Not Your Normal Week in the Mission

Elder Orchard was called by his mission president on Tuesday and asked to move into the mission home (he usually lives at the mission office) for the week to help with some mission business.  I won't discuss it because of the sensitive nature but it is a week he will most likely never forget.  He was given a variety of assignments including cooking and cleaning!  It looks like he did a pretty good job to me:)  If I were to guess, I would say he is making chicken fettucine alfredo.  It looks delicious!

Mad cooking skills most likely learned from his mother!

Not sure if Elder Olson helped cooked or was just there to assist!  For some reason this looks a little like a hospital room with that tv and all of those cords on the wall.  It looks like Elder Olson is handing tools to the dr!:)

All of his regular "missionary" schedules were abandoned while he served in whatever capacity he was asked to.  I was sent the sweetest note by his mission mom about what a blessing he was to them this past week.  How grateful I am that he is working hard and willing to do whatever he is asked.

The words of Sister Stutznegger:

We are just two.  We often have to rely on a few of our missionaries to do some “other than missionary” work.  Someone has to pay bills, arrange for VISA’s, gather referrals, and order supplies.  These missionaries split their time between both duties.  We have to rely on our Assistants to go with us to teach, make myriads of phone calls, and be examples of righteousness.  They do this along with missionary work.

This week was one that we taxed the strength of these missionaries.  Elders Olson, Orchard, Hixon, and Cuscagua – here is a shout out to you!  We love and appreciate all the time you stood by us this week.  In years to come, this week will always be one of those that we will remember!

The words of Elder Orchard:

"yeah it was a rough week we are exhausted but we are done with it and this week we will have time to go work in our area a little bit"

More mom commentary:
I am adding this note in January of 2020.  I hope enough time has passed that the things I add will not cause problems for anyone but I wanted to make sure I preserved this message.  I think it's important for Douglas' mission history.  I am adding the sweet email I got from his mission mom about this week.  It was sent to me and Elder Olson's mom.

Hi you two moms,

                I wanted to share a few things with you.  This is something that you won’t see on my blog – and you may not see in your letters from your sons.  Their letters tomorrow may, or may not be quite interesting!

                We have had quite a week here.  I’d like you to know how valuable and loved your sons are to us.  Literally they were the ones that kept us going at times.

                Last Tuesday we had reports of a few Elders who have been having visions, rebuking spirits, and getting revelation.  One of them is sure that he will be the next apostle next week.  They have seen angels and been taught by this angel new ways of giving blessings.  They have made prophecies some of which have been fulfilled.  They are sincere in their beliefs.

                We heard about it on Tuesday.  We closed everything else down and went to work.  By Tuesday evening we had 10 Elders in our home.  5 Elders were ones that we could trust.  The 5 others we had serious questions about.  Your sons were 2 of the trusted ones.  We pulled them out of the offices and they moved in.  Since Tuesday we have interviewed 15 Elders, written 17 pages of documentation, and been in close contact with SLC.

                Your sons have cooked and cleaned.  They have interpreted for me as I type.  They have been at our call and have done every little thing they could for us.  They have missed nights of sleep watching over other Elders.  They have been protecting us.  They have been cheerful, made us laugh, and kept us steady at times.  At one point I had my head on Elder Orchards shoulder as he told me everything would be all right.    We have made shifts in the mission and they have helped.

                On top of all of that, we have sent an extra 2 Elders home this week.  One just wanted to go, the other one was mentally collapsing.  They spent Friday night with him, here at the house, keeping everything light and funny.  We all took him to the airport, shared lunch, and sent this fine Elder home to his parents.

                We are tired, and so are your sons.  But I wanted you to know how we regard and love these two.  Bless the fine parents that you are.  Thank you for sharing these two with us.  They are forever in our hearts!

Love, Susan

Mexico's Independence

Alright gueros we had a really good week this week!  Well kind of! With the new family we found things are going awesome!!  Julio is doing great! He is the guy that wants to change his life!  So we went back and he had read everything we left and a little bit more!  He has really strong drug and alcohol addictions and so we said anytime that you feel the urge to smoke or drink just pick up the Book of Mormon and start reading!  It doesn't matter where just start reading!  We invited him to pray and everything and he was like yeah I pray at least three times a day and all sorts of great things!  This week was really a challenge for him because of Mexican Independence Day!  What do most people do on this day?  Hang out with their families and get drunk.  So we were kind of worried but knew that it is early on hopefully he can stay strong! So we get to his house and we are like how was your holiday?  He was like I went out and said hi to my family, drank a Coke and then came in to just read the Book of Mormon!  I went to bed and then just hung out with my family it was good!  So we were like really excited for him!  He also took down all of his Santa Muerte statues (Santa Muerte (Spanish for Holy Death), is a female folk saint venerated primarily in Mexico and theSouthwestern United States. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees.^[1] Despite opposition by the Catholic Church, her cult arose from popular Mexican folk belief,Santa Muerte generally appears as a female skeletal figure, clad in a long robe and holding one or more objects, usually a scythe and a globe.^[6] Her robe can be of any color, as more specific images of the figure vary widely from devotee to devotee and according to the rite being performed or the petition being made.^[7] As the worship of Santa Muerte was clandestine until the 20th century, most prayers and other rites have been traditionally performed privately in the home.) so we are seeing awesome improvement with this man!  He is doing great.  So we put him to a fecha for the 17th of October!  That seems like so far away! I can't believe it!  We definitely got blessed with him!

Well, Tuesday afternoon we weren't going to work, right? (Mexico's Independence Day.  To be cautious, the missionaries were asked to stay inside that day)  So we woke up and got to work in the offices and we just weren't going to leave the offices all day.  Well, two misisonaries went home and so Pres took them to the airport and they would both be home at like 10 ish.  Well we get a call at about 11 from one of the kid's dad.  He told us  hey my son went home today and his flight got canceled, when is he coming home?  And we were like crap!  So then Elder Olson´s phone blew up with calls and somehow the missionary finds Elder Olson´s boss at the airport picking up missionaries coming in to the MTC.  So then Pres calls figuring out what we know and then he was like okay go just buy him a flight and get him home!  So we left and got all that figured out and just hung out in the airport with him until his flight then came home!  It was quite the crazy turn of events!  It was cool though.

The Family Alva.... Well we are not too happy with them! We really just don't know what to do anymore!  They have everything and everything is good (we think) but they just won't get baptized.  But more than that we just can't get them to come to their interviews!  They blew us off all week and we are so upset about it.  They were supposed to have their interview on Wednesday but couldn't, then again on Friday they left.  On Saturday they couldn't go and then they didn't even go to church on Sunday!  We just don't exactly know anymore!  It is just so frustrating because they are so close!  They have worked so hard and done so much they just won't commit completely to it.  We are struggling with that but hopefully things will get better. The goal is to baptize them this week... just need to get them interviews.

Also we think we finally are getting close to getting this family married so that way they can get baptized.  That is exciting.  Other than that we have been pretty sick in our stomach which isn't all that fun but we are moving along with it.  I think that is about it for this week!  Love you guys!

love

Douglas

The Temple Dedication

This week was kind of crazy!  We have had a crazy time! 

 

Drenched!

Tuesday I was feeling really sick and so we just stayed in the house and got better!  Not really anything to report on that!  

Wednesday just a normal day of work!  We went and saw the Family Alva and they are doing good!  We put their fecha for next Saturday!  They are doing good and we are just hoping they will be good converts!  We have worked for a long long time with them and so hopefully things are good!  Griselda is still being kind of difficult but we think she will still get baptized on Saturday and if not then we will just baptize everyone but her!

Thursday I don't remember really but I am sure that it was a really good work day!

Friday we went to Polanco and it was also Olson's birthday so he bought a suit and we picked up green cards and such! It was a good day but we just hung out there while we waited for everything!  It was really good we had fun and he had a good birthday so that was awesome!

Saturday we went and worked and we visited a ton of people!  We went and saw the cultural event (for the temple dedication) and that was really really good!  One of our counselors was in it and he did really good! Then we kind of just got ready for the temple dedication!  Laura loved the event and she is excited to go to the dedication tomorrow!

Sunday was the temple dedication, that was great.  Elder Holland came and President Eyring and they both did a great job!  We only went to two of the three sessions because we went to eat and couldn't make it back in time!  So that was kind of crappy!  But we had a cita with someone that came to the church Saturday night and we ended up finding some cool news! It is a family and the guy has had tons of problems and so we are trying to help him.  We have an appointment on Thursday and so hopefully he has read and done everything we need him to do!

I love you guys have a good week!

Douglas

A Hard Week of Working Hard

Elder Orchard was pretty busy this week.  He didn't find time to write his normal family email but he was an awesome big brother and made sure to send a few words to Stockton and Mason.  I did get this from him:

The temple dedication is this next week!  Who knows what we are going to do with that!  There are three different sessions we will see what happens with it!  This week was really really crazy!  We didn't have much time to work in the field but we did lots of office work!  Changes weeks are hard!  So we are going to rest today and see if we can get feeling better!  We have been exhausted!

The rainy season is pretty much always, it slows down in like October ish but this week has been Crazy!  There was so much rain we were walking around and the streets like flooded and we were walking around up to our knees in water! We were cold and I may have ruined a pair of shoes!  We will see how it turns out! 

....I honestly have not been in the offices all day sorry!  We just got back we had to put the sister's house together and go out to a far area of the mission it has been super busy!

I am not sure which Elder this is but I love seeing a glimpse of my boy in the background with his arm around a fellow Elder and a smile on his face!

Watch out- hole in the road!

He sent me his companions email just so I knew what was going on.  Here are a few thoughts from that!  Thank you Elder Olson!  It's nice to hear your perspective of the week:)

Tuesday: Changes!! We got there early and got set up and then some kid that was going home never showed up. So I called him and turns out the guy bringing them in's car broke down and they got stuck an hour away. So they had to come straight in to the offices and then we took him in Metro to President's house for the goodbye dinner and got invited to stay hehe. So awesome. It was funny. Then we ate and sat in on their testimony meeting.  Then we came back and I went with the ward mission leader to a cita with Lucina and Orchard went with the youth presidents to visit the family Alva! 

Wednesday: Today we went to the food early and then went out to Texcoco to help Blotter get a house.  Anyway we got back at around 8 and had our ward mission meeting and that was about it haha.  But that was pretty much it haha. Just signing contracts and walking around looking for RENTING signs :/

Thursday; Today we were in the offices until 4 with the assistants making first aid kits for the whole mission. So tedious. So boring. But it had to be done :/ Then we went and ate like at 5, and then had a lesson with a less active and came back to get more stuff done in the offices :/ So busy.

Friday: Today we went to Migration and I got my green card renewed weeeee. I'm legal again! It's funny though because I can't do any of my paperwork without a green card so Orchard has to do it hahaha. Poor kid. Then we ate and worked today! We had a bunch of stuff fall. We found a new family though! They seem cool! They've been going to the English Classes for about 2 and a half months in the stake center and those trolls never told us... we just contacted into them by chance. They go "Hey Elders how are you guys??" And I was like what? And he goes yeah I know the missionaries from English class! They've been teaching us a little! And I was just like PIRATES!! Hahaha. Anyway we got that all figured out and it should be cool! Then we had a good cita with Alva. We were going to get on Griseldass (the grandma) case but she wasn't even there... so we got the other three all excited for their baptisms. I don't know what we're going to do with them. This week we're probably going to be like look, you three can get baptized but you can't Griselda because you don't do anything. The others read, pray, are willing to go to church, and she just does nothing. So we'll see how that goes.

Saturday: Today we went to the Temple! It was super fun :) We went with a family we just reactivated! They're so cool but now their in the other area so we never see them :/ Then we ate and had a cita and then came back to do office stuff. 

Sunday: Today sucked. No one came. Griselda flaked out. We're totally going to lay down the law this week over there and be like look stop impeding the others from progressing. But we'll see how it goes! Then we had like 3 meetings with housing landlords and then finally got back from all that like at 8:45 :/ 

Today: Todayyyy I haven't done anything so far haha. But our plans are buy food, move the girl's into their new house, and then I don't know haha. We'll see how long everything takes! 

Have a good week!

Elder Orchard (courtesy of Elder Olson:))

Sister Stutznegger saved the day with pictures.  I sure do love her!  All of the pictures in this post are courtesy of the sweetest mission mom ever that Facebook's photos of her missionaries.  What an awesome tool!  I love getting mid week pics of my son, especially on weeks where he doesn't send any home:)

The words of Sister Stutznegger:  These two were comparing their "food babies."  These Elders are something else!  They are quite the comedy team together!

A Visit From Elder Christofferson

Alright well Tuesday not much really happened!  We didn't leave until really really late because Pres. had to sign off in works and I had to make our budget which was not too bad!  We had one cita with The family Alva and so that was nice!  They are doing good and we are going to the temple with them on Saturday!

Wednesday Elder Christofferson came and that was awesome!  It was one of the most amazing meetings I have ever been in!  He was awesome and you could really feel the spirit really really strong and it was awesome!!  I learned tons and was so happy with what I was able to do and feel!

Then we went to the area and we did divisions with a member so we could divide and conquer!  We had tons of good lessons and we were able to find a couple really really awesome news!  This member is awesome though!  He works in the MTC down here and so he teaches really awesome!  It is awesome to be able to teach with someone that didn't serve here because you learn a lot more!  We have really had some good success!  Lucina is ready for her interview tomorrow and hopefully she is ready!  She has progressed nice and has had a really quick learning time!  She is really really cool!  More to come on that tomorrow!

Thursday Today was a decent day!  We didn't do much!  Nothing really to report on many Investigators!  Tomorrow we have an appointment with the Family Alva and that is all we have planned because we are going to Polanco!  I think we will just have a normal chill day tomorrow in Polanco!  Besides that today we taught a few actives, we got the Pila (font or baptistry) cleaned and Lucina passed her interview and so I will be baptizing her on Saturday at 3!  We are super excited!  We are seeing tons of miracles and we are so excited for that! We are glad she was able to pass her interview!  She really understood in the little time that we had to teach her these passed few weeks!

Friday!  Today was a Polanco day and since my comp has to get his green card renewed I had to do the renovacions and so that was interesting!  It was interesting!  I was able to know how to do some of his job too!  It was cool!  We got back and we went and saw the Family Alva!  They are doing good and they are excited to go back to the temple tomorrow!  We will also be going with the ward and we will be baptizing so basically the same thing that we did last week! It will be nice to get everything done like that!  Then we wil be back and we will clean the house and do all the things we need to do before the news get here!  It was a good day today!

Saturday!  Baptism and temple day!!!!  Today was literally the same thing we did last week!!  We went to the temple in the morning with our ward!  We showed up a little late and they totally left us!  It was so crappy!  We called and the worst part was they are like oh yeah we saw you but didn't think you were coming?  I was like we planned this activity why wouldn't we come?!  That doesn't make any sense!  We were a little upset at first but it was really quite funny that they saw us walking to the church at nine in the morning what else would we do?  So after that we got back home and we had Lucinas baptism and that was awesome!  It was nice to see her come so long and so far!  We were all really excited about that!

Then we took the Family Alva to the temple and that was so much fun!  We are just struggling with the abuela because she just is so indecisive and it is so hard!  She like won't commit!

Douglas forgot to sign his letter this week!  Today was a busy day.  The new missionaries entered for this transfer and he gets to host them in the mission office.  I wanted to include Sister Stutznegger's account of Elder Christofferson's visit.  It is a little more informational than Elder Orchard's recap:)

August 26, 2015

A visit from an apostle..really?  Keith was surprised when that call came from the states.  There are over 400 missions in the world.  There are only 12 apostles, and some of them are not in good enough health for travel.  What are the odds of our little mission getting selected?

And yet we were.  For two weeks we prepared.  The missionaries were given reading assignments.  The church was given special attention by church maintenance.  Missionaries were told to arrive one hour early, fasting and ready to be feed by the spirit.  We even took a few minutes of that hour to "practice" a quick mission photo in case there was time.  And then we waited, listened to music, and prepared ourselves.

Elder Christofferson was worth the preparations.  A beautiful musical number by seven of our missionaries set the stage for 90 minutes of learning.  He took questions and turned them into sermons.  He used scriptures to further our understanding.  He shook everyone's hand and spoke with great kindness and insight.  And when there was just 6 minutes left before he had to leave for another speaking appointment, our "practiced" missionaries got the cherished picture of all of us together.

Many of our missionaries have not even been in the same auditorium or city as an apostle of The Lord Jesus Christ.  This day left a lasting impression!

Elder Olson and I Hit A Year

Tuesday.  Alright well today we had time to visit a few people!  We were able to go and see Lucina and she is doing awesome!  Laura also got prepared for her interview which will be on Thursday!  Hopefully she passes that just fine!  We think she will so things are looking good!  We also put a fecha with the daughter of Lucina!  For the 19th of September!  We have been truly blessed with her!

Wednesday we had a few citas today and so that was good!  We finally saw the family Alba and they are doing good!  The kids are loving what we are teaching!  They are going strong!  Really everyone except for the Grandma!  She is just kind of difficult more than anything!  She is slowly coming around but it seems like every day we have to almost re-convince her of going to church!  However we taught about the Tithing and she loved it!  They all committed to going to church and paying it too!  Griselda was like look I love the way you guys pay and use tithing!  In my church like I don't know if the pastor is just buying himself a new car and house and stuff!  So we hurried and reiterated the fact that only in our church do we do it like that!  That doesn't mean they do it this way in the other religions!  It was a really good lesson we had!

Thursday we went and got tacos in the morning and they are sooo good!  We also just had some citas today.  Laura passed her interview and so that was awesome!  Elder Olson and I hit a year and so we were going to go out for tacos again but that didn't happen! Sadly the member cancelled on us!  So we went for cokes instead and just called it good!  We will get tacos two for one on Saturday I think so that will be really good!

The shirt burning ceremony

 

 

Friday was a day we spent cleaning the church and running around like a chicken with our head cut off!  We kind of did really bad planning and had to cross the area multiple times it was bad!  I need the walking though!  We were able to see the family Alva and also Lucina!  It was awesome we just got invited to a family home evening that a member put on and called our investigators!  It was really really nice!  All in all things were really good!

Saturday!  This was an awesome day!  We went to the Temple for the first time and it was sooo beautiful! It was packed but we went with all of the youth and had an awesome turnout! What was fun was that they just didn't have transport planned to get there.  So we walked to the closest metro/Micro stop and we tried to contract a micro driver!  It was pretty funny!  The guy was like I will take you and bring you back for 900 pesos, kind of expensive but it was fine.  Then we came back and had our baptism!

 

Laura's baptism

It was one of the best baptisms I have had here!  There was tons of people that came and the Primary sang a special musical number and everything was so great!  They had her visiting teachers there to meet her and we just were super super excited about everything!  Then we went and picked up the Family Alba to go back to the temple.  We shoved six people into one little taxi and off we went!  We toured the temple for the second time and after they were like wow what do I need to do to enter when it gets opened?  We explained what and they are super excited!  Things are going really really good and I am so happy with what has been going on in the Lord's work for really the last two months! We have really seen changes and miracles here in Leandro Valle!

Sunday well I got a little upset today!  Griselda decided to go to her christian church and take half of our investigators with her!  It is just really hard to teach her right now!  I think this week we are going to have to go over the restoration!  She likes our church but we just need something to convince her!  She isn't completely sure about everything!  It is just so frustrating when you feel like you are teaching clearly and they say they understand and are doing everything they need to be doing but they are still too tied down to come to church!    Besides that things are going really really good!  We are just trying to push on and figure this out!  I am sure we will get some help from the Lord to be able to do it!  Other than that everything is going good!  We had a family that was in teaching just show up this week which was nice!  We will go see how they are doing and I will be sure to keep you posted! This week is going to be busy and stressfull! 

Tomorrow I will have a meeting with President to talk about our budget for next year. Wednesday we are having Elder D. Todd Christofferson come and then after we are doing divisions with someone so we can actually get things done!  Thursday we have to find a new house for the new missionaries coming into our  ward!  Friday we are going to Polanco and Saturday back to the temple and we have Lucina's baptism!  Crazy week and then we have the "news" coming in next Monday! Wish me luck!  

Love you guys!

Elder Orchard 

Food pics.  What else?