I Couldn't Remember How to Pray in English

Hola Familia!

I will appologize in advance for anything that doesn't make sense and things I spell wrong.

me making seafood

Salsa de Habanero that I can eat with almost no problems

This week was a really different week for us!  We have been doing a ton and I mean a ton of contacts all week and it just seems like we are not getting any results!  It is really frustrating!!  We do all sorts of stuff and the people send us to the Gomma all the time!!  I have gotten decent and sometimes I can get people to reconsider!  The funniest was this week though!!  We knocked a door and this little girl came out and she is like what?  I was like are your parents here?  and she told me no!  So I told her, Ask them when they are going to come back!  She said okay and walked back in!  So then the dad comes out and he was like no we don't have any time for you guys we are really busy!  So then I was like Hermano no tiene tiempo para Dios? (you don't have time for God)  And he paused for a little bit and was like no we are busy and so I just told him okay have a good day and we left!  Elder Preciado was kind of freaking out I don't know if he was scared or thought it was funny!  Haha I was enjoying myself though!!

me on a bike
(Just so no one is confused, Douglas is not in a bike area.  He walks and takes public transportation.)

Another Funny Story from the week!  We had just finished the meeting we have every Saturday with our ward mission leader!  Well I was picked to say the closing prayer and they asked me to say it in English!  That was probably the hardest thing I have done in a long time!  I literally couldn't do it!  I switched into spanish after like four sentences because I litterally just couldn't remember how to do it and it sounded terrible!  One of the other elders was like that was weird I didn't like that at all!  So basically I am toast when I get back!!  I will have to learn how to speak english again!   I mean I can usually speak fine here but that is with other americans that also speak spanish so my way of talking isn't weird. 

mini soccer

a party in the Sacrament room...that's how we do it in Mexico

Other than that not much happened!  We found an investigator but he already dropped us so that is really crappy!!  We will find someone this week though so I am not super worried!  I know that we are going to start to see the Lords hand in his work!  

The word of the week is cerro or hill.  hoy en la mañana subimos un cerro.  This morning we hiked a hill.

Have a good week!!

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Orchard

Excerpt from his letter to his dad.  Russell asked him if he started reading the book he mailed to him Drawing On the Powers of Heaven:  I did start and I almost finished but I have been studying a lot of preach my gospel in the morning and at night I am exhausted so I will hopefully finish soon!  But yeah it is good!  I have really been trying to focus on my prayers and make them better!  I think it was something I always just kind of took advantage of but I have been trying to be better with those!

5 people in the back seat of a taxi

Almost everything is spelled wrong and it made me crack up laughing!! 

This is how it should be spelled: 

Bienvenidos por Favor Bajar su basura gracias

I Turned 6 Months Old This Week

Well another week has come and gone!  And well I have some news to break to everyone!  I haven't been exactly honest with everyone in the fact that I turned six months old this week!!  I don't want everyone planning out the day I come home but I am officially a quarter of the way done!!  Crazy to think right!!  So we had a mini party with me and Elder Preciado!!  I have videos but you can't get those so sooner or later I will send those to you.  That was the big thing of the week!  Ï turned 6!!

The 6 month tie burning ceremony.

Now as far as the work side!  We found a couple "news" this week!  One was crazy and so we aren't going to go back!  And then the other has got some real potential. He likes to read and he already told his mom off after she said that he should go to the Catholic church!!  He told her, "look, wherever God calls me is where I am going to go!"   Well he is like 60 but he still has to talk to his mom about that.  It is a huge thing here.  You're seventy years old but you still ask your ninety year old mom if you can change religions.  I don't know, something I don't understand.  

Now that I am kind of getting a grip on the language I am also starting to learn all the cuss words.  Mainly because it is what people yell at us!! And let me tell you, they have about a million and five ways to cuss you out here!!  I can't think of the word in English but they are very grosero is what it would be in Spanish!!  That knock that everyone does in the states like the du du du du du, pause duh duh that is also a way to cuss here!  So when you drive,that is all you hear!!  In the states there are like ten cuss words and ya but here I learn a new one every day!!  

Alright well the plan this week is to contact the crap out of it!!  I thnk we will do like 60 contacts!!  And we are just going to try and destroy it this week!!  I mean it is going to be a lot of work but I know that we can see the Lord's hand in his work!  Because really this is his work!  If you guys have time everyone start studying preach my gospel.  It is such a cool book!!  You can learn so much.  

This weeks word is grosero.  Las personas aca son bien grosero!  The people here have big potty mouths!

I love you!

love,

Elder Orchard

We Finally Baptized!!

Yes so this week we finally baptized!!  It was awesome!!  Super cool experience!!  And yes I baptized!!  It was actually kind of funny though because we get done and I was like brother how do you feel?   He told me I was really surprised and I was like why were you surprised?  He was like I didn't know you were going to dunk me all the way!  I just kind of laughed and it was really funny because I literally told him right as we got in the water and at least six times Saturday that hey we need to dunk you all the way under so I just was laughing!!  I am glad nothing went terribly wrong.  Then it was kind of cool they actually confirmed him a member in the stake conference.  That was also really cool.  All in all just an awesome experience!!  

Elder Lund, Alvaro and me

YAY!! He got baptized:)

Elder Precadio, Alvaro and me

No idea what this is but it came out of the baptismal font.

Our greenish water we baptize in.

Other than that this week was full of all sorts of good times starting from Tuesday.  I put on a pair of pants and so we went on preaching throughout the day!  Finally, I stop at a papeleria (stationary) to look at some pens and buy some supplies that I needed!  Well I bend down to look at something closer and I just hear my pants rip!  So no big deal.  I went and changed and everything was all good!  Well then later that night we went by with Javier.  Well I bent down again for something and boom!  Another pair of pants ripped!  Needless to say I have put on a little bit of weight and it is all in my butt!!  Okay maybe not all but a lot of it is!!  I guess I need to lay off the tacos and elotes (corn)!!

So we are now kind of at a struggle as far as investigators go.  We have like three or four that aren't progressing and so we need to contact.  We did like fifty last week and only two accepted but then after we went back they weren't home so we are kind of in a rock and a hard place because they are getting on us for not having lessons with a member present but we don't even have any investigators.   So we are working hard with this.

So this week I was able to find a member to prest (?) us some baseball gloves!  So me and Elder Smith played catch today for the first time in forever.  It felt so good to throw the ball again!!  I am going to be sore tomorrow though.

We found some baseball stuff!

This week there are going to be two spanish words because I am pretty sure I forgot one last week and I got two good ones!  

First is romper the verb to break!  Mis pantalones se me rompieron!  My pants ripped!

The second has to do with spicy because this week we ate with the hermana picosa or the Sister Spicy because all she cooks is spicy!  Well the next day I didn't feel good.  When I went to the bathroom mi trasero estuvo ardiendo or my butt was on fire!  It was more spicy coming out than it was coming in!

I love you all.  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Orchard

Levi Thompson and Douglas grew up together in the same neighborhood.  Elder Thompson is serving in the Mexico City West mission.  They arranged by email to meet in Centro today.  Douglas said it was great to see him but they only had a very short time to catch up and get back to their responsibilities.  I think this makes our large world just a little bit smaller.  They both look so happy:)

Playing with my trompo

Huaraches, one of my favorite foods!

The cool jacket I bought for 100 pesos.

The socks we mailed to Douglas to help him celebrate the Cowboys winning the Superbowl.  Maybe he will have more use for them next year.  He reported getting his package and nothing was confiscated!  Whew....it was a lot of stress mailing it!  I was only allowed to put 1 lb of candy and chocolate or I had to declare the sugar content.  All clothing has to be new with the original tags still attached.

Ties I bought today.

New watch...100 pesos.

Find A Way To Make Someone Else's Day

This week was a good week!  I am a little scared for what is coming up this week though!!  We only have one investigator and he is getting baptized on Saturday!!  Really cool but we need to kick our butts into gear this week to find some cool people. However the good news is that I still have my comp so no he didn't go home. (We read on Sister Stutznegger's blog this week that one of the brand new Elders was just too homesick and decided to go home.  We were really hoping it was not Douglas' new companion.)

I guess I should first start with my new companion since that is kind of the big news!!  His name is Elder Preciado.  

Me and Elder Preciado

Elder Preciado is from Guadalajara Mexico.  He tries to speak English so he probably does about as well as Dad's Spanish is!  Maybe a little worse!  But he tries and that is the important thing! After two years I am guessing he will be certified!  We get along pretty well so that is good!  We haven't had any problems yet.  However I have already heard about a billion times that he wants to train..haha. That is one thing that will be good.  My Spanish will be really good because the Latins really really really like to talk!  They can go on and on about as many topics that you can imagine!!  So that will be really good for my Spanish!!  He already tells me that I am really Mexican already!!  He says when I go home you won't even recognize me!  That is the point right?!  

Our generation picture.  My dad (Elder Lund), me and my son (Elder Preciado)

Okay so Alvaro Gongalez Davalos will get baptized this Saturday at two.  If anyone would like to come to his baptism you are all invited!  He is so cool and I am so so happy for him!  It will be awesome that Finally I have my first baptism!!  As a mission we have really been below par on just about everything so it wil be good to start baptizing people.  Hopefully this starts something for us.  We are going to work really hard and try to see what we can do this week.  We need a cool family of like 5!!  Thats what we are looking for!!  

Alright so this week was actually pretty hard for us.  All the appointments that we had basically fell.  We did like 30 contacts and all of them rejected us.  We knocked like 100 doors and lots of people just weren't home.  We even had a less active family hide from us!!  We were knocking on the door and they hid inside.  Then these kids came and knocked on the door and one of the kids said, " hold on come back when the misisonaries aren't here because they don't think we are here!"  It made me a little mad but it is okay!  I guess we can't make people listen to us.  I just wish that people would understand what is it like and how much the gospel can help them!! 

I have been really studying Preach My Gospel this week along with the scriptures.  One thing that I think is cool is that in Preach My Gospel it talks about what a successful missionary is and it says nothing about having good numbers!!  All it says is people that are obedient and are working to find people who are ready and stuff.  It really gave me comfort reading that.  Besides I know that we are doing what we are supposed to and that The Lord will bless us with people to teach!!  I also finished the Book of Mormon for the first time (in Spanish) like two weeks ago and so now I started again but I am doing the four color thing(Also found in preach my gospel) and this is really cool to be able to see all the things that the Book of Mormon teaches!!  

The word of the Week is a verb.  It is esconder or to hide.  Fuimos con una familia pero nos estaba escudriendo. We went with a family but they were hiding from us.

Have a great week!  Read the scriptures, pray, and remember how blessed we actually are!!  I am out here living in a cement house being poor and I am loving the time that I have here!  Find a way to make someone elses day!  Go the extra mile to be a missionary!  Because we all need to be misisonaries and you don't need a nametag that says Elder to share the gospel!  

Love,

Elder Orchard

cute little kid

tamalles

new backpack

mac and cheese yesterday

I ate seafood today.  How gross, right?

(Sister Stutznegger put these up on transfer day.  We were hoping to see Elder Orchard's new companion but instead, we got these gems:))

(I know I am a little biased but I think my son is super handsome!)

My Plan Going Forward is Just Trust In the Lord

The weeks are crazy!!  They go by so fast.  I feel like I have been with Elder Lund for only a few weeks and now we have transfers tomorrow.  So yeah, I will be getting a new companion.  Kind of sad.  I have really enjoyed my time with Elder Lund and have learned a lot.  Hopefully, I have learned everything that I need to.  I still will learn a lot here in the next few weeks.  But now it is time to start a new chapter in my mission book.  I am like 99% sure that my next comp will not speak English which is good.  That is what I need.  My Spanish will hopefully be pretty good after these next three months!! 

Alright, you guys are pretty smart.  I threw the hint in at the bottom to see if you guys would catch on. Yes, tomorrow I am getting a new missionary and I will be training him!!  It is crazy to think I just finished my first twelve weeks and now I am going to be teaching it to a new missionary!!  It is crazy to think that I will have the first six months in my area and I am pretty excited for that.  This is a great area and the people here are great!  It is a great place to start off your mission.  And cooler then all of that we will have some baptisms for my new comp once he gets here.  We will each baptize for the first time together.  I am pretty excited to see what the future holds in store for us.  I am a little nervous considering I have never taught a single investigator all the lessons so the first little while could be a little shakey.  I am yet to teach the commandments and still haven't even finished the whole Plan of Salvation lesson yet.  It will be kind of a learning while I go experience but I am excited for it!!  I am a little nervous but excited!!  I guess that my plan going forward is just trust in the Lord!  But I am excited!!  And President Stutznegger loves me for whatever reason!  You should see the emails I get from him everyweek! 

The rest of this week was pretty good!!  We did alright as far as lessons go and we are still just trying to find lots of people who are ready.  We have found a couple of people who look promising but we just haven't had time to teach them yet.  When I reported yesterday we have five homes in teaching which is really pretty good I think!  At least this is more than I have ever had in the first three months.  Alvaro is the big one. He is progressing just fine.  He wants to go hometeaching already!  He is probably going to try and go this  week with people I think which  is really awesome.  Things are going super super great!!  Me and Elder Lund have been having a great time and really just working really hard.  We are slowly but surely starting to see the fruits of our labor.  We are hoping to find some more people before I finish training my kid.  We are going to have fun but we are going to work hard!!  

Other than Alvaro progressing there is not all the much to report as far as the week goes.  However, we did have three less active families in church this week and two of them we thought would never come to church again!!  It is awesome to see the hand of the Lord in his work!!  The only other highlight that I can really think of is that we found four new investigators this week and we have appointments set up for more this week.  I am really looking forward to see what is to come!!  

It is amazing how tired you can come home at the end of the day!  I mean we walk around a little bit and just talk to people and every day I am just exhausted.  When we get home I feel ready for bed haha!!  Like 9:30 sharp I am ready to hit the sack.  Yes that means 8:30 your time.  I guess you can say that we are quite the party animals!  

The word of the week is cambiar.  It is a verb that means to change.  Mañana voy a tener un cambio de compañeros.  Tomorrow I am going to change companions.

Have a great week!!  If you can I would start to study Preach My Gospel!  It is such a cool book and I love the time I have every day to study it!  I have learned so much!

Love,

Elder Orchard