Another Great Week in the Mission

Heyyyyoooooo

We had such a good week this week! I appologize in advance that there will not be pictures I am at the place that I can't upload.  However things are going great!  My companion is Elder Vite.  He has 8 months in the mission but he is an amazing missionary!  He really understands how to work and we have been working really hard!  We already got a miracle baptism this week and we were able to put four fechas in total.  We saw a ton of blessings and we are so grateful to be here right now and be together.  We are hoping to continue to see tons of success and just keep working hard. He is actually from Mexico City our area is a little over two hours away from his house! However the good news is he doesn't have a crazy girlfriend that comes to church to see him so I am lucky!

Monday we had the changes but we were told to go out and work at night and so we went out and started to do some contacts to get a whole new teaching pool for next cycle.  We found a few news and we were able to work hard!  

Tuesday we had a district meeting in the morning and then from there everyone went out to work.  Turns out a kid from our ward never got baptized but he goes every week!  And his parents were down to let him get baptized and so we hurried and got everything worked out so that way we could have his baptism on Sunday.  It went perfect.  Then we started divisions in the night and we had a really really productive day! WE did a lot of contacts all week because we need tons of news!  Really the whole zone does!  But we need to put the example!

Wednesday I was still on divisions and so we just went crazy with antiguos and recent converts to try and start to get some references.  What was super cool is that we were trying all last cycle to try and find a family that was a reference and we could find them ever.  But finally in the night we found them.  After more than six weeks of looking we were able to find them! it was a blessing and they have lots of niños magicos!!  So be ready for baptisms this cycle from them!  Other than that things went pretty slow!

Thursday I ended up taking a missionary to the hospital.  It took forever but it was good to go and see what he had! He needed it though because he has been really sick.  We have one missionary that has typhoid and another one that they had no idea since his typhoid test came back negative.  So thats what I did! I was also able to go and see Sister Stutz which was cool!  She seemed to be doing better but I think she till has a ways to go!  She has a pretty sweet battle scar though.  It matches the burn mark on my arm.  Maybe we should get matching made in Mexico tattoos.

Friday I was able to make my way back to the area and then we started to keep working! This was really the slowest day of all! It seems like nobody was in there house and so that makes it hard to do missionary work but i am not complaining  tooo much!!

Saturday we also had another really cool miracle.  We set out looking for a less active that had contacted us and she gave us her direction.  Well we looked the entire street and found nothing.  We knocked every door and nothing.  So I finally gave up and we went and did some more visits.  Well a little later we were walking and I was like what street are we on?  My comp was like Labradores.  I then said okay if there is a house number sixteen it is going to be renalda.  sure enough there was a house number sixteen.  sure enough she lives there!  It is awesome how the lord will put you in the right place at the right time!!

Sunday we were able to get many investigators in church and we put more fehas there.  it was a really good week!!  I know my spelling was super off but that is okay!  The computer is super slow so I just type and like five minutes latter it shows up and it gives me a lot of laziness to change it all so I hope you have a great week!! I will talk to you guys next week! love you all!!

Elder Orchard

I Got To Throw Around A Baseball!

Well this week is now over!  Sorry that it didn't really work all that well last night!  (My very short Mother's Day phone call)  But I am doing good!! I am just getting on to write really fast since today is technically P day but we had changes and so I haven't had much free time!  Elder Lopez is now gone and so that is kind of sad but Elder Vite is a stud and we are really really excited to work really hard this cycle together!

Last Monday we went to the Guarda!  It is a ranch that the church owns here and so we went and had our district meeting there since it is in our stake. It was super fun we went and played capture the flag and basketball and soccer and football I even got to throw around a baseball for a little bit! It was honestly super fun!  We will hopefully do it again!  

Tuesday we had a normal work day.  We went with the Family Trejo and got everything ready for their baptism! The sad thing is we also found out that we had another fecha fall from last week! The guy we were going to baptize was hitting his wife and turns out he is kind of a big druggie and so it is a good thing we didn't baptize him!  I don't know why they always touch me to teach them but it kind of seems to happen a lot!  But other than that things are all good!  We got their baptism all planned and they were really excited!  

Wednesday we ran around trying to find some new people and get some more teaching pool!  We didn't have tons of success but we are sure that this week coming up we will have tons!  We are just working hard and trying to get the blessings from it!!  We also headed out to the offices to be able and take things to the new house we are opening in our area. We are going to have eight misisonaries in our ward and so we had to get things ready to be part of the moving crew!  It wasn't the same as the O boys but it was still a typical office stay.

Thursday we woke up at four in the morning to be able to get everything done with the house.  The problem here was that the car we were using could only drive until ten and we would have to take two trips.  It was the typical put a full house in the taxi and lets go thing we have gotten so good at.  But like I said if we were out past 10 in the morning they would take away the car and we would be in a hole world of trouble.  So we just hurried and got it done.  Then we headed back to the house and got ready for the day and went out and worked.  It was a good day but we were sure tired!  I slept like a baby though that night!

Friday we had the baptism interviews and so it was getting ready for all of that and getting the baptism clothes and everything planned.  They passed like we had hoped.  We also made Ice cream with some members since Lopez was getting ready to go home!  Then we got everything done! I don't really remember it was a lot of saying goodbyes to people!

Saturday we went to the offices. Lopez had his interview and so we were there for a little while. Then we got done and headed out to our baptism.  Everything went good and then we headed to the last family night!  It was a really good day and we were blessed with this family!  THey are awesome and they will be forever remembered!

That was a short email but that is kind of how they all have been lately!  I will try better next week!  I love you have a great week!!

Elder Orchard

The Sun is Really Hot

hello everyone! today I don't have much time I am going to have to make it quick!  Alright well tuesday was a really really good day! We were able to talk with a few good families and we really hope that they can progress!  We also went and saw santos who is just progressing really well and reading and doing all that stuff! Hopefully things will continue to go well for him before his baptism next week!  If everything turns out right we will be baptizing about five next week!  Hopefully things go as planned!    We also went and saw Luisito and Paloma who also will be baptized next week! (pending an interview with the bishop for their dad)  Hopefully things turn out the way we want and hope!  Also they are doing really good they have everything now we are just waiting a little to try and teach them!  But they invited us to a family night with them and to Luisito's birthday! Pictures uploaded.

Wednesday was really really slow! We haven't really had much plans and it has been pretty hard to get things rolling the past few days.  The sun is really really hot right now and so we just get drained of energy walking around!  I am just working on my tan though so that is good!  We also had a cita with someone we thought we could baptize this week but we started walking to her house and her boyfriend passed by with her and so it was just kind of well I guess we won't be visiting her! Kind of sad! Hopefully next cycle she can get baptized!

Jueves was a good day as well!  In the morning we went and saw a graduation for one of Elder Lopez's converts.  I just stayed in the offices with the Nebekers so it was nice to see them and to hang out with them again! They are always a blast!  Then we went and ate tacos in the tianguis because I have missed them in the time that I have been out here!

Then we just headed back to be able to get some lessons in.  Also kind of a rough day but we are trying!  We then just finished with our meeting with the ward mission leader!

Friday we had mission counsel which was super cool! We were able to learn all sorts of stuff about how we can help our zone! Hopefully we can get things better out here! I don't know what is going on but people are not doing what they need to be doing.  They are not having tons of success and it is hard for us to see that!  Then we went and ate with a cool family and we went to visit santos.  He told us that he couldn't stop smoking and so he would let us know when he was done smoking.  Pretty sad we had tons of hope but I am sure that he will still be baptized but it is going to take a little while.  Then we headed off to the family night and we met some super cool new investigators and we had a great time playing games and having fun with the family.

Saturday was just more getting things done! We went to a primary activity for kids day.  Yes I am not joking it is an actual holiday here.  We took our investigators there and we played for about an hour with the primary.  then just went and tried to find more people before the birthday party of Luisito.  We had a good day and were able to find some more news so it was a pretty good week.

Sunday we had most of the people come we were waiting on but we are having a little bit of a problem as a zone.  We had over a third of our investigators in church and people just aren't committing them the way they should.  We don't really know how to help them right now but we are trying! We have already done a lot but now they have to be problem solvers and figure it out for themselves.

Alright well I love you guys!  Have a great week and I will talk to you on sunday! I might not write next monday since we will have just talked!  but I guess we will find out right!

Elder Orchard

We Ran Out of Water for Our Baptism

Alright I am pretty short on time so I will make it fast but I am doing good and that is the most important part!!

Tuesday was an alright day!  Things went good and we were able to see a bunch of people that we had been waiting for.  We also had a talk with Axel and he is ready for his baptism.  So we planned it for this Saturday!

Wednesday was pretty slow.  We had a bunch of things get changed and it was a super super slow day!

Thursday we planned and also had a rough day!  It was kind of a rough week we just couldn't find people in their houses so it was hard to have success when the people weren't there and ready! however today Axel had his baptism interview and he passed so things are ready for that!

Friday I went on divisions and had a really really successful day witht he elder I was with!  we had tons of lessons and found news and just did everything we should do as missionaries it was nice!!

Saturday this was really the weird day of the week!  We go to get everything planned for the baptism and we start filling the font and everything and then out of nowhere we run out of water!  There was literally zero water left in the whole church!  So we were like well what do we do now! We have to find a pila somewhere so that way we can baptize!  So we start calling we finally found one that was already full.  So now we run into the how do we get everyone there?  We called a buddy and he was like yeah I will bring my combi and we will take everyone out.  Sweet well he was working though and so we had to pay him and he was a super homie about it which was good!  So we get there and we had left the clothes to baptize and so it was all just a show but we finally got the kid baptized and we were all really happy!  

Alright well two more stories from this week one funny one one spiritual one!  

We had a sister call us on tuesday saying elders my roof in my business fell down.  I remember that in one of the pamphlets you gave me it said you guys give away tiles. Well I need you to give them to me and then come help me fix my roof and so I was like okay I will talk with my comp and see what we can do.  Well we are thinking what is she talking about nowhere does it talk about service or anything we can do!  So we get there and she says yeah in this one it says it.  Well they are tiles of Jesus and his life and we just started busting up laughing.  And she was mad but it was so funny she was like you guys need to be more specific but we were like it says from the life of Jesus Christ and his ministry how much more clear could you want it! We were just busting up laughing!

And last but not least we have this champ of an investigator.  He has been chosen since the first day we met him! Well this week he told us that he had something he needed to tell us. Oh no.  Well he said about a week before I started talking to you I had a dream.  in this dream an angel came to me and said Santos soon two angels will come and talk to you.  they will teach you everything you need to do in this life and so listen to them and pay attention. do whatever they ask you to do! Well he heeded that advice and he is progressing really really well.  He will be baptized here in two weeks but we are so blessed and were so grateful for the chance we had to meet him and help him in this process!  There is a scripture that I love in the book of Mormon that talks about this and says that angels are preparing people for us! And I sure can testify of this now!  I hope you have a great week!

love

Elder orchard

We Needed A Place to Put The House of Prayer

My shoes after walking through the pueblos

Well we had a pretty alright week! We didn't do a whole bunch and we were really focused on other things to help the zone but things turned out really good for the most part! However we do have some really exciting news!  We are going to get a branch started in a pueblo in our ward!  We are super excited about it! Most of this week was spent trying to find members and get people excited about it! We are hoping we can get sent another companionship so that way we can be able to work it really really well but we know that this branch is going to give us tons of success!!  

Alright well Tuesday we went and worked like normal! We had a few appointments with people that are progressing.  We also had to do some special changes in the morning and so we went to that and got everything there figured out! We welcomed the new missionary into the zone and sent him off to work!  We are super excited that Elder Onofre is here with us! He is a very powerful missionary and he really understands his purpose here!!  It was awesome to see how excited he was and how hard of a worker he is!  So then from there we went with Luisito and Paloma which are two of the fechas that we have right now! They are doing really good! They are reading and progressing and just killing it! Their dad is doing really good and preparing himself to be able to baptize his kids!  They will be getting baptized on the 7th of May along with their cousins and uncle who we are also teaching and who is progressing really well!  We are having tons of success with this family! There are just a few people that we are missing from the family to complete it!  But when you have about 50 brothers it is hard to track everyone down!  Not all with the same woman though don't worry guys!

bicitaxi

Wednesday we had to do some follow up on the special changes and so we headed out to one of the areas in the morning! From there my comp felt really really sick so we stayed in until the food! we went to the food and went and saw a few investigators and families and then headed out to the church for a baptismal interview!  Pretty cool I did my first interview and it went really well! The kid passed which is the most important part right!?  Then we headed to see another one of our fechas but when we got there we were pretty upset.  The mom had taken her daughter to her boyfriends house because she was mad and said here she is yours now.  So now we haven't seen her all week because she is currently living in a union libre (living with the person without being married)  So that kind of threw a curveball into our plans.  We are still upset and we don't know what to do at the moment!

Thursday we had a meeting with the President in the morning to talk about how we could work better here in our zone and how the other missionaries could progress. he was worried about some of the areas and all that stuff.  Well we also talked about the branch and Pres was super stoked about it and so we went all day to start to get stuff ready for it.  We started contacting looking for people and we had tons of success out there! We are super excited for what is to come in the future out there!!  

Friday was kind of a busy day. The morning we went to check things out for a new house to be able to move into for a companionship coming and more contacting and getting to know people.  Cool experience from today we were talking about how we needed to find news and how we needed a place to put the house of prayer.  So I did a contact with another missionary and she let us in and we talked and she was like interested but not all the much.  Well we get to the end and we say we are going to put a church here close because we know that you guys are really far and she just lit up and said a I have a property that I am not using you guys could use it for free if you want! It is amazing to see how the Lord puts the right people in our path to be able to fulfill with what he wants us to do!

Some pictures of where the branch is going to be.

Saturday was a busy day! We went to an activity at the stake center to try and find new investigators well it didn't really work but that is okay!  Then we went to our baptism and dilan finally got baptized!!  So then it was just finding new investigators to be able to keep baptizing and we had a lot of success that day!!  

Sunday most of the people came but a lot still never made it there!  It is pretty sad!  I just wish people would all come to church! 

Well that was about it for the week! this week I studied a lot of Elder Hollands talk from conference and I really liked the scripture in Joshua 3:5 It was something I am trying to apply this week! a lot of times we want to see miracles as missionaries or people but we don't do what we need to do to be able to receive them.  So that is my hope today is that we can all do the things that we need to do to prepare the way for miracles!!

I love you all have a good week 

love

Elder Orchard

What I eat almost every night which is a quesadilla but an actual one, not like what we have at home.

I asked Douglas to compare where he is living now to something from home I could identify with. This is what he said: "I live in something like Manti but there isn't anything to compare the rest to. A camp ground."

Instead of the Cops Taking Our Money They Gave us Some!

Well this week was pretty crazy we have been working hard in this little ward that we have!  We were suppose to have a baptism last saturday but it fell I guess I will mention that a little more later!  But I guess here we go!

My companion is super cool he is from Veracruz and he goes home this cycle.  He is an amazing missionary and we are working really hard together and we are having a ton of success!  It is going good! He is going to go and study in BYU which is cool I will be able to see him.

Living conditions are alright.  Every five days we get water so we have to make it last.  I am more out in the country and I love it but my shoes are suffering like always.  Lots of dirt roads and rocks and all sorts of stuff like that. 

Monday we went and worked like a normal day since we were going to the temple!  So we had a good day!  Honestly I don't fully remember everything that has happened or the days because it has all just kind of blended together!  But we had a really good day with lots of lessons which was good!  

Tuesday was temple day! Well that took a long time sine we are really far away! But a cool little experience comes from on our way home.  We thought we got off the metro in the right place turns out it was one stop too early.  we were pretty sad and we didn't want to pay again to use the metro well turns out it was quite a ways walking and so we are walking and the sidewalk just runs out.  So we are like walking on like the curb while traffic is just wizzing by us and out of nowhere a police stops and says to one of the missionaries who we were with who is the Senior comp?  Well it was that kid but he was so scared and he was like right there is my district leader and a little more ahead are my zone leaders.  He just was scared and hurried and made himself not responsible jajaja well so the cop calls my comp over and was like you are one of the zone leaders?  Yeah alright well take this and go buy yourself something to drink it is really hot outside and he handed  us 200 pesos and we were so stoked.  We thought about not sharing because he threw us under the bus so fast but we decided we had to and so we did it was super super cool though that was really one of the first times that has happened to me and it was really really cool! Instead of the cops taking our money they gave us some!  It was cool!!

Wednesday was division day and so I left the area to go with my grandson and see how he was doing! It was a good day we were able to find some people that could progress and we had success we were able to put a fecha with one of his investigators which was super super cool!  And it was fun to spend time with my family!  In our area Elder Lopez had tons of success which was really cool!  It is always cool to help them see how to work and all that stuff.

Thursday we planned with the companionship to make sure that they were doing things the way they should be done and then we went out and started working!  We had a good day and went to see all the fechas we have so it was a super productive day!

Friday there was a ward dance and so we took a bunch of investigators there to have fun and we presented them to some of the members and then we went and worked!  We were able to put a couple fechas with a family that we hoped would go to church! They are really really good and they are really chosen but sometimes they just put too many excuses! But it ended up being another good day!

Saturday was our baptism and we strategically planned an activity so that way the ward would go to the baptisms!  So we were inviting people to that and we get this phone call from the mother of the kid we are going to baptize and she says elders do you think we could change the baptism to next week?  It is that some of my family can't make it until next week.  Keep in mind we have already changed this kids baptism twice and so I tried to talk my way out of it but we changed it to this week so that way they could come but we told her that it was this week or never.  So she agreed and everything was good!  So then we got to our activity and it was super cool! People came and it was a success and then they all stayed and it would have been great!  But it worked out alright!  

Sunday almost everyone came to church that we were hoping would go!  Except viridiana and her mom but it was alright we had the other people we were waiting for so that was good! It was a really really successful week all in all we put a ton of fechas found a new family and had a lot of people in church and so I am just loving life out here in my area! Hopefully I will finish my mission here!!

I love you guys have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Orchard

A Dream Missionary Day

Wow well this week was super super busy!!  Elder Lopez and I have been working super super hard and we have been able to see the results!!  

Monday was the day that all the news were there!  It was pretty stressful because I had to do the whole packing thing and I made hamburgers and I just felt like I was't going to get done in time but somehow we got it all done and everything went spendid!  Then it was just hanging out with the news and getting to know them and all that good stuff it was super fun!!  

Tuesday was changes day so we were up early getting everything done and ready all in time for the last changes I would have in the office!!  

His last official office business!

I don't know the history of this picture but I know it isn't his new companion, Elder Lopez, because he told us his comp is a native.

Elder Olson on the right.  Elder Orchard in the back left corner.  I like getting little random glimpses of him:)

Another random shot of Elder Orchard strolling up the sidewalk on the right!

Sister Stutznegger wrote:  Elder Orchard will be serving as a Zone Leader starting tomorrow.  Elder Orchard has yet to mention that to us but it is nice to know!

It was pretty weird to think that but it was cool!  so we got to changes and I just waited there with everyone else who was going to Ixtapaluca so we could get in the combi (taxi) that would take us out to our area with our companions!  Everything went as planned and so then I had a little emotional goodbye with Olson and then it was out to see what was in store!!  So I got to the stake center and met up with Elder Lopez and it was to figuring out how we were going to get home and all this stuff!  then we got to the house and we went out and just started working like normal!!  Got to meet a few people and tried to start finding more people to teach! The area is awesome and we have had a lot of success and now it was just to try and keep it!!  It ended up being a good day!

Wednesday was a solid day! we didn't have many plans and so we just went out and started to find people contacting people and less actives and we ended up having a lot of success!  we found a new family to teach that has a lot of potential to progress!!  We taught them the restoration and everything was good there!  Again another good day!!  Elder Lopez had then prepared me that tomorrow wouldn't be the best because that is kind of how things work here in this area!  

Thursday we had weekly planning in the morning which was nice to be able to actually do again!!  I was able to get to know a lot of the investigators and the fechas we had to be able to maybe know how to help them!  then like normal we went out and worked hard to see what the Lord would bless us with!  We found a couple more news and have had amazing lessons together!!  My comp is an amazing missionary he really gets how to teach and all that good stuff so it is awesome I feel like I am learning a lot!

Friday was really the last day that we had to work with the conference. our stake center is really really far away and so it is not all that easy to just head and work between sessions so we knew we had to work really hard today to be able to make up for it!  and oh we did!   We had a lot of lessons and we found news and did basically a dream missionary day!  it was super cool!  we also had a less active call us and say elders I haven't been able to go to church but will you come visit me?  we said of course and we put the appointment.  well we got there and he has like well I invited some friends is that okay?  Of course so we taught his friends and they loved it!  We are going to take them to conference tomorrow!!

Saturday was conference and I really really liked it!  I learned a lot!  we had been doing something called how to begin baptizing and it is the restoration but we focus a lot on the priesthood and the authority that God gives to his profets and messengers and there were tons of talks that talked about that it was something I was really looking for help on!  And there I was getting the answers I needed!  it was super cool!!  And the people we were waiting for came and so that was super cool as well!!  We also got things ready for a baptism that we are going to have next week so we are excited for that!!

Alright well it was super nice to be able to actually study this week!!  I had to give a little capacitacion on commitments but one thing I learned was that when we need to invite people to repent and we do that by leaving them commitments to be able to follow.  if they do the thing they will get closer to christ and if not we will know they aren't ready!  Well I think the same kind of goes for us as people that are already members.  sometimes we have some things the spirit tells us that we could do better  or change and if we do it we will be blessed.  but if not we are just like my investigators that don't do anything we are just losing out on blessings!  

I hope you all have a great week!  i love you!

love

elder orchard

I took this from Sister Stutznegger's Facebook page.  I thought it needed to be included!  "Need a truck...and I don't mean the big white one! Got to give it to these resourceful Mexicans!"

My area is completely different than anything that I have experienced here in Mexico!