to the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity as a family! 

On Saturday it was a pretty stressful day as we waited to find out transfers from the Assistants and President. But in the evening while we were biking from an appointment we got called by President telling me that I would be going down South to serve with Elder Little in San Fernando as a zone leader and Elder Peterson will be training an Elder from my high school! Elder Hanks! pretty small world! 

Sunday was good, I had to give a farewell testimony in the ward and had my last lunch at the Suepaul's, but had a great day visiting some members that I wouldn't get to see before I left! It was a sad day of Goodbye's, but it definately wasn't as hard as any other transfer because I wasn't leaving the country, just moving around in the country!

Crazy week, crazy day! Sorry this  letter kind of sucks!

Hope you all have an awesome week!

Much Love!

Elder Dorrance

P-day fun:

Suepaul family

Dishes with Sister Suepaul

18 Months! Week 79

So... This week was pretty average. Even though it's a 7 week transfer, it still feels like on of the shortest transfers of my mission. But this week was just proving that point, it's flying by.

On Monday night we had a sweet family home evening at the church and Elder Peterson was able to get his hands on  some church Jeopardy and the whole ward and a bunch of fun with that! It was a huge success and everyone keeps asking when the next one will be, so it was definately a positive! 

Tuesday morning I taught a district meeting about Pride and Humility and about how we must all be stripped of pride in order to enter into the Kingdom of God (Alma 5:28) That went pretty well and I hoped that everyone in the district enjoyed it! But later on in the day we had to go and get some glue for Elder Peterson because his journal broke and we ran into this lady that Elder Shariatmadari and I had seen around a few times and she was always super excited whenever she saw us. But we saw her and she is pretty cool! She has some things that she needs to change, but she used to date a mormon when she lived in Florida. The weirdest part is that she lived her whole life in Florida, she is only here because he mother is sick with cancer. But she seems pretty sincere I think and loves talking to us because she can understand our North American accent. But we explained how to get to the church and she said that she would be there! So that was way cool!

On Wednesday was the 29th of July, Exactly 18 months since I ate Einsteins bagels and Costa Vida. But 18 months since I have been able to start this wonderful and amazing experience! It's crazy to think about all that has happened over that last year and a half, but I'm happy to know that I have been exactly where I was supposed to be. We had an awesome lesson with some members named the Abdool's  that night and we watched a sweet Mormon Message called "LIFT" and talked about the importance of service and they loved it! It was a big success! We also went by to teach Ricky and he invited his friend Michael to sit in with us which was super cool! 

On Thursday we had a long bike ride out to the Suepaul's (Awesome member family) We make the ride once a week and hit all the members and investigators we can on the way out there. It's a good 6-10 mile ride, so we make it count! But we had a sweet lesson with a part member family who Brother Suepaul showed us to and they really enjoyed it! But the funniest part of the night is that we finally got to the Suepauls right on time for our appointment and no one was home and wouldn't answer their phone... So after waiting around for a while the twenty year old son showed up and let us in and made us some sandwhiches and we talked with him for a while about the ward. It was pretty good! 

Friday was kind of rough, we had a lot of lessons but were running late to each one because each one started late... But we had a sweet lesson with the Samaroos about our light that we all have and how we have to magnify our light in order for it to get brighter and if we keep our light, it goes away. Haha but while we were riding home I kind of zoned out a little bit and got too close to Elder Peterson so my front tire on the right side was rubbing his back tire on the left side and so I panicked and couldn't turn left because there was a trench and couldn't turn right or I would just fall over Elder peterson so I just kind of set my bike down while moving and started running away from it, and by the time Elder Peterson turned around and looked at me all he saw was me running away from my bike! haha it doesn't sound very funny when I read it, but the experience itself was funny! haha

On Saturday we had coordination with our ward mission leader in the morning and had Brother Samaroo bring us all lunch afterwards. He brought us some Oil Down, which is like breadfruit, pig tail, and some kind of herb all mixed and boiled and sloppy. It wasn't too appetizing, but it was the best way I've ever eaten Breadfruit, so that was definately good! After that we started our fast on pancakes and water and headed out to a service project in Fishing Pond where we passed out water for a 3k that he was putting on. It was fun, but a bummer because of how thirsty I was! Haha But that only lasted for a little bit and so we were able to have a good lesson with Ricky that night about  his priesthood responsibilities that he now has!

On Sunday we had a great turn out to church! Natisha was the granddaughter of the member we saw on Thrursday, she showed up and loved it! That was another huge success! We also had the Samaroos show up with their neice who is about 18 and so we started to talk to them about setting up a time that we can go see all of them together! It's so cool to see members sharing the gospel with family and friends because they know of how true this message is! It's way cool! We ended our fast with another delicious meal at the Suepauls and kind of ended up having a bummer day but were able to contact some pretty cool people!

We played some fun basketball again this morning and have some cool plans for the upcoming week! Should be super solid!

Thanks so much for the emails! 

Love you all tons!

Have a great week!

Elder Dorrance

Yes, I did pick out the spidey sheets

Helping out at the race

Moving some dirt for a service project.
Sister Paul, Elder Peterson, Sister Sommer, Dorrance

I promise this is NOT a double date:)