Week 7: Miracles on Exchanges!!!

New Car

This week was insane!!! Not actually but now that I have your attention let's talk about Isaiah. I heard a story about a member of the church that was in the army. While in battle he was shot in the chest, which would have been fatal had he not had his book of mormon in his pocket. His comrade looked at the small book that had been torn to shreds in disbelief. "How could a book so small stop a bullet!?" He asked. The latter day saint responded "oh, nothing gets through 2 Nephi"

The Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon are often looked at as a barrier in the Book of Mormon that most would either just read the words or skip altogether. I'm here to tell you that you're a sinner if you do that. Haha just kidding but kinda not. Jesus said "yea, a COMMANDMENT I give into you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah." (3 nephi 23:1) 

I don't know of many books in the Bible or Book of Mormon that Jesus commands us by name to study. I'm just here to tell you to read over Isaiah again. Go SLOW!! Take 20 minutes for one chapter if you have to. Read for UNDERSTANDING. Give a real prayer for help in understanding the words and what the lord would have you know at that time. I can promise that if you do these things and really try, your testimony of the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ will grow.

Now onto the week!!! 

On Tuesday we had a zone conference about finding and really trying to listen to the spirit. It was super awesome 

On Wednesday we went contacting and had district council. Nothing too crazy.

On Thursday we had exchanges!!! It was so awesome. It's basically a sleepover for missionaries. Incredible. Elder Graham and I were able to go do service at the food bank which is awesome as always and we went contacting, with a twist! We really challenged ourselves to teach a principle on the doorstep and we were able to give out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon!! It was so great. We also finally got to meet Karen who is on date to be baptized. She is so great and so funny!! I can't wait to get to know her more. We also met the Sanchez family and the dads name is Ishmael. Ishmael is so awesome he was so excited to see elder Graham (elder Graham served in Everson like a year ago) he was so happy and he loved to talk and have a conversation with us. He offered to make carne asada for us some time. We ended the night at the Hillmans so elder Graham could see them again. Then we went and switched back. It was a good day.

On Friday we had a baptism interview for Marc! I'm so excited for that guy! we got a new car on Friday too. Wow it's so great. I think there's pics down there. Look at that cutie next to it as well. Mmmmm ya. It's a brand new car it only had 92 miles on it when we got it. We went contacting a bit and then we had a lesson at the raper compound the raper's are a huge family that all live super close to each other so we go over there and teach a lesson every once in a while. We played ninja! 

On Saturday we had maple falls day as per the uuuusssual. We had a couple lessons and we went contacting. It was awesome. 

Yesterday we had church and we went contacting. We drove up a long driveway with a bunch of snow but we had a new AWD so we just sent it and went mobbin we got to the house and we were looking for someone named Jennifer. We knock on the door and some guy opens the door and hes like "didnt you see the sign on your way in?" (There was a no trespassing sign but jokes on him tracting isn't trespassing gottem) we just sorta sidestepped the question and we were like "yea we are just looking for someone named Jennifer does anyone live here with that name?" He was like "no one named Jennifer lives within 20 acres of here" and we said "oh ok that's fine" and then being good missionaries asked what his name and all he said was "you better hop in that car and start drivin" so we did that.

We met an older couple the Briggs. They haven't been to church in like 30 years because they aren't interested in organized religion but we talked with them for like 40 minutes. They are super awesome. Their dogs names are journey and zeppelin so we got along just fine haha. After that we went and had dinner at the Romneys! It was great. We had waffles.

And that's everything! 

Talk to you next week! 

Read 2 Nephi 12-24!!

Count your blessings!!!

Love Elder Dorrance

Old Car

Zone P-day Brunch

Week 6: my first name is elder

Honestly this week was like mega boring because I can't remember anything that happened so I'm just gonna tell ya a couple highlights:

There was a bunch of snow so I got to serve a bunch of people by shoveling!! It was great. Oh yea and then when we were done and headed back home, we decided to start shoveling our parking lot for our complex and like 2 minutes after we started, a snow plow came saw us working and decided to do the entire thing for us!!! Blllleeeessssseeeddddd!! Blessed!!! 

Uh we went to a baptism for someone that elder anderson taught a while ago and so we got a member ride from the romneys and they took us out to dinner as well which was so good! And the baptism was awesome too!!

Anyway I think that's all I got for this week unless I think of something more.

Count your blessings!! 

Love Elder Dorrance

Week 5: I thought i was moving away from the snow

Elder Anderson says all this snow is so awesome because it never happens. its been like 16 months since he saw snow last. i saw it like a week ago in the MTC. i wish it would have come when i was actually missing it haha

this last week was the week that we basically stayed inside and got a sum total of  z e r o  work done. it was great.

on Tuesday Elder Anderson caught the black plague and he basically died that day

on Wednesday we had district council and a meeting with the bishop to talk about progress and stuff. after that elder Anderson died again until we had a meeting with the Lindseys. they are this super awesome young family. they have two kids one in sixth grade and one that is like 4 or 5. he was like the biggest ball of energy I've ever seen. he was jumping all over us and he kicked his dad in the face during the prayer it was absolutely awesome.

on Thursday elder Anderson woke up a corpse again and i insisted we call the bishop. he gave him a blessing and elder anderson started feeling a little bit better so we decided to go to the food bank to do some service. we met Lynn there who was this really devout member of the Church of Christ and he very politely said that we were completely apostate and we were disgracing god. it was cool. after that elder anderson took a nap because he was still half corpse, then we went to have a lesson with the Hillmans!!!they are so awesome!!!! they are both RMs and they are an older couple and they have so many missionary stories. they let us teach them the first lesson and it went super great! after the lesson brother Hillman asked us to give him a blessing as he hadn't been feeling 100% for the past month so we said yea for sure and he was like can you do it pointing to me and i was like uh yea i guess so ok this is the first time i will have given a blessing i was so nervous but i basically just sent it and it went great.

on Friday we had weekly planning until we ate lunch and elder Anderson made 5 taquitos, now he made this decision knowing full well that he was dead the day prior and woke up feeling dead. he got 2 taquitos in and he just handed me the other three and went to lay down. it was not a good idea hahaha

we stayed in until we went contacting at 5 which occupied us for the rest of the night.

Saturday was maple falls day!!!!!!! we all love maple falls day. i don't remember if i told you about maple falls yet but its basically a super run down community about 30-40 miles out of town and we have a lot of members that live there. we cant afford the miles to go out there like every other day so we designate Saturday as maple falls day!! we got to meet katherine taylor who didn't have a third male in the house so we had to talk outside in the freezing wind and snow it was awful but it was really great at the same time. it was an emotional conversation. after that we just went contacting for the rest of the day!

on Sunday we went to church which is great as always and afterwards sister brown and brother brown invited us over for lunch! it was delicious. they made an egg casserole that made me want to die it was so good!!! after that we shared a message on being patient and we left. right outside their house was this frozen pond and me and elder Anderson slid around on that for a bit. i got pictures!! it was super awesome. after we got home to start planning for the day, it started snowing really bad so we were inside all day. i taught elder Anderson how to do a Rubik cube!!!

anywho tahts all i got for this week! kind of a long one i think but who cares only my mom reads these anyway! 

Count your blessings!!!

        

<3  / 

    /    Elder Dorrance

Dutch Village

Week 4 I came home

I finally got to Washington! My home for the next 2 years! 

We got in to Washington Tuesday night where we sorta talked a little bit with the mission president and had pizza. After that we went to the assistants house and slept there in a bunch of bunk beds. When we were getting ready for bed I pulled some puss-soaked cotton out from underneath my ingrown toe nail, and when I went to show elder smith, (he is super grossed out by feet stuff) my toe started bleeding like a lot and it made a trail of blood splotches. The assistants were pretty annoyed with me. 

That morning on Wednesday we went to the church and did a bunch of training and did interviews with the president. Oh man something super embarrassing: so our mission president hates the words sweet cool and suck and during the interview I was asked to give the opening prayer. Now I knew he hated these words before but I still proceeded to thank Heavenly Father that President Wilding was "cool and not a nerd" I said those words during a prayer. So I'm off to a good start. After that he told us who we were getting paired up with. I got paired up with Elder Anderson! He's a super solid guy that's really good at basketball and has been out for like 14 months. 

We got assigned to Everson which is the most Northern part of Washington. A lot of dirt roads and farms. Since then we have basically just been getting to know the members and tracting. Nothing too crazy. Oh but yesterday it started snowing really bad and it's against the rules to drive in the snow so we stayed inside and watched church movies all day. I got like 12 hours of sleep it was great. 

Today for p-day we played volleyball as a district and then me and Elder Anderson went to Costco because he has a membership. It was pretty great to be able to shop. 

Assigned to the largest ward and stake - almost the Canadian Border

Must have Costco cheesecake whenever possible