Fasting Miracles

Having fun with President Stutznegger!

Wow this week was something special!!  We saw one really cool miracle this week!  I mean it all kind of just started on Monday!  We left the offices and went to a meeting out in Ixtapaluca which are always fun!! But the real story is that we had three appointments on Monday night!  It was going to be at 7, 8 and 8:30 but then the one from 7 changed and so we had to find someone to do divisions with! So we called everyone! It was such a show trying to find someone that could go with us!  So after about 30 minutes of looking we finally found someone that could go with us! So we sent Elder Shumway with the Joven (young man) and we left!  Well I call Shumway and he was  like yeah we are done I will see you at the Joven's house!  so we get there and he calls and he is like change of plans just meet me at our house! So we get there and we are waiting and waiting and he just comes walking in by himself and we are like dude what happened?  He was like well I am talking to Fernando and he was like oh yeah this is my first time with the missionaries! Well they finish the lesson and Shumway was saying goodbye and the joven totally just left him and so Shumway walked home by himself!!  Now that is just funny to think about but that is totally Shumway! he just doesn't really care about anything he just kinda goes with the flow and whatever happens happens!!  jaja I mean he left with a little suitcase on tuesday and we didn't see him until friday morning because he just was the traveling assistant out there roaming the whole time!! Just pretty funny!  Great kid but he was funny!  

3 out of these 4 Elder's are going home within weeks of each other.  A little Italian soda farewell get together.

Goodbye Elder Shumway

Well I don't have much time so I will just tell another little story and then call it a day!  But on Sunday enrique didn't go to church and we went and saw him and we talked a lot about fasting and stuff like that it was good! Well he decided he needed to fast to be able to find a JOb! He needed a little extra help to overcome that!  To get a job! So he fasted! Well they called him back about a job right as he ended his fast!  So that was cool! BUt here it wasn't just that he got the job they just said that he had to go back for interviews and such so he did that then on thursday during his baptisimal interview they called and said that he was hired! His testimony was made so strong and he just continued with everything he had been doing and he was finally baptized! It was super cool! It was an amazing experience since the first time we contacted him to his baptism five weeks Later!! It was something I will never forget!!

Well that is about it for this week! SOrry I cut it short we have been working on changes and all sorts of stuff today!!  Have a great week!!  Love you guys!

Elder Orchard

Will they make it 2 more weeks?

A New Comp, Mission Interviews and Chapultepec

This week was pretty slow for us! It was really hard to get everything done! Right now because of the interviews we are basically working from about 4 on but the problem is we have lots of things we need to do! We really need to start to find some more people but we have so many people that it is hard to do all the visits that we need to get done and find new people and find time to do some good contacts! It started to get hard but I guess it is good I know we will see lots of great blessings!  It was super super cool to be able to see the ways that the Lord would bless us when we would work hard!!  We also had a lot of fun! I was able to get a new comp! We will be in a trio for a week until Elder Shumway heads home! It will be super fun! We are exhausted tired because of how much work we have been doing but hey I am getting close to the end! We are at the point where it is just work now rest later so that is good! 

Tuesday started out in Ixtapaluca we went there for the interviews! They went really really good and we were able to capacitate all about the 8 fundamentals of preach my gospel! The coolest part is when we capacitate on this stuff it helps us know what we can do better in our own work!  So we did that and then we went out and found some new people to teach! They are a reference that we got and it was super super cool! They have the potential to really really progress!  Then we saw some people that we were hoping would go to church but they didn't end up making it there! 

Wednesday we went out to Ixtapaluca 2 Which is probably the best zone in the mission right now as of work! They find tons of news and have lots of fechas really really consistently! Well the zone leaders did a really really good job with their part of the capacitation!  We were really excited about all of the things that they did there! Then we came and saw a few investigators and headed home to get ready for the next day when we would get a new comp and have another day of interviews!  

Thursday we got the special changes done to be able to get everything figured out! I have to teach the new assistant the area and the mission because he really doesn't know all that much of here!  He has only been in two zones in the year that he has had here! So we are working hard to know people and do divisions! Then we went and saw two of the families that we have that are really progressing really well!!  We saw them and they are just killing it!  they are reading and say they are going to go to church this week and so we have been really really pleased with what they have been doing! And we saw the Family Aguilar santiago which is looking like they will be my last baptism here in the mission if everything goes as planned! They are doing really really well!  They have been really really chosen since we first found them and the things are just kinda being put into place since we found them! 

Friday was a really good day! We saw the other people that we had had lots of hope for and so that was really cool!  They are doing good but sadly they didn't make it to church this week! Her case is pretty hard because her husband has to get divorced before she can get married and so that has been really really hard for us! She also just hasn't progressed all that well! She seems excited and reads and stuff but it has been really hard for her to progress and go to church and all that stuff! 

Saturday we went to chapultepec which was alright! I was expecting to see a little more but ya know museums aren't really my thing!  But it was alright! 

We saw some pretty cool things so that is okay!  Then we went and had tacos with the Nebekers at a good taco place here by the offices and so that was really fun! 

All in all it was a pretty good week!  We worked hard and we are hoping we can see some more blessings and lessons this week! But we will just be working hard and whatever happens we will be happy! 

have a great week!

love

Elder orchard

The Coolest Analogy

Elder Shumway and Elder Orchard.  If I am not mistaken, Elder Shumway is the tallest Elder in the mission:)

Hard at work...

...or hardly working??

Wow this week was sure something else!!  We worked really hard and we were really really blessed!  We were able to see lots of things that we had been waiting for!  I think one of the biggest miracles of the week was we had a wedding!  Kinda crazy right!  It was super fun to get them there and FINALLY get them married! They have been debating it for about three years now and so we finally have got it done! Be looking for a baptism of her here really soon!

Tuesday We did divisiones with someone that was going home so we were able to take care of him and get all of our work done!  That was really needed and nice!  We were able to find a new little family too that we hope can progress!!  I also had gone to an appointment on Monday night and found a new family which was good!  but apart from that it was a pretty chill day!  We also had mentioned getting the family married on Saturday but there wasn't really any bite there on that! 

Wednesday we had a very eventful day!!  We worked pretty hard and saw a lot of blessings!  We had our families that are doing well!!  We also had all sorts of fun on Divisions again with someone else!  Also here is a funny little story from the week we were teaching this family and I had mentioned that one day when the son gets married and I don't really even remember what I had said after but he was like no not me I am never going to get married!!  If I ever become king that is going to be the first thing that I change! Nobody else will ever get married!  It was pretty cute!  Then we went with a few other people we are hoping can progress better!  We also went and had some tacos that were five tacos for ten pesos, and I still ask why I have diarrhea?

Thursday we started our crazy times!  We started capacitating the people that are in or just finishing their training!  It went really well!  We had some really really grate missionaries there!  We also had the food just at our house that day and it was a really really slow day honestly!!  I don't really remember everything that we did but it was really pretty lame!  We didn't have tons of success with finding the people and all that stuff

Friday we had a pretty good day! We went to the interviews and that was alright! We had a lot of people help us teach and they took way more time than we wanted them to so that was kinda crappy!  We also just didn't know how to help everyone the best way there!  But then in the afternoon it went really really well!  WE were able to see some families that went to church! We also were able to find some news and teach a family we are really really hoping can progress! They are contacts that are really doing well! They read and pray and all that stuff!  but they have had a family member that is in the hospital and they are taking care of them on the weekends since they work so that has been really hard! But they just got out and now we are hoping they will be able to go to church and really progress! 

Saturday was a really really good day!  We had such a crazy crazy experience!  We had to go and take some stuff out to a house in Ixtapaluca and we dropped some beds and such for some special changes then we had the wedding! Well they just called us on Friday night and said Elders we are ready to get married!  It was really really cool! So we took them out to the judge and got them married really really fast!  Then we came back and went to our food and got all that stuff taken care of and went and started teaching the people we had lessons with! Then we went to English class which went good kind of! and then we went and saw Enrique! We learned something really really cool! We were talking about the plan of Salvation and everything and so we got to Adam and Eve and how it was necessary for them to eat the fruit and he was like yeah that makes all sorts of sense! It is like a child in the womb of the mother! There it is comfortable and it gets all the food it needs! Life isn't difficult and they don't learn all that much! They get to a point in their progress that they just can't be there anymore! It is better for them to leave and be able to grow a whole lot more! It was the coolest analogy I had ever heard! It totally worked too and we were just like wow I learned so much more from you than you learned from us today! It was a super super cool experience! Then he said I have heard a little bit in the church about the priesthood and blessing and I was wondering if you guys could give my wife a blessing so she can be more patient in work and get blessed by God! It was super super cool! They are awesome! He is definitely a future bishop!  Then we ate tostadas de tinga which were so good!  I am really really going to miss Mexican food! Hopefully people at home will invite me over to eat! 

well have an awesome week! I will talk to you again next week! I got the pictures uploaded so hopefully you understand them!

love

Elder Orchard

Elder Shumway

Not Even the Stray Dogs Were Down to Be With Us

Hey all!  How is life going at home?  This week has been super super crazy! It was really hard to get into things and it seemed like everything was against us this week!  Everyone went on Vacations which was really really crappy!  It was hard to get people in their houses and everyone and their dog cancelled on us!  Not even the stray dogs from the street were down to be there with us!  However things are looking up for us! We are seeing tons of potential and are having people that we really think can progress!  We are hoping for the best!  There are lots of people that haven't progressed as well as we would have hoped but we still have faith and we are planning to get things done this week!  It will be just about the last full week of the cycle that we have to work but we are super excited! 

Tuesday was changes!  We went and got all that done and got the news out! We had some really really good news come this cycle!  Then we had the deads and we went and spent some time with them! 

I added this photo because I could see Elder Orchard there in the background looking all official at the table!

We also had to go out to Ixtapaluca for a Maleta (bag) that someone sent out there and they shouldn't have sent it so it has been really really weird!  It was a weird day all in all!

Wednesday was the longest day of the week by far! We hadn't slept much the night before and we were waking people up all night to get them ready for their flights!  The day started at 3 am with about one hour of sleep!  We headed out to the airport and things took forever!  We had lots of things go wrong that we hadn't really seen the whole time that we had been there! I mean I am basically a pro at the whole airport thing now and things were coming up and i was like how in the world does that happen!   It was super super hard to say bye to Olson though!  It was a sad moment!

Laura Lowe (The Stutznegger's daughter.  Elder Orchard has gotten to know her family quite well from being an office Elder.  She is as awesome as her parents!)

It is six weeks that I will be without him but it is like nacho without eskeleto, or peanut butter without jelly, Coke without tacos, and all that stuff! It is just too weird without him here!  So from there we went and got everyone dropped off and then we headed out to our area because we had citas.  It made for quite the day that is for sure!  So we went there and went with a family that was going to give us a reference but they said they couldn't because his mom had died so he took us with his family to sing a song and do a prayer and we talked a little bit with them! We will see if they end up wanting anything from the gospel right now! Then the food which went good we showed up kind of late but it turned out good in the end! Then we just kinda walked around like zombies for a little while! 

Thursday was just about as bad! We tried to find a bunch of people but they weren't home! Then we had to help someone lower the stairs in their house but we did end up going with the Family Aguilar Santiago which are doing good! They are progressing well and had done some reading and we had a good lesson with them! They gave us some amazing tostadas de tinga which I loved!  It was so good! Some of the best I have had!  

Friday was a pretty decent day! The morning just kinda sucked but we had a good time in the afternoon! We had been in a trio but we sent him on divisiones with the zone leaders from Oriental which was good we could go back to working really really hard like we had before and we were able to find a few new people to teach! Hopefully they can just move on and progress quite well.  Then we went and ate with a family that we are teaching their daughter and we are hoping that she can progress enough to get baptized here before we have to head out! 

Saturday was our best day! We found some less actives and found some part member families from it, Then we went and found someone else we had been looking for! The highlight was Enrique and his wife Magali! They are progressing sooo well! They are reading and praying and doing everything that we are hoping they could have done!  Also they are already married which is the best news of all!!  Hopefully more to come from them in the coming weeks! We might move their baptism up depending on how they do! Also we had english and music classes and it was a huge success! We have an amazing family that gives us tons of references and so they just keep supplying us with people to teach!  It was funny they had told us about someone that the missionaries had been teaching before and we got her number and tried to call and set up an appointment but she said she would call us back, well we told her and we said we will keep trying to call them and she was like no I will call and get us an appointment for this week and so tomorrow we will see how that goes! 

Well this week has been full of blessings and we hope to see tons more this week!  Thanks for all your support! Love you all!

Elder Orchard 

Lots of Lessons and Fechas

Wow the weeks just go by faster and faster I feel like!  It is crazy to think that I am in my last cycle!  I guess we just have to take advantage of the little time! Shumway only has four weeks left so we have to work really really hard in this time!  But I guess we might as well get started on this email! 

Tuesday Today we honestly had a really really good day!!  We had tons and tons of lessons and we found a bunch of news and had a ton of lessons with member present! I honestly don't remember how we got so much but it was super super cool! WE also did some divisiones and they went good! We found a couple families that we hope can progress really really well!

Wednesday we  did divisiones with Pantitlan which went super good!  We had tons of fun with them! We had again a ton of success!!  We have been able to work really really hard.  We had a bunch of with member and had another ten lessons today! The coolest part was the family that we had found last week!  They are doing really really well!  They accepted the baptism invitation really well!  Hopefully we can put a fecha with them here pretty quick!  We also went to consejo de barrio and went and found a few people that we have really high hopes for! 

Thursday we went and ate breakfast with a sister and then we headed to the offices to pick up a missionary that wanted to come work with us while his comp went to the doctor and so we went and got him and it was super cool!  We didn't have much the rest of the day though which was the sad part! It is hard to do divisiones two days in a row because we run out of people to teach if all four of us are in the area! 

Friday we went with margarita but we really don't think that she is going to progress all that well which is sad.  WE also went with Aguilar santiago and they accepted the fecha sooo well!  This was my first time meeting them and they are amazing! They have an amazing story honestly!    We also found this really cool guy that let us in his house because his nephew is a missionary and that was a cool little lesson! His wife will be a problem though because I am not sure she will let him progress!

Saturday we had to work on the changes! We got notified that people we weren't expecting were coming.  So we got all that figured out and then we went to the food which was really really good!  Then we went out and found the family ramirez which is ivan who is progressing really really well towards a fecha! But he has to go to oaxaca this week so it will be a little longer until he gets baptized but we just need to teach him some things and then we are good!!  He has most of the things but not all the teaching! The commandments but that will be easy since his wife is a member!  Then in the night we had music and english classes which we had tons of success!  WE got tons of people there and had about six investigators which was super cool!  Then at church we had lots of people show up and they had fechas which was good!!  

I love you guys!  have a great week!  Enjoy the emails while they last because they are going to get shorter and shorter! 

Love

Elder orchard