One of the Happiest Weeks I Have Had In My Mission

Wow this last week felt really crazy!!  It was full of all sorts of experiences and we were really really blessed with tons of stuff that happened!!  This week was probably one of the happiest weeks I have had in my mission!!  We definitely could see the hand of the Lord in our work. 

Tuesday we went and saw Julio and the Family Moreno.  We are trying to get them married but it isn't really working out!  Julio we went and saw him and I will tell a story later about him.  It was a good day and we were able to work hard!  We also got out a little late because I was in the offices working on getting the Mission credit cards shut down for the end of the year.  So that was something I did a lot of this week!!

Wednesday we had an awesome day as well!  We have been working super super hard for weeks now and we just kind of felt like people aren't accepting us and that we haven't had tons of success as far as our numbers go but today was just an awesome day and it was really an example of how our week was!  Our ward is awesome and they love to help us and so this week we had all of our lessons with Members present and we have gotten lots of references!  But anyways back to today!  We went and saw Abraham which was awesome!  He committed himself to a fecha on the 6th of February so we are super stoked for that!  He is an awesome guy and he has been really changing!  It is awesome to see him progress every day!  

Thursday this is the day that people celebrate here instead of Christmas!  So we were packed with citas today!  But all of them to eat!  So we ate a ton of food today!  My Food baby was at an all time high!!  I am pretty sure I weighed 180 pounds at the end of the day!  But more than just great food we were able to go and see some of our favorite families and they had invited some investigators over!  So we were able to get lots of amazing work done!!  We were so lucky and blessed to have seen them all and they were all good!  I love our ward honestly!  It is sad to think that the time that I have left here is slowly being less and less!  

Friday was the day that we called you guys!  That was fun! 

Besides that we just hung out here in the offices!  Elder Ibarra asked his mom to send us Buffalo Wild Wings since she has friends here in DF and so that is what we ate at night!  It was super super good and I didn't remember how much I missed those and how much I love them!!  So that is how we spent our day!  It was relaxed but much needed!

Saturday we had a really really weird day! I went and got some tests done!  Well the blood tests at least!  I have to poop in four plastic cups by Thursday and take them in so they can finish the tests though.  So I will be going back this week!  But here is a cool story we had today.  We walk into the clinic to get the work done and we sit down right next to this guy.  well he starts to talk to us in english about everything and it turns out his mom is a member and she was there next to him.  So we get talking and he is some doctor and he was getting some studies done for his heart and all that stuff and it was all cool!  Well he gets up to go for his tests and he is like hey elders wait for me and then after we will all go next door and get some food!  the funny part is Elder Olson had just made the comment that he wanted to try the food there while we passed it on the way to the clinic!  So he ends up inviting us to eat there and he paid and invited us over to spend new years with him and all sorts of stuff like that!  He was super super cool and an awesome guy!  We always have cool things like that happening to us!  Alright so then we get back to the offices and Elder Murray was feeling really sick!  But when he gets sick he passes out and so it is not good for him to leave!  But they had tons of appointments to do so it was time for weird divisions!!  So I went out with Elder Ibarra and we went to the food in my area and then went to the food in his area and then worked his area!  Our touch so it kind of made sense!  Well we wanted to see Julio still so we walked to pick up Daniel to take him with us and we headed out!  We had a solid lesson with Julio and he Committed himself to go to church on Sunday! Also we got tons of pan for our house again! He is honestly amazing and he has made tons of progress we just hope he will go to church tomorrow!!

Sunday usually I don't write Sunday besides who went to church but we actually had a very very productive day today!  We went to church and Everyone we were waiting for came today! For the first time in like ever everyone came!!  So we were super super happy! Julio even came and he was on time and everything!  It was awesome!  So Pres also came to our ward today!  Elder Olson Pres and I all spoke which was pretty cool too!  Pres gave an amazing talk and I felt like everything he said was perfect for what we have been trying to work with our investigators on and the ward which was awesome!  He is an amazing and an inspired man! i am lucky to be in this mission with him and even more lucky to work so closely with him!!  So after church we just went to the food and then headed out to have our corelation meeting with our ward mission leader! Who is the biggest stud!  He has had some ideas and wants to come everyday with us to try and see if we can get some more references this week from people! He works so hard and he is amazing!  So we had an awesome meeting that was about two hours and just everything about it was awesome!!  so leaving this we went to the temple to see the temple lights they put up here with a reference from our first counselor.  So that was awesome too!  All in all we had an amazing week!

So this is the story from Tuesday I wanted to share with you guys!  We went to go and see Julio and we didn't fully know what we wanted to do or teach but we knew that we needed to go and share something with them.  So we left and we finally made it out to his panaderia and he wasn't there just his wife.  So we talked with her and it turned out that the gas company came and took their gas tank and so they had all sorts of stuff to make the pan but they didn't have anything to be able to cook it with!  So they were all pretty sad about the situation.  So we were just waiting for julio to get there and finally he showed up.  We talked a little and he just had no idea what he was going to do!  They started calling the company and just had no luck!  So I looked at Elder Olson and I said ¨How about we call the Hermano Moreno maybe he can help us.¨  The Hermano Moreno has a gas company and so we knew that he wouldn't have any tanks at his house but maybe he could go by the next day or something to help us.  So we call him and he was like ¨Yeah Elders I actually brought a tank home today so if you guys come by right now and pick it up I will help you put it up!¨  We were just like oh okay whatever! So we get to his house and he just gave us this gas tank to put up on the panaderia and it actually had enough gas for Julio to work for two days which is how much he had left in the other tank!! After we had finally gotten the tank up and running we went back to the Moreno's house and we said thank you and how great of a family they are and he was like ¨Elders I had brought that tank home today for my aunt and once I got home I called her and she said she didn't want it anymore.  When you guys called me I realized that God had me bring that tank home so I could help this Investigator out!¨  It was an amazing experience for Elder Olson and I!  This experience has helped my testimony to grow a ton!  I know that God knows us personally and I know that he worries about us!  He Loves us and will always be here to help us with everything!  Something we try and do as missionaries is go about doing good.  Many times God will bless other people through us and will bless us through other people.  This day the Hermano showed us an amazing example of how we can do this!  I know that when we follow the example of Jesus Christ and show charity to others we will be able to experience happiness.  It doesn't always have to be something so big!  Even doing simple acts we will be able to feel of the love that christ has for us and for the people we are serving!  Just to finish my email I found and awesome scripture this week that I would like to share with you all it is found in Philippians 2:7 and it is talking about Christ and it reads like this

 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

I love you guys! Have a great week and I will email you next week!!

Love,

Elder Orchard

We played soccer and basketball with the jovenes from our ward today so it was like working with the youth and then Wednesday they are going to split up with us and we are going to go and visit about ten jovenes.

Moving Day and Chilis

Alright so this week feels like we didn't do much!  Probably because it was pretty slow of a week!  

Tuesday we went and worked really well.  We were able to find a new and he is awesome!!  He is progressing like a stud!!  He is the Boyfriend of a member and he was like I don't want you to think that I am doing this just for her!  And he asks awesome questions!  We left him a chapter to read in the book of mormon and so we will see if he actually reads!  Other than this we went and saw Julio and we had a good lesson.  The spirit was there and I guess we will see what happens out of it!

Wednesday we didn't work today because we went to the doctor and we stayed at presidents house because we were going to wake up and go clean some houses. I went with the doctor and he wants me to do some tests and then I will go back to see him in a couple weeks.  He said that he doesn't want me drinking any lactose for a little bit to see if that is what is giving me diarrhea. So we will see how the next little while goes. 

Thursday today was Presidents birthday and so we had a good time with him and we cleaned out a bunch of houses!  It was actually really cool because we gave away a lot of stuff!!  It felt good doing that and it made it a lot easier on us because we had less stuff to move around and bring home!  It was a good day!  Pres took us to Chilis and that was good too!  But we had a fun day and it was cool to hang out with him all day!

Friday we worked.  We went and saw Abraham and he is doing awesome!  He read and understood very very well! We left him 3 nefi chapter 11 and one thing that he recognized was that Nefi was given the authority to baptize the people and it was really cool!  We said we want to put a fecha with him and he said he wants to think and pray and put one himself so when we go back on Wednesday we will get his fecha so we are really excited to go through with him and see how it goes!  

Saturday we went to a christmas party at night and that was really good!  We were able to see some people that are less actives and investigators and that was cool!  The sad part is not many of them went to church on Sunday!  But we are just going to keep working hard and getting people when we can keep seeing some success!  Hopefully things will continue to progress better and we can keep gettting people to make some changes!

I will talk to you guys on Friday and I guess that is about it! 

Have a good week I love you guys!

Love 

Elder Orchard

Mission Christmas Party

Alright well I am writing so late because on Monday we had a mission Christmas party so here I am today writing you guys!!

Alright so Last week we had a pretty good week!! We really worked hard and were able to see some cool things happen!  First off we are now the only missionaries in our ward and we have already found a couple news and they are really cool!  This Friday we are going to put a fecha with one of them for the second of Enero  and so we are excited for all of that!!  

On Tuesday we had some really good lessons.  We went with Julio and we were able to find a little more what has been going on with him!  The spirit was really strong and he has really changed since that lesson!  He has started reading again and better!  He is understanding everything a lot better and we are excited the only hard thing is that it is pretty hard to teach and invite them to church when you are going to have a temple dedication so it was hard but it was good.

Wednesday we had zone conference and it was awesome!  Like probably top three coolest I have had in the mission!!  I learned a ton and it was a very spiritual experience and I left feeling good!  Then we went to the Familia Macedos house and they gave us good food and we enjoyed the time with them that we spent!  Then we headed out again to Julio!

Thursday we went to the food and had a lot of lessons planned so we took Elder Brown because he is in a Trio and then we could do divisions easier! So here is kind of a funny story but it is sad as well.  Julio's kids are sooooooooooo bad!  Like I have no idea what to do with them!  I literally take off my name tag everytime we go because if I don't it is going to end up far far far away from me and I won't see it again.  We have to wear sweaters so they can't run while holding your tie or just take it off completely!  Needles to say it is pretty crazy all of that!!.  Everyday it is just weird and hard!!  We just can't control them!!

Anyways Friday we didn't work because of Virgin day and so we just were at home hanging out!!  We played some games and honestly it was really boring!  We did some office stuff and just finished for the week!  

Saturday we also didn't work and so we just hung out at home and had a meeting with President and we talked all about some things for the new zone that we are going to open in January!  It was a good weekend.

Sunday was the temple dedication and then we just went home to get things ready for the party that we had on Monday and so it was a relax week but we also got some good work done!  This week we have lots of good plans too and we are already working good and hard.  We will see what happens later though! Have a good week! I love you!!

Elder Orchard

Birthday Jello and A Day in the Hospital

Birthday jello made by Laura.

Hello!!  Well this week was a good week!  We felt like we had a lot of success and we definitely got blessed! We worked really hard and I could definitely see some blessings out of it!  

Tuesday we went with a less active and he gave us a couple references that we went and tried to contact but didn't have any luck yet!  Then we went with Julio and he was doing great! We had an awesome lesson with them and we were able to finally get him to commit to going to church this week.  We were a little bold with him but I think it went good!  We need to go and visit him a little more often so that way he can come and do all these things!  

Wednesday was a less productive day.  I went to the hospital because I got pretty sick Tuesday night so that was our whole day I could have written something here but I think that Olson's description is a lot better, "I was DYING in the appointment hahahahahaha. So we get there and the doctor is like looking down and writing something, and he goes "So what do you have?" And Orch goes "diarrhea" And the guy is looking down writing still and goes "how long" and orch goes "the better part of 3 months" and the guy just drops his pen and looks up all slowly and goes "what?" hahahaha and then he goes "wait whats that on your arm is that related??" and I go "este... that actually was me. I burned him." hahahaha and he goes "Are you sure?" and I go "yeah. I'm sure." So he goes "alright. I'm going to run some tests" and like had Orch lay down and like poked him in the tummy and who knows what else and he goes "okay... i'll uh.. i'll be back in a sec and explain" and he just left. So like 20 minutes later he comes back and goes "So we're going to send you to do some tests and see what happens. They can't be done here though so just like go get the results and then come back and we'll see what's going on" And I look at Orch and go "Dude. He has NO idea." And orch goes "I know man... I know." And it was super funny hahaha. I was dying."

Thursday we had a really good day.  We spent a lot of time with members and starting to get some stuff started to get a really good week for this week!  We went and saw some converts and then we went with Julio again and he is doing good.  We found a member to go and pass for him before church on Sunday and so he is really excited and we are too! It is awesome when our ward just decided so step it up and get things done!  We have noticed that the more that we visit them the more animated they get and the more willing they are to help and give us references and such!

Friday we just went to polanco all day so that was a really fun trip!  We found a Which Which so we ate there and so we had a good time that is for sure!

Saturday we went and worked in the afternoon like normal! We found some guy that went to Norway on his mission and so that was cool!  He was a cool guy!  Then we went with Julio and he said everything was good but then he didn't end up going to church so we were pretty sad about it!  I guess we will see what we do with him!  

I love you guys have a good week!

Elder Orchard

Cookies from Sister Stutz

Thanksgiving Feast with Mexican Coke

The new shirt Douglas bought for his upcoming birthday.

Alright well this week is going to be a little lame as far as the email goes! 

Monday was changes day and so I went to the MTC to pick up some things that I needed from there!  That was just a day spent hanging out with the News and training them all day!  So basically on a transfer week I do about the same things the whole time!  I Train them on some things and then I just translate the whole time while they are listening because we have realized if we don't translate the americans don't really understand anything!  So that is about how monday is spent every transfer!

Tuesday was changes day!  We wake up the news and get them ready for the day that they are going to have! Usually at this point we go to the neza stake center so that way we can get everything ready by the time that the missionaries get there.  This change we had to go and get a missionary that was sick because he was going home and so we started to go get his stuff and pack up for him and take that to presidents house so that way the kid could go home.

Wednesday we had spent the night at presidents house and when we woke up they were already gone and left us the note that was in the pictures of be ready at 10. 

It is always a good time at presidents house!  You never know what will happen when you are there! (At some point Douglas must have gone to the airport this day because Sister Stutznegger put these pics up on Facebook and said "This is what happens when I leave the camera with a few Elders at the airport.)

I just love this picture.  No wonder Douglas always looks like he is having fun!

So we went to the offices after that and then just got a little bit of work done and got ready to head back to Presidents house to spend the night for our thanksgiving party that we were going to have.  Went to the store and just got some stuff done and ready for the morning!  

Thursday we woke up and started cooking so that everything would be ready.  Finished with our assignments you could say and then we started to play some football.  Got some football played and then we went and ate a lot!  Which was nice a nice little thanksgiving feast with Mexican coke I can't think of really anything much better than that combo

Friday it was back to normal missionary work and we had a good productive day!  We had good lessons and met with our ward mission leader and just got some stuff done and figured out!

Saturday we went and picked up houses again so we hung out with Pres and Mom all day!  It was a blast but took forever!  So that was the whole day!  We got some good pictures in though!!!  We found some sweet aprons!  

Funny story of the week comes from this day, we had some beds on the roof of the van and so we pull up to the offices and we open up the garage and we pull the car in and we hear something slam against the machine that closes the garage and we look up and it was the beds that we had up there! So we tried to back out and we couldn't so we decided that I needed to get on the roof of the car and push the thing mattress and bedframe out of the bottom!  

So we are working and working and we finally get it off and I am about to get down when I realize that my butt has dented the car! So Olson is just dying of laughter I am like sad because of my big butt and pres just out of nowhere yells and hits the car and gets the dent out it all ended really cool that is for sure!!  

Have a great week!  I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Orchard

I love my new suit!  Thanks again!!  I put up a picture but you can't see it that well it is just a grey and it is good! Also stretch material!!

(Douglas didn't mentioned this but he did send pictures of putting up the tree.  I am guessing this is the office tree.  He didn't have one last year so I am glad his Christmas will be a little more festive:))