Exchanges

Hey Everybody!

This week has been pretty great, and pretty busy. We had to take care of the rest of the exchanges for this transfer. On Tuesday I stayed in the area with Elder Michaud, and on Thursday I went to the Lakeview - Sunset Heights area with Elder McGowan. They were both pretty fun, and great learning experiences! There were a lot of big hills in Elder McGowan's area, and we played basketball with a bunch of other people on Friday morning, so my legs were super sore the rest of the week!

I was supposed to go back to Alpine on Saturday for a baptism of someone I taught in that area. You might remember him, his name is Troy. It had to be pushed back a few weeks, but it'll happen soon enough, so all is well! On Sunday the Orem Stake had their Stake conference. There were a lot of great talks! One of my favorites was by one of the High Councilman. In his talk, he compared keeping the Sabbath day holy to body building and "gains".

Later that day, we helped teach a gospel principles class about the word of wisdom. One of the biggest things I took away from the discussion was why we live the word of wisdom (and any commandment, for that matter). Many of the guidelines we follow in keeping the word of wisdom have obvious effects on our health, while others are not so apparent. Sometimes its hard to reason why we're told not to do something. But I have a testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and because I know he is a Prophet, I know that the commandments that we live are direct instructions from our Heavenly Father. When we do what our Heavenly Father has instructed us to do, not only does it keep us physically and mentally clean, but it also keeps ups spiritually clean. When we are spiritually clean, we can feel the influence of the Holy Ghost in our life to teach us and comfort us. This is reason enough for me to live any of the commandments given!

One last bit of information is that we had transfer calls this morning. I'll be staying in the area, and Elder Sorensen will be going to American Fork. My new companion will be Elder Amari. I've served around him a little bit, he's an awesome Elder! It's going to be a great next transfer!

Elder Orchard

Enjoying 92% of the eclipse last Monday

Our last picture as a district for this transfer