Happy Mothers Day! - Week 67

New Apartment in St. George Barbados

This week was definitely an excellent one!

On Tuesday we had a zone meeting out in Black Rock which is out on the western side of the island, After lunch we had to drive out to the western part of the island in St. Phillip to do a baptismal interview for the sisters investigator named Tijani who is way cool and just understands everything super well! It is such a testimony builder to me to see young men of 15 and 16 that I believe truly understand the commitment that they are making when they are baptized! It is so cool to see! Later that night we were able to have Brother Phagu take us to see some young men that he knows and has brought to church the last two weeks. They are way cool and will be sweet young men in the branch! Then Brother Phagu also went with us to see out investigator named Deidre who is just doing amazing! She reads and prays and comes to church, even though she has to make some sacrifices to get there! I love to see someone who just truly desires to change her life and be better.

On Wednesday we did some service for this older member named sister Edwards. We played carpenters and built some shelves out of pieces of wood we got from broken pulled apart pallets. It looks a little ghetto but it is sturdy with the nails we put in it! It was good though, she really appreciates it and loves to tell us so. But that took a lot longer than it should have so after that we were able to eat some lunch and go see a member named Jalisa who had us go contacting with her in an area to try and find some new investigators which. The funniest part was that we actually contacted into a member and I asked Jalisa how she knew the lady and she said from church.  It didn't even cross my mind she meant our church. I thought she meant her old church, so for like 5 minutes I thought we were talking to a random lady but it turns out her name is sister Harris and she is a member of the church that hasn't missed a week in like 10 years. so I felt a little silly... That night we were able to go and see Lyn and her daughter and talk to them about Jalia, Lyn's daughter getting baptized. It was also Lyn's birthday! So we made her a cake and took it to her which she really appreciated!

 On Thursday we woke up and drove to the airport to pick up the assistants to drive them to the drivers permit place to get them legal to drive. It took forever. After which we were able to drive back to our apartment to do some weekly planning. Then the Assistants called us again to go on some splits. So I was able to go with Elder Hatch to try and see some people and we had an adventure for sure! We went and tried to see a guy named Cali who was an investigator of Elder Woodruff's and Elder Ort's. When we finally found him, one of their other investigators a young kid named NIko came and talked to us about coming to visit him and his grandmother and wanted to show us where he lived, We followed him walking for like 5 minutes which was funny because there were all these other kids that were walking with us trying to talk to us, and when we finally got to his house his grandma wasn't home so we waited for a second and the neighbor came home and started talking to us about how the world was created from darkness. First there was darkness, then there was fire, then there was lava, and as the lava cooled it crusted making earth and the vapor from the lava cooling caused rain for centuries which Noah thought was the flood he was prophesying about.  She meant well and wanted to talk about beliefs but it was just an all around interesting conversation. Then we went back and found Cali at his house and started to share a scripture with him about prayer and in the middle of our lesson he got up to sell some drugs. So that was alright I guess. But we had a sweet and very powerful lesson about the blessings that come from communicating with God! Then we went and saw Lyn and talked to Jalia a little more about baptism and trying to help her understand the need for baptism.

On Friday we had our studies in the morning which was sweet and then went and met with a woman named Alecia who we had contacted earlier and taught her about the Book of Mormon. Then we went finding for a bit until about 4 when Deidre asked us to come and help her in her garden again. We were breaking up some ground so that she would be able to lay a foundation for the chicken pen that she was going to build. It was fun and hard work but it sure gave my baby soft hands some sweet blisters, which I haven't had in a while, I sure miss manual labor! Then we went back to Deidre later that night and taught her about the Law of Chastity and in the middle of the lesson Brother Phagu and his family and his wife's seminary class all showed up to teach with us. I think Deidre was a little intimidated by everyone but it turned out to be really good to have other people there to help us testify of what we were teaching! My testimony of member missionary work has grown so tremendously since I have been here in Barbados it is ridiculous! It is so great to see members working so hard to help build the kingdom here!

On Saturday morning we were able to wake up and run the assistants back to the airport to get off to St. Vincent then headed to the baptism of Tijani which was just wonderful to see! He's such a great example of faith and obedience to the commandments of God! It was sweet to see his conversion and see him progress and accept the gospel! After that we went finding for a few hours until we were asked by another member to swing by their house and chop some grass down that was like 3 feet high and all that we had to cut it was two dull, rusty cutlasses. So it was slow work and hopefully we will get better tools and more people out next time we go by! And then that night we had to rush home so that Elder Moli could shower and look fresh for his skype with his family. He had to do it Saturday night because Tonga is 17 hours ahead. 

Sunday morning we woke up and did a little studying and headed off to church. Church was exceptional! We had so many people turn out that I had not seen before or not seen in a while which was super cool! I was told that it's just because it's mother's day but I really just loved seeing so many people come out to church. We even had 6 investigators come and 3 more showed up right after sacrament meeting ended which was so cool to see! It was just a great church experience as a whole! Especially to see Lyn get confirmed and receive the Holy Ghost! It was sweet! We were able to see some young men that Brother Phagu had brought to church that morning! They were super excited to learn more about the Book of Mormon and get one of their own! Once again it is sweet to see young men so excited about the gospel! 

I have such a testimony of families! It was so great to see my family and to get to talk to them for a time. I am so happy to be sealed to them eternally and know that this is a message of love and families that I share! I love this gospel, I love my mother, and I love my savior Jesus Christ!

I hope you have a great week and can't wait to hear from you soon!

With Love, 

Elder Dorrance

Helping in Deidre's Garden

Pizza with hot dogs, minced meat, green peppers, red peppers, pineapple and spicy ketchup for sauce

Elder Moli

YAAY For Baptisms! Week 66

It was a wondeful week here in the beautiful land of Barbados!

On Monday night we taught Lyn with Brother Phagu and his wife. Just kind of working out some little things about her testimony before her baptism, making sure that she really understood things, but it was really great to see the impact of the members in Lyn's life and how big of an effect they had on her getting to church and other activities! It really strengthened my testimony of member missionary work!

On Tuesday Barbados had a national holiday called heoes day and so the entire district came together and had a sort of olympics. Where we spent a good chunk of the day just competing in sports and having a great time! There was cricket and soccer and a little rugby. It was super fun! Later that night we had a sweet lesson with Deidre about the gospel of Jesus Christ and got her really excited all over again to get baptized and about setting a date for the 31st of May!

On Wednesday Elder Moli and I attended a general womens meeting for district meeting. Because the Zone Leaders went to Trinidad a long with the Sister Training Leader so her companion was with some of the sisters in our district, so at district meeting was Elder Moli, Me, the senior couple and 7 sisters. It was good though... They all got a good laugh out of singing "As Sisters in Zion" haha. After the womens meeting we went and did some service for a sister in the branch named sister Edwards who is from Guyana and needed some help fixing up the little shack that she sells things out of. So we helped her throw some galvonized steel on it and nailed some stuff together. Elder Moli worked some construction at home so he knew what he was doing. I definitely learned some stuff though! Later that night we talked to Lyn a little more about baptism and taught Juanne the Plan of Salvation which really answered some questions she had which was cool!

On Thursday I had another appointment in the morning with the pediotrist and then waited for 3 hours at the airport for the zone Leaders to get back from Trinidad. But we went and helped Deidre in her garden and then taught her later that night a little more about the gospel.

Friday was a bummer. WE had too much fall through and just resorted to contacting old contacts and trying to talk to anybody which didn't turn out well. But we did go home teaching a member named Brother Mayers which was pretty interesting, nothing out of the ordinary.

Saturday morning we met up with the Zone Leaders so that they could interview Lyn for baptism so after we showed them to her house one of them interviewed her which took a while but she passed! She was so excited! Then we headed home to start our fast and then had every appointment fall through on us, but we had to spend a few trips back and forth to the church to set things up for the baptism. We taught a woman named Marisa which went really well and then went back to the church to fill the font and hunt down some baptismal clothes that would fit her! haha but by the time the font got filled it was almost 9 o'clock at night so we busted it home.

Sunday morning was pretty stressful, for me at least, we got an investigator, Deidre to come to church but she was in need of a ride home and the only members that lived out that way told us that all of their vehicles were full, so I was pretty stressed about that and that we had a baptism that we were trying to get ready. So I was just a mess. BUT Deidre got home and the baptism went off without a hitch! Seeing Lyn get baptized has been one of the biggest testimony builders of member missionary work I have had yet on my mission! It was so cool to see how little we were used for other than teaching a little bit. It was great to see! 

But it was a fantastic week! The pictures of my toes are gruesome I know, but they are so much better than they were! People keep asking me how they are doing and the only thing I can say back is "I can kick you and now it would hurt you more than it would hurt me"

I love you all and hope you have a great week and happy Mother's Day!!

Much love,

Elder Dorrance

More Toenails...Week 65

So this week was definitely crazy. But it for true had its amazing parts!

Monday night we did have an awesome lesson with a woman named Lyn and her daughter who are both preparing to be baptized on the May 3! We are super excited for that!

Tuesday we had zone meeting in Black Rock and had to get the truck checked out after so that took a little bit so when we actually got to an appointment we were able to see Deidre who is probably one of our most progressing investigators! She loves the Book of Mormon and wants to come to church, she just needs to find a ride. But we didn't teach her anything we were able to just go over and help her in her garden, pulling weeds and stuff, so that was fun and helped her out a ton! Then we went to go see a woman named Kim but when we got there she was working in her garden also, so we helped her water and move some dirt around and left just in time to get to an appointment with a woman named Juanne where we talked to her about the restoration which went really great!

On Wednesday we had everything fall through on us except a man named Ian who we talked to about the the Atonement and I think he really enjoyed it! He loved seeing how his sins have been paid for and how is brother Jesus Christ truly loves him. It was super cool to see. But the rest of our day was spent contacting which was not too successful.

On Thursday I was able to go in early with Elder Smith and have what the mission nurse called "minor surgery" Where I just got the sides of my toenails cut out. I feel a ton better and have been kicking it in slippers for the last few days which is nice, but not so nice as a missionary... But we spent a few hours inside with my feet up then had to head out due to stir-craziness and taught Kim about the restoration and invited her to church and she said she'd come if we worked in her garden on Saturday. We also had an amazing branch council that night where things were discussed and things got done! It was one of the first real successful branch councils I'd been to in a while.

On Friday we weekly planned in the morning and had to put my feet up for a few more hours and then that evening we taught Juanne again and we showed her the restoration video which she enjoyed especially because she didn't know how much tribulation the church went through in it's early days... Then we were able to go and do a baptismal interview for a young lady in the Oistins branch who was baptized on Saturday.

So Saturday morning we were able to help kim in her garden early and then bust it over to Oistins to go to the baptism of Mikayla which was amazing! then we spent the day running the new Barbados mission Assistants around all day doing their errands with them because they can't drive and then we were able to teach Deidre that night and set a baptismal date with her! She is planning on being baptized on May 31! We're so excited!

Sunday was really good! We had an awesome sacrament meeting with four investigators who came to church! Then later that night we had a sweet lesson with a member named Jalisa and her sister about desires which I think went really well!

It was a great week! my toes are healing well I hope and should be out back again full force tomorrow or Wednesday! Should be good!

I hope you have a great week!

I love you all

Love, Elder Dorrance

Crazy Hectic Weeks...Week 64

So this week was complete madness most of the time, but definitely a great week nonetheless!

But starting on Tuesday I taught my first district meeting! YAY I think it went alright. I taught about helping our investigators understand the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it will help their investigators to progress. That afternoon I was able to go on a trade off with Elder Smith. We had a lot of fun and also a whole lot of stuff fall through, we spent a good chunk of time finding or visiting members, it was a great day!

Wednesday morning we woke up and went to help a member in the branch move some dirt around for like 2 hours. Missionary work is hard, but manual labor is definitely a different kind of hard. We traded back and headed home to eat lunch and have every single appointment fall through on us for the rest of the day except for that night we were able to go and visit some of the only members in our area and talk to them about having a family home evening in their home. They agreed to it and have already started setting things up! So that will be really great!

On Thursday we woke up and headed to Elder Woodruff's old apartment to clean up a little bit more before the new missionaries got there later that afternoon. Then we headed to an older members home to help her hang her drapes. That didn't take long but she always comments on how handsome I am so sometimes it makes it a little uncomfortable... but she's super sweet. haha. Then we were able to have another lesson with Deidre about the Book of Mormon and what she had read in it. She told us all about how badly she wants to be baptized so that is really sweet! Then before I can go to a doctor to get my toenails removed we have to okay it by the mission nurse and she wanted pictures. So we had to travel down to the senior couples apartment to take some pictures. After we were done with that the Assistants to the President (who had gotten in that afternoon) wanted us to take them out with us. We went and picked up one of them while the other AP went with the zone leaders to see one of Elder Woodruff's old investigators named Lyn who is steadily moving towards baptism on the 3rd of May. She is way sweet and hopefully the lesson we taught helped her to understand the need for prayer.

Friday morning we weekly planned because we didn't get to do it on Thursday and we were able to see a guy named Chris again who we don't think will be progressing too much, so it may be one of the last times we see him.  Then the Assistants called us asking to give them a lift to the phone store to talk to someone about their new phone and they told us about how they were leaving the next morning and wanted to visit all the missionaries on the island before they left so they asked us if we could drive them up North to visit some of the missionaries out there. Lucky for the Assistants our last appointments for the night all fell through, So that took up the rest of our evening doing that. But it was fun and Dad knows how much I love to drive, So I wasn't complaining.

Saturday morning we woke up and took the assistants to the airport and had to run a couple of other errands and then picked up a member in Elder Woodruffs area to take with us to visit some of our appointments that evening. We were able to see Deidre again and draw up a cool pathway to baptism thing that shows her all that she needs to learn and understand before she can be baptized. She got really excited when we were able to check off a few things! She is beyond excited to be baptized which is cool to see!

On Sunday we had church which was good, nothing out of the ordinary and had the only two appointments in Elder Woodruffs area cancel on us so we spent some more time contacting in our area and had an interesting lesson with some young ladies that night about the Atonement. Which I think they understood... haha

It was a great week! Another crazy one ahead I think!

So I hope all is well! I love you and hope to hear from you all soon!

Love, Elder Dorrance

Hard Work - Week 63

Elder Woodruff, Elder Moli, Elder Ort, Me

It was definitely another week of hard work.

On Wednesday we had to drop Elder Woodruff and Elder Ort off at the airport which was kind of sad but I am happy to have met them both and excited to see them again! But later that night we had another lesson with Philippe and he told us basically that he would never join the church or get baptized. So that was kind of a bummer, but I guess it just isn't his time yet!

On Thursday we did weekly planning in the morning and some finding after lunch. We had a lesson with a man named Chris about the plan of Salvation which he didn't agree too much with, which was kind of a bummer... But later that night we were able to go and do some service for an investigator we contacted last week. We pulled some weeds in her garden and cut down some bushes, it was a lot of fun and helped her a lot! Especially good because she paid us with dinner on Sunday!

On Friday we had a whole lot fall through and spent a good chunk of the time finding. We found some okay people, hopefully that will turn into really solid investigators who want to learn more! But the rest of our night was spent trying to contact some other investigators and setting up lessons for later in the week.

On Saturday we went to visit some of Elder Woodruff's investigators in the morning because the missionary to replace him and his companion don't get here until Thursday. So that was good and by the time we got back to our area we had all of our lessons fall through and then had to go back down to the church for a talent show! It was pretty great, there are a lot of really talented people here with voices and they sure can dance! Haha

On Sunday Church was really good and we were able to have a young man named Khalil come out with us, but the first lesson that we taught was to a Jehova's Witness man who just wanted to try and prove us wrong, so that was kind of a bummer. But we did have a great lasson with a woman named Marisa who seems really interested in the gospel and changing her life around!

All in all it was a good week, not a whole lot going on.

Hope all is well

With love,

Elder Dorrance

Kite flying - Really cool Caribbean Easter tradition

Elder Woodruff

Elder Harding

Barbados Zone Beach day

P-Day was spent here every single week for volleyball and hanging out.

Happy Easter/ Conference Week! Week 62

So yes! Another wonderful exciting week here in Barbados, West Indies!

On Tuesday we had a great District meeting by Elder Woodruff and then we were able to have a member up in our area with us for most of the evening named Gerad who is a returned missionary and is super fun to work with! We actually had almost all of our lessons fall through except two 18 year old young men. So it was nice to have Gerad there to meet them and get to know them a little bit. We had some great lessons with Gerad there. The problem with our area is that there are only like 5 members who live in our area and they are all either old or full time working. So it makes it hard to move the member work forward in St. George Barbados...

But on Wednesday we had a sweet lesson in the morning with a woman named Anita and her adult daughter named Juanne! It was a sweet lesson about the book of Mormon and they enjoyed it so much they asked us to download the app on their tablets so that they could get it in print size that they could read! It was sweet! Later that night we were contacting and actually were trying to talk to this lady as she was closing the blinds on her sliding glass window and ended up talking to them for a good while about the Book of Mormon and our work as missionaries! And told us because we don't cook enough for ourselves that she would make extra food on Sunday for us to go pick up! So that is always welcomed as a missionary! haha.

On Thursday we had an apartment inspection in the morning (yes mom, we passed) and later that day when most of our appointments fell through we were able to see a woman named Marisa who we testified to that she could also gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon through Prayer. I love testifying to people, it's probably when I feel the spirit the strongest when I testify of the Book or Mormon or of the Prophet Joseph Smith! I love this work!

On Friday we spent a good chunk of the afternoon and evening going finding with not a lot of lessons that day, just one that really stuck out was again with Anita and Juanne, we had invited her to read the first two chapters of the Book of Mormon which she started but stopped because she couldn't follow it. So we read it with her and explained the story a bit and she agreed to read the next two on her own which hopefully will work out!

Saturday was amazing! I love Conference but haven't experienced like I have on my mission. It's so uplifting and just amazing to hear from a living day prophet and apostles. But because of the time difference it started at 12 and so that took up our entire day with priesthood session getting over at ten o'clock in the night. We took some other Elders home with us for the night and woke up just to go for four more hours! It was awesome! I loved it! Also on Saturday I found out that elder Moli and I would be staying together and that I would be the new district leader replacing Elder Woodruff as he leaves! So I'm nervous/excited for that too! haha

Sunday was also spectacular! I love Conference! After Conference though we did go grab some food from those people we contacted and it was some of the best rice and chicken I've ever had! It was seriously amazing!  I can't really describe it, I may have just been hungry but it was pretty darn good!

It was an especially good week this week! I love being here and am excited for another transfer with Elder Moli!

Love you all and wish you the best! Happy Easter!

With Love, Elder Dorrance

Elder Moli, Ort, Woodruff, Dorrance

Another Week Flies By...Week 61

"Granny"

And yet another week on this wonderful adventure has completely flown right by.

On Tuesday I was able to go on a trade-off with one of our Zone Leaders Elder Harding. We spent the first hour trying to find out where someone lived which took way too long because I can't really understand Bajan directions very well, but his name is Kareem and he seems to be pretty interested in the gospel! We also had  a sweet lesson with a woman named Heather and her sister Tiffany about the Plan of Salvation and talked to them about conference and they said that they would try their best to come! Also that night we had another awesome lesson with Philippe and Pierre and it was sweet! They both came with so many questions about Priesthood authority and how to get it and where it is! It was sweet!

On Wednesday morning we traded back and dropped the truck off to Elder Woodruff so that they could go and do some baptismal interviews later that day and we had a really good lesson with a woman named Marisa. We had to wait for her to get home for just a little bit so when she got home she was tired and had stuff to do around the house but we just shared something short with her and invited her to read the introduction page of the Book of Mormon! It went really well! But the rest of our night fell through so our night resulted in some okay contacting...

On Thursday we Weekly Planned and had a sweet lesson with a guy named Chris in the morning and later that night had a super powerful lesson with a woman named Valerie and her family about the Book of Mormon. It was super cool because they didn't really see a need for prophets today, so it was way powerful to bear testimony of the need of the Prophet and especially of Joseph Smith! It was way cool!

On Friday we did our studies in the morning and had an awesome lesson with a man named Tony about the Atonement which went really well. He really saw the need for it and how it can apply in his life! We also had another really good lesson with Philippe answering his questions about the Book of Mormon and inviting him to be baptized!

On Saturday we were able to go to a baptism in the morning and have a really awesome lesson with a woman named Maria in the evening about the Book of Mormon! It was just bare finding most of the day because of all the lessons we had fall through that day. Kind of a bummer but an awesome lesson with Maria!

On Sunday we had really good fast and testimony meeting and taught a man named Ian after church a little about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He already commited to coming to church so he seems like he should be pretty interested! and that night we visited some older members in our area and talked to them about having a family home evening at their home which they agreed to! so that should be really good Too!

Sorry this one started good and got short at the end! I ran out of time again!

Thanks so much for everything!

Love you tons! Talk to you soon!

Love Elder Dorrance!