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.