Elder Jonah Dorrance's Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Mission: Week 4

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