Home Sooner Than Anticipated

The first email we got from Douglas was not uplifting.  You could tell he was in a very unfamiliar place and he was not feeling comfortable:

sorry for all of my uncapitalized letters and grammar mistakes the keyboards are in spanish and they are totally different.

so the CCM is basically pretty boring!  I sit in class everyday and the teacher talks for three hours in spanish!  little did i know i would be in school the whole time i was here!  my spanish is going pretty well and so thats good!  my companion is pretty chill.  he wasnt any of the nerdy people that we pointed out so that is a plus!  he is better than jacobs companion thats for sure!  i can pretty much count on seeing him three times a day because when we get to eat he is just leaving.  the food has been alright at some points.  they have fed us some pretty weird foods!  they have a pretty good variety, kind of, for things we can eat.  we have had all sorts of mexican food.  tacos and burritos and quesadillas.  the food kind of is just the same thing too though because they have meat which is anything from beef to chicken to lamb to dog and they just throw some peppers in there and call it good.  oh and everything has onions.  the two other elders that are staying in our room are so annoying!  they like wait until the very end to do things they could have done for an hour but i mean it happens so whatever!

so we were all excited to get to bed the first night and we slept pretty good because of how tired we all were!  we woke up early the next morning to get ready and it turns out we had absolutly zero hot water!  we took cold showers for a week before the CCM actually sent someone out to fix it!  the water tastes discusting though!!  they gave us purification water bottles and that is the only way i can stand drinking it!  things with our first investigator have gone pretty good!  we tried to commit him to baptism yesterday but he didn't understand why he had to be baptized again.  so asked him to pray and we will see what he says tonight!  our first two lessons were pretty terrible but we have pulled it through and we are doing pretty good now!

The MTC gives us 8 dollars a week to live on!!  which is 100 pesos!!  its crazy!

I don't really know what else to say but i will be on emailing until about twelve fifteen!

i love you guys!

love,

elder orchard

He proceeded to chat with his dad and that is when we knew things were really not going well.

Russell:  Are you feeling homesick or are you doing ok that way?

Douglas: I was felling pretty crappy the first few days.  i would say i am probably.  it is nice that i am getting to talk to you now though you know.  i have been having pains where i had my hernia though and i have it on both sides.  the doctor perscribed me that same way the guys did at home but it is honestly the same pain in the same area!  it just keeps getting worse and worse and it hurts more now than it did when i had the first one

Russell:  That isn't cool.  Maybe you can have your comp give you a blessing?

done that but it just keeps getting wore. the doctor gave me pills but i cant go on with this pain for two years dad...

He went on to talk about the CCM feeling like a prison because of the barbed wire.  He described hearing shots fired at night, dogs barking and seeing police carrying machine guns. We tried to encourage him to have faith and work through it but we knew this was not going in the right direction.

I got a phone call one morning.  It was from a CCM doctor.  He told me he had taken pictures of Douglas' hernia and needed to send him home.  I told him I didn't believe he really had a hernia and asked if he could please stay.  He assured me he had a hernia and was sending Douglas, and the images of proof, home to get it fixed.  I can imagine how crazy he must have thought I was doubting his expertise.  But, a mom knows these kinds of things. 

Douglas got home the night of July 28th.  I don't think we welcomed him with quite as much enthusiasm as he had to see us.  We were concerned about where this turn of events would take him physically and spiritually.  We arranged for him to see a doctor right away.  And, our worst fears were confirmed.  He did not have a hernia.  We showed the doctor the images from Mexico.  He said they showed nothing.  It's important to know that during high school, Douglas had experienced similar pain.  We went to doctors who could not detect a hernia.  We finally went to a sports doctor who said he might have a hidden sports hernia that can only be detected by surgery.  So, we did the surgery.  When the doctor told me the findings, he said he didn't think he really fixed anything but hoped it helped.  So, after this CCM experience, we were perplexed.  

Russell and I felt like abdominal pain was Douglas' way of exposing his stress.  Some people get headaches.  Some cry.  He gets lower body pain.  But we weren't certain where to go from here. That's when we gave it all to the Lord.  We prayed.  We went to the temple. We dived into the scriptures and we fasted every single Sunday until he went back. Our dear friend and neighbor, Chris Hutchison, was instrumental in helping us. He is an OB.  We sought advice from him.  He was the one that suggested Douglas may have IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).  This made so much sense!  He took time to talk to us and answer any questions Douglas had.  I feel like we finally got somewhere!

It took several weeks for Douglas to commit to returning.  I don't know how he got there.  But I am extremely grateful he did.  

I am writing this post 6 years after this experience even though the date shows otherwise. I had a gap in his story that needed to be filled.  It's hard to say why this happened.  He had real pain.  He did not have a hernia, yet he got sent home.  It's possible his heart wasn't in the right place and he needed some time to work through his doubts.  There were also some amazing things that Douglas needed/got to do at the end of his mission that he might have missed if the timing had been different.  Whatever the reason, I think we all learned a lot.  We learned to trust in God's timing.  We learned to have faith.  Russell and I learned to receive parental guidance for a child that was old enough to choose his way.  He choose well.  

Cameron Hansen, a friend from school

Diagnosing

He's Off

Before we get to the send-off, I wanted to include some other important pictures.

Douglas and three of his Cottonwood High School baseball friends went to the temple together for the first time.  I'm so glad we found a day for all of our schedules to align.  Having the support of teammates and friends is priceless.  These boys spent 4 years together and it was awesome to see them all go and serve the Lord.  

Douglas, Jeff, Dylan, Jake

Baseball Buddies

June 7th, Jordan River Temple

Douglas had such a hard time leaving baseball behind.  It had been such a HUGE part of him for so long.  He used any extra weight he had in his suitcase to bring some balls along.

It's hard to give up the game

Farewell Sunday

Big brother's example to Mason

Big brother's example to Stockton

Douglas had an early flight so, on July 9, we dropped him off at the airport around 4:00 am.  It was SO HARD to watch him go through security and up the escalator.  We shed a lot of tears.  I had prepared myself, and him, for this moment from the time he was small but words can't really describe the hole in your heart when you know you won't see your child for 2 years.  Russell and I both described it as a bit of a mourning process.  Our hearts were heavy with letting him go but there is nowhere else we would rather him be!  This is what he is supposed to do!

On his own

We watched until we couldn't see him anymore 😢

Why Do I Want to Volunteer as a Missionary?

Our stake has a blog that the youth write for.  Douglas was asked to be a guest writer.  Here is the article he submitted.

By Douglas Orchard

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to volunteer as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The question was never IF I would serve a mission, the question was more where would I be going to serve a mission.  I have always known that a mission was the right thing to do and my dad has constantly told me that there are things you will learn on a mission that you will not learn anywhere else.  I have a love for the gospel and I know without a doubt that it is true.  I am grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and I want to go out and share it with others so they can have this same knowledge.  I want the people of Mexico to have the same happiness that the gospel has given me.  President Thomas S. Monson has said,

"First, to young men of the Aaronic Priesthood and to you young men who are becoming elders: I repeat what prophets have long taught-that every worthy, able young man should prepare to serve a mission.  Missionary service is a priesthood duty-an obligation the Lord expects of us who have been given so very much.  Young men, I admonish you to prepare for service as a missionary.  Keep yourselves clean and pure and worthy to represent the Lord.  Maintain your health and strength.  Study the scriptures.  Where such is available, participate in seminary or institute.  Familiarize yourself with the missionary handbook Preach My Gospel."

I have been super blessed to have amazing examples in my life of people who have dedicated their life for two years to serve the Lord on a mission.  The one who sticks out to me most is my uncle Dallas.  I say uncle but our relationship is more like he is my brother.  He left on his mission when I was five years old.  I was pretty excited to take over his room at my grandparent's house where we lived at the time.  This is the first person I can completely and 100% remember going on a mission.  Little did Dallas know that he would inspire a kid who had not even been baptized yet to go on a mission.  I wrote Dallas constantly while he was gone, I couldn't wait for his letter to come and see what he had to say.  To this day I have his letters saved in a binder that I will occasionally go through.  Now it is apparent more than ever how often he bore his testimony of the importance of a mission.  The small and simple things that he would say in his letters about his love for the Filipino people and his love of the gospel helped push me to serve a mission.

Now it is my turn to go and serve the Lord.  I know that there is nothing more important for me to do at this time in my life than to go and serve the Mexican people.  I know that it will not be easy but I know that the things I learn and the experiences I have will bless me and my family forever.  I hope that I can be as influential as Dallas was to me.