Elder Jonah Dorrance's Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Mission: Week 5

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!