Week 5 - week two in the mission field!

Elder Dorrance and Elder Jarrett with President and Sister Dunnigan

This week went by super quick! Slow at times but mostly fast looking back at it. Most of the people that we visit are people who don't go to church as much anymore. Monday was fun having p day was nice and i got to chat with my friends and family. A family in the ward cooked us dinner and we got to go over there and hangout with them.  On Tuesday we had a district meeting which was different, mostly just talked about animals for a while and then got into the business. 

Wednesday was a better day, we had a baptism interview for a guy named James which went awesome!  He is super interested in the church and is looking to get baptized! Its been nice this week to actually have a towel to dry myself. Mornings are much warmer these days. After the baptismal interview we went to papa johns to get pizza and take it over to a man named Robert Young. Robert has been bed ridden since the  13th but once we got there with the pizza he was super positive. I would get so bored if i was stuck in bed for almost two weeks. We ate pizza and chatted for a while which was fun. He had gotten him self a brand new I-Phone xs which he had no idea how to use. I asked if i could help him and it was really fun to use his phone and help him set up a new email to download apps. 

On Wednesday night we had a lesson with a less active family. At the end i invited the whole family to come to church on Sunday to hear me talk! they said yes! unfortunately they didn't end up coming which was too bad but life goes on. On Thursday we didn't do very much. we had weekly planning and that took forever which wasn't super fun but its the work! After that we went to visit a man named Wayne who likes chatting with the missionaries but doesn't want to give up what he likes. We were talking about the gospel and when we brought up the word of wisdom he interrupted and said " I AINT GIVIN UP MY VODKA!" Which took me by surprise but it was funny looking back at it. After that we went to a hospital for the chronically ill and talked to a man named David who had a stroke about a year ago and can't use the left side of his body. We played chess with him for a while and when Elder Jarrett claimed to have won. He for sure should have he told us that we can't kill the king and proceeded to take two moves to get out of the pickle he was in. it ended in a stalemate which was really funny because Elder Jarrett kept cornering his king but he kept using two moves which was really funny to watch. That's mostly what we did on Thursday. 

On Friday which was the 26th!!!! one month down! holy crap time flies. nothing really huge happened friday or saturday but a member bought us taco bell and subway this week which was really nice. When i first got to my area Elder Jarrett and i were driving and he told me " Just so you know in about a week and a half you have a talk to give" WHAT i thought i was done giving talks for a while after my farewell talk. They told me it wasn't that bad it only had to be 12 minutes. So i prepared a little bit for a twelve minute talk. Well there were three people that were giving talks that day each one had to be about 12 minutes so i was thinking that these people would go over just a little bit and i wouldn't have to even give a 12 minute talk right??? anyway going through they each got up and spoke for about 3 minutes and then bishop got up and gave a little experience from his mission. that left me. with 25 minutes left in the meeting...  I DID IT THOUGH! I TALKED FOR THE ENTIRE 25 MINUTES. I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT I DID IT HAHAHA. after that i didn't really do a bunch but the talk definitely drained me. i was really tired. and now its p day and i gotta do stuff to prepare. That's all i have for you. love you all. thank you

-Elder Dorrance

ps feel free to send me a letter. i should have the address above. its cool to see the letters. THANKS!

Elder Jarrett

New Missionaries and Trainors

Picture Wall

Sad Christmas Tree

After getting a ton of pictures like the above, Mom requests pictures with Jonah's smiling face.  Then we get a ton of the following:

Week 4 - First week in the Field

Well let's start on Wednesday

Wednesday

TRAVEL DAY!! So much happened that day goodness. It felt like the whole mtc experience shoved into one.. We started by waking up at 4:30 AM and cleaned out our room and stuff like that and got ready to leave. We had to checkout of the mtc at 5:15 am so we could get to everything on time, we rode a bus over to the uta train station where we rode from there to the salt lake temple bus stop. And then rode the uta trax train over to the airport where we got our plane ticket and waited for boarding. There were 17 if us going to Philadelphia and all of us were on the same flight haha. It was a big mob of missionaries. While we were in the salt lake airport everyone kept shouting out " hey look the missionaries!" And asking us where we were going and things like that. But once we got to philly nobody really said hi they just stared at our name-tags and gawked at us. It was really awesome to talk to my family to have a big group FaceTime type thing. I miss them a bunch. Once we got on the plane we took off! First airplane ride! It was wild! It was cool to rise up really fast. Elder Christensen said that it was the most turbulence he has ever felt and he has been on lots of planes. It was long and boring because I couldn't watch movies which sucked but Anyway, after the long and boring plane ride President dunnigan was waiting for us at the airport. we went to a church in the Broomall stake. That's where the mission office is. We had Philly cheese steaks for dinner and then a little orientation and learned a little bit about the mission. After that the 17 of us got separated to go to sleep for the night. I went to the Dunnigan's (mission president) which was so fun. It was cool to just hang out with him and he told us who all of the trainers were and stuff like that. It was fun. Then it was bed time and we learn who our trainers are tomorrow

Thursday

First day in the mission field. it  was crazy! so much has happened its unbelievable. I woke up at the mission presidents home. The elders got ready and we were off to the mission office again which is in Broomall Pennsylvania which is about thirty minutes outside of philly. once we got there we started with the first part of orientation which mainly focused on specific rules/cars/finances. We also got interviewed by the mission president to see who our trainer would be. he mostly just asked us why we were on a mission and stuff. Then we got our trainers. WOO! my trainer is so fun and he seems like someone i am going to learn so much from! His name is Elder Jarrett. He is from Utah! i am assigned to the Smyrna Delaware area of my mission! we ate lunch from wawa's which i guess is a big place in the east. we ate and then we were off! Smyrna is a town about 30 minutes away from Philadelphia. On our way back we had a lesson set up at 4 to teach a woman named Millie. We were running a bit late so by the time we got there it was too late and she was eating dinner. She said we could come the next day though.After that we went to our apartment for dinner and had a bunch of expired frozen meals in the freezer. Because I haven't gone to the store yet that's what i have been living off of. After dinner we went to a members house where the parents are active but the kids aren't. The dad was the only one able to talk so we chatted with him for about 30 minutes. we shared our favorite scripture then left. That was it! we went home and i unpacked my stuff and went to bed.

FRIDAY!

not much went on Friday. We had a lesson with Millie which was awesome but unfortunately she is going to New York for the next month. so i wont see her for a while. then we went tracting for about an hour which doesn't seem that effective but its the Lords work! that was most of Friday!

Saturday,

Saturday was good we had a lesson at 10 am which fell through unfortunately so we came back to the apartment and finished studies and then our car, (which is a 2017 chevy Malibu btw) was needed for an oil change. so we took it into the shop because we cant change it ourselves. There was a Mod pizza right next to the auto shop. and mom you were right it was really good. when we are in the car we listen to various firesides by people like John Bytheway and Hank Smith. there was one called Mafia to Mormon which was Such a good fireside given by someone named Mario Madrezze i think. after that we had pretty much all of our appointments fall through. which was kind of the worst but that's okay life goes on. haha.

Sunday

Sunday was good there is a huge area for just one ward which is so different compared to the 20 wards in a one mile radius in Utah. but it was fun. Elder Jarrett gave a talk on obedience which was really good and then after sacrament the first counselor of the ward came up and told me i have to give a 12 minute talk next sunday soo that kind sucks. our ward mission leader or president broke his leg so we went to visit him and he was in good spirits so that was good. He might have been high on pain meds though. It was funny he was a really cool guy. That's about it in regards to Elder Dorrance.

Until next week. 

-Elder Dorrance

ps. my new address is

22 Streamside Circle unit #07

Smyrna, DE 19977

This is all I had to dry myself for 5 days (left my towel at the mission president's house)

this is my huge area - only one ward

Left over MTC pic

Sue!

First Plane Trip

Apartment

view from my apartment

Week 3 - Last week in the mtc!!!!

Holy crap this week flew by, it has gone by so fast and it was fun up until 8 of the 12 people in my district left me on Monday morning. Which was really rude. Monday classes were weird without all my friends to talk to. Anyway, I feel so ready to go to Philadelphia,  it has been three long weeks of the same schedule every single day. there really isn't that much to talk about, i guess i will go through my week, Wednesday through Saturday we went to classes for 6 hours (two three hour classes) with lunch in between. And then dinner and Exercise time from 7:30 to 8:30 and then nothing really until we went to bed. Sundays take FOREVER it was all day meetings and each one felt like an eternity. haha it was very spiritual but very long. Overall a good Sunday. Monday was boring and sad because everyone was gone. Tomorrow i go to Philadelphia oh my gosh i am so excited. this email is short and bland because that's about how my week was. Love you all! EMAIL ME

-Elder Dorrance

MTC Classroom

BYU Homecoming - We got some of them to wave to us from the floats

Elder Fujikawa

WEEK TWO WHAT THE

WHOA TIME FLIES

My experience at the mtc is coming to an end and honestly I could not be more excited hahaha. I love my district family and everything but there is also quite a bit that I don't love. Nothing has really changed since my last email. CONFERENCE WAS SO COOL. It was such a different change of perspective to watch conference being a missionary. Even though no news was geared specifically toward missionaries it was still so awesome to see all the changes President Nelson is making. He really is a prophet of God and gets revelation from him every single day. 2 hour church. What? I have dreamed of that since I was like 2! Just kidding it will be cool to have more gospel oriented homes throughout the church. I really liked the analogy that Elder Bednar used in one of his talks of the door. We can't get far in this church relying on just one of the aspects of it. We have to continually use all of them to stay fully converted in his church. That's all I'm gonna say about conference. Mtc food is getting kind of old haha. I got my travel plans I leave the mtc at 5:15 AM on Wednesday the 17th and get to Philadelphia at around 4:23 (two hour difference) it's gonna be so much fun and I'll be able to ride on my first airplane! That will be so fun. I have so much less to talk about this week because so much less has happened. I'll still be in the mtc next Tuesday but I'll be that much closer to leaving!! Yay! Much love and send me mail!

-Elder Dorrance

Elder Jonah Martin Dorrance

Oct 17 PA-PHIL

2005 N 900 E unit 218

Provo IT 84602

The following two pictures are important to our family, the story is in an email Martin sent to Jonah this week. (below) 

Martin and JD Brown

Justin Brown

Elder Dorrance,

Background - JD Brown is one of my best friends from high school. Julie Gerrard I have known since the 4th grade at JA Taylor. JD married Julie. Mike Parker, another best friend from HS, married Andrea (Julie's younger sister) I have history with these families. Justin Brown, JD and Julie's son is at the MTC with Jonah. I asked him to stalk Elder Brown and get a picture. attached

Jonah,

I have been thinking back to my baptism and your meeting with JD and Julie's son at the MTC.

You need to understand the importance of the Brown and Gerrard family in my conversion. Yes Elder Brown's dad baptized me and was my escort through the Temple 2 years later and was at my sealing with Mom, but there is more. As a convert to the Church you come in knowing the basics but not everything. A testimony is built of faith and learning. Through your experience you gain a growing testimony of Heavenly Fathers influence in your life and your ability to rely on the Spirit grows. Children use their parents testimony as they grow and rely on their parents testimony that they are doing the right things. Converts with no family in the Church have to go it alone. I had Elder Brown's parents and grand parents (on both sides) to help me when I was first baptized.

Being a convert is hard. You look around at people in Sacrament and wonder how they know it is all true and you still have questions. The Elders in the picture at my baptism were great elders (Smith and Kaufman) but they had to go find others looking for the truth in the gospel and I was by myself at Church. I was on my own and Elder Brown's family was a great part of my success to stay in the Church. My family was not supportive of my decision and I had to decide why I was there after I was baptized and if I should stay.

Would I have fallen away if Elder Brown's family were not there for me? I don't know that would have happened but I was able to grow and become truly converted to the gospel with their help.

Seeing my children go on missions and change the lives of God's children is truly one of life's sweetest blessings. Seeing my life change from my decision to be baptized many years ago and now you are there with Elder Brown adds a sweet symmetry to life and how planting a seed now in your missionary work can really change generations.

The work you are doing is true and worthy of your time and all your efforts. Know Heavenly Father has some of his sweetest blessings for you as you lead out in Missionary work that hopefully someday I can follow you.

Love,

-Dad

This is Jonah's friend Sue, you'll be seeing him throughout his mission

Sue