Christmas Package from Elder Dorius!!!

Thursday, December 23 was about the best day ever. We got a package from Brad! He sent a Korean children's songbook, a cd of Christmas songs in Korean, and PICTURES! We were so excited about the pictures since we haven't gotten any from him. It was such a treat.

Elder Dorius and Elder Stanley.

They were friends from high school and performed together all the time. It is crazy that now they get to serve together.

Elder Dorius and his companion Elder Palspher. They are both from St. George.

These are some native Korean missionaries that were in the MTC for 3 weeks and then they went back to Korea.

All the name tags from the district.

These 3 elders are from St. George and all together in the same district. Elder Stanley is the 4th elder from St. George...but he is in the other district.

The district

This is Elder Dooley...His Aunt and Uncle were in our ward in Soda Springs and we knew them very well. They are in the MTC heading on a mission to Fance and we told them to keep a look out for Brad. Yep you guessed it... they have a nephew going to Korea and they are in the same district. It's such a small world.

Christmas at the MTC

Christmas in the MTC

Hey everyone,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It sounds like you all had a good Christmas. I'm really glad you got those movies so I can watch them when I get back. And Kadin that wand thing sounds pretty cool too. Nothing sounds better than a new roof for Christmas. That's probably the best present you guys got haha. Ok probably not. That doesn't sound too fun. All of us St. George elders have been hearing about the rain down there. It sounds like there was a ton of water but everything was ok because they were prepared. If ye are prepared ye shall not fear. Oh before I forget, I need Jeff and Jen's address. They sent me a package and I need to write them back. They gave me a whole box of fresh mangoes. Not just the dried mangoes from Costco, but the real fruit. It's so good. Also have you heard anything about my license? I'm pretty sure it should be done by now. Maybe check up on that if you get a chance.

Well Christmas in the MTC is awesome! We had a little Christmas tree set up in our room and we put all of our packages and gifts underneath it. On Christmas Eve we set it up in the middle of our room and piled all of our stuff under it. It was awesome. We woke up Christmas morning and got ready like normal and then opened all of our gifts. Please tell the deacons quorum thank you for the package. They sent me a whole bag of dried mangoes, peanut M&M's, candy, a hacky sack, a tennis ball, and letters. It was really nice. I also got some Christmas cards from some of the ward members. Those helped make my Christmas special. On Christmas Eve, we got to watch Mr. Kruger's Christmas and eat popcorn. That was fun. Then on Christmas morning we had a missionary talent show. It was awesome. There were some hilarious performances. Jesse you'll appreciate this. Two elders sang "Tribute" by Jack Black but changed the words to missionary work. It was so sweet. After that we had our Christmas dinner for lunch. It wasn't too bad, but I was full from all the mangoes and M&M's and food I got. Anyway after that we had a devotional. Russel M. Nelson and his wife spoke. He is such a good speaker and he knows so much about the gospel. After that we had our sack lunch dinner in our rooms. Just a humble sandwhich and chips, but once again I was still full from the food I had been eating all day. Then we had a fireside. It wasn't a typical fireside. Two guys that volunteer here acted out "A Christmas Carol." They were really good. But we did have a special guest. Elder Nelson decided to stay and watch the fireside too. So we got to see him again that day. Then the next day we had a special Priesthood meeting. Elder Nelson came and spoke to us. Again. All he used was his scriptures. He talked about the gathering of Isreal and our role in that. He taught us a lot. It was definately one of the best Christmases I've ever had, if not the best. It was nice to kind of forget about the stress of missionary work and the classes and just enjoy the weekend. I now know what the Christmas spirit is and the true meaning of Christmas. To be honest, I didn't really miss you guys. Well I did. A little. But I'm with my other family here. Thanks for all the prayers and support. Give the Dorius family my love this weekend. Enjoy the holidays. Talk to you next year.

Love, Elder Dorius

Half Time

Hey Everyone,

Mom I'm sorry to hear about your toe. That's unfortunate, but not surprising. Hopefully that gets better. That's also too bad for the computer. Good thing you got it fixed though. Dad could you send me a list of some good opening, closing, and sacrament hymns? It's not as easy to pick hymns for church than one might think. Especially in the Korean hymnbook. They don't have quite as many songs. It sounds like grandma's eye surgery was a success. I bet she's pleased with that. Kylie thanks for telling me about your party. It sounds like fun. It also sounds like you're enjoying my phone. That's good to hear. How's Kadin's foot doing? Is he still wearing his boot? What are your guys' plans for Christmas? Are you going to SLC and partying with the fam?

Well I am now halfway done with the MTC. If you haven't kept track, this is my 6th week here. The time has gone by so fast! I've gotten some cards from a few people in the ward and I even got a package of gifts. I don't know who it's from exactly but it was really nice. Also thank you mom and Danielle and anyone else who contributed to my Christmas package. The cinnamon rolls were good by the mangoes were awesome! I've missed those. I haven't opened any of my presents yet. We have a mini Christmas Tree in our room so we put all our gifts under it and are waiting to open them on Christmas morning. The MTC is an awesome place to be for Christmas. Especially for us going to Korea because it's not really a big deal over there. I can't remember the schedule exactly but we have a couple firesides and fun stuff all day Saturday so I'm pretty excited. I'll have to tell you about it next week.

It's finally looking like winter up here. The past couple weeks we've had really nice weather. It felt like St. George until yesterday. It snowed ALL day long. When we walked out of our building this morning, there was at least 6 inches all over the place. Luckily we're inside most of the time so it's not too bad. And now we can get acclimated for the cold Korea weather.
I did see Bro. Monson the other day. It was so funny. I heard someone yelling "Elder Dorius!" and I couldn't tell where it was coming from, then I saw him driving a car and waving to me. It totally made my day. Whenever we see someone from the outside world they suddenly become a celebrity.

Well all of the elders in the older districts are now in Korea. The group that came in the same day as me will be by ourselves for a couple of weeks then the new elders will come in. It's nice to know that we don't stay here forever and people actually go to Korea. Evert tune we hear something about it we get more excited to go.

The TRC went well on Saturday. We ended up teaching our same "investigator" as the week before and we taught her the same lesson. So it wasn't very realistic. But it was still good. That was the last time we teach the lessons in English. After six weeks you start teaching the lessons in your mission language. It's pretty intense. I've learned quite a bit but everyday we learn something new that keeps me humble. Well I'm still doing great. I'm loving every minute of my mission. Thanks for all the support. Merry Christmas!

Elder Dorius

Christmas Package!

Our family (mostly mom and I) got up early on Saturday and made Elder Dorius some cinnamon rolls and filled his stocking. We sent some mangos, candy, peanut bars and other things. I should have taken a picture but I didn't think of it until the package had already been sent. :(

On the note of packages, the Post Mart down in the complex by Buy Low, Seagull Book, and the Dollar Theater just off University Parkway does same day MTC delivery. Weekdays you just need to get your package to them by 3:30pm and Saturdays you need it in by 10:30am. If you already have your box then it only costs $2 for up to 40 lbs to send your missionary a package. That was a good discovery! So if anyone wants to send Elder Dorius a package, that's a great way to do it.

Till We Meet Again.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the prayers and letters. Dad and Jesse sorry I missed your guys' birthdays. It wasn't very good timing with my p-day. So happy late birthday. Thanks for letting me know about Seth's call. (note: I talked to my parents and he's going to London England, just in case anyone was wondering like me, now you know!) That's so cool. I told Elder Stanley and he thought that was pretty sweet as well. You'll have to keep me up dated on all the mission calls.

Mom I think either one of those pictures would be fine. I was thinking of having one of the studio shots for the plaque and not one of the backdrop pictures but they both look nice. And as far as baked goods go, I'm pretty sure you can send anything as long as it doesn't go bad when it's in the mail. But that shouldn't be too hard, especially if Danielle can drop it off or whatever. So send me whatever you want. The TRC went well this last weekend. It was about the same as last week but we had a different investigator. During our contacting I figured out she was a hak-sang (student) so I felt pretty good about that. We've moved on to teaching lesson two in Preach My Gospel. It's the plan of salvation. It's really fun to teach because it applies to everyone, but at the same time it's hard to teach because you have to teach it very simply. Especially with a language barrier. We have one more week of teaching in English then we start teaching the lessons in Korean. I'm still learning a lot of the language. We learn a few new things everyday. We just learned how to share scriptures in Korean yesterday and we learned adjectives. It's a lot to take in but it's coming along.

So there's been some changes to the zone this week. One of the districts in the older group left yesterday and the other district leaves on Monday. That means we got new zone leaders and new district leaders. I got a calling but it's not one of those. I'm the branch music cordinator! It's the best "calling" ever. I'm in charge of choosing the hymns for sacrament and priesthood meeting and I set up musical numbers. I'm really excited. It's weird to have some of the older elders gone though. In Korean culture they build "jung" which is like your relationship with someone. In Korea they build jung by giving each other money but that doesn't work out very well here at the MTC so we just play games, eat food, and hang out every Monday night to build jung. So even though I didn't associate with them much it was kinda hard to say good bye because of that brotherly love and having the same goal and same purpose. On Sunday night, the zone sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." It was really cool. But now I'm in the "older district." We're getting about 30 new elders in a couple weeks. It's crazy. Time doesn't exist here. But I'm excited. It means we're one step closer to Korea. And all of the older elders said once they leave time just flies by even faster. Oh and just so you know, I will not be calling home for Christmas because there's too many missionaries here. But I think I can call you from the airport when I fly out. I'll let you know about that for sure. Hope to hear from you soon.

Love, Elder Dorius

Embrace the Overwhelmage

I apologize, I was really busy with school this week, so we're going to pretend like this was posted on Tuesday!

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the letters. For time's sake I'll just try to respond to all the letters in this email.

Aunt Jen, I loved your email. You're family is awesome! Ty and Logan are so funny. I had a good laugh about that Santa story. Tell Tori congrats on the swimming and tell Justin congrats on making the basketball team. I'm glad to hear they're taking piano lessons. It's not always fun but it gets better and it's good to know how to play. There's only one other elder in my zone that plays the piano so I've played a few times since I've been here. I wish I would have practiced the hymns more. Thanks for keeping me in the loop with your family.

Grandpa and Grandma, thanks for the email as well. Isn't technology great? The MTC has kind of made me forgotten about technology. It's weird to see my teachers pull out their phones. Way to be on learning Spanish. That's so cool. I wish I could be learning Spanish right now. Haha. We make fun of the Spanish elders when they're complaining about the language. Sounds like you guys are doing well.

Family, thanks for your emails as well. Mom, thanks for facebook stalking my friends and telling me about their lives. I really appreciate that. (sarcasm) Kadin and Kylie, those are some good words to know. Tell Bro. Monson I learned "glue" yesterday. You guys won't have any idea what it is but he'll appreciate it. Basically it's like one of the hardest grammar forms in Korean and there's a bunch of different rules. My companion and I learned it and felt pretty awesome. Dad, I don't really remember Bishop Dooley. The name sounds familiar though. But I do know his nephew. He's in my zone. We had a good chat about Soda and Lava Hot Springs. There's also another elder from Pocatello. So I found some kindred spirits. Elder Gough is actually living on my same floor so I've seen him quite a few times and I saw Elder Herrin yesterday at breakfast. I love seeing the new missionaries. I hope I didn't look as lost as they do.

So this week my teach, Bro. Ball, was talking to us and kind of getting us back on track because we were feeling frustrated with the language and he said "embrace the overwhelmage." That became our district's motto. And this week had some "overwhelmage." Every Saturday, we go to the TRC. If you don't know what that is, it's basically where we do mock lessons with people who pretend to be investigators. Each week we have a new task and they progessively get more difficult each week. The first time we went, our investigators were the older district so it wasn't too bad. But on Saturday we had real people so it was a little more real. Our task was to introduce ourselves and get to know the person and their family and then set up an appointment to meet again in Korean. The people are usually RMs that speak Korean, but there's one lady who moved here from Seoul 7 months ago and she doesn't speak English very well. Guess who got to teach her. Me and my companion. It was the epitone of "overwhelmage." The contacting went pretty well. We said our lines and then she would answer and we had no idea what she just said. But somehow we were able to communicate enough to find out a little bit about her family and set up an appointment. So we go back about 10 minutes later to our appointment with her. Luckily we get to teach the lessons in English. Well usually that's lucky. We had to use really simple English and as many Korean words as we knew when we taught. There were times where we had a hard time getting a point across clearly but it wasn't too bad. But when we bore our testimonies the Spirit was so strong. There was a time she was on the verge of tears. It was amazing to see how the Spirit is the universal language and can touch anyone's heart. It just made me more excited to get out to Korea and experience that everyday. So yeah that's my first cool missionary story. Hope you all are doing well. Oh by the way, the mail is closed December 22-26 just so you know. I almost forgot. Also what's going on over in Korea? Did things settle down? My only connection to the real world is the weather. And the only window I look out of faces a building so it's not much help. Talk to you guys soon.

Elder Dorius