Merry Christmas!

Hey Everybody!

First and foremost, I apologize for the lack of email last week. It was pretty crazy. Elder Campbell left and I had to get a bunch of my own stuff packed up so that I could temporarily move apartments for two weeks. Also, we had zone activity in the morning, so it was just a hectic day. A lot has happened in the last two weeks though! Of all the highlights over the last two weeks, one of the biggest ones was getting to see John Mungin sealed to his wife and kids in the Payson Temple. I got special permission to attend, and the sealing was awesome! It was such a great experience being able to see another huge milestone in John's eternal progression, especially since I got to be with him from the beginning through his baptism. Its something I'll remember for a long time.

Another big milestone in the life of one person we are teaching, named Chris, happened this last week when he and his fiance (now wife) got married. I got to attend the service, and even though it was short, it was very touching to see. We had a small dinner gathering afterwards, but it wasn't near as good as the ceremony itself. I'm looking forward to continuing working with him and seeing him get baptized here in a few weeks!

As you all know, these last two days were Christmas and Christmas Eve! We went to a total of three Christmas Eve sacrament programs on Sunday, all of which were amazing! Then from about 2:30 to the end of the night we were constantly going from members house to members house visiting and eating, then visiting some more and eating a lot more. Pretty much the same thing happened on Christmas Day, except it started at 8:00 with breakfast at a member's home. Of course we also got to open presents from our families and spend an hour video calling them as well, which was probably the highlight of the month! Except for the fact that we ran out of things to talk about after about 5 minutes. But no worries, it was an incredible experience nonetheless! I hope everyone else's Christmas was as good as mine or better, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year! I love this season and the love that everyone has for one another. I know that the only thing it can be attributed to is the light of Christ that is in them. I hope that everyone takes a chance the rest of this Christmas season to remember Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for them! Merry Christmas everyone, and a Happy New Year as well!

Elder Orchard

Mungin Family Sealing

Mungin Family Sealing

Chris’s Wedding

Nativity Squad

Nativity Squad

It was a white Christmas after all! (Although it was all gone by the end of the day)

Gotta love that Utah inversion

Just Another Busy Week!

Hey Everybody!

This week was pretty great! We had a ton of meetings and stuff, so it felt like it lasted forever, but here we are at Monday again so it’s all good! We started off the week Tuesday with MLC, which was SUPER long. By the end of it I felt like I’d lived in the chapel my whole mission up to that point. They introduced the new training focus for December, which is centered on improving teaching skills and on The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m excited for it!

The next day we had mission president Interviews. It’s always a blessing to spend some one on one time with President Killpack, even if it’s only 2 minutes because he’s behind schedule! On Thursday we had exchanges. I stayed in the area with Elder Mata. He’s a Spanish missionary and this is only his second transfer. It was a fun time, he’s pretty cool! The next day they threw a surprise preparedness drill at us. There wasn’t an actual emergency, so don’t go telling anyone that, just an exercise to see how prepared everyone would be if there were an emergency. Not many people would be.

Later that day we had our combined district meeting, which went really well except for the entire time I felt sick. I made it through though! We also had a few Ward parties that night and the next day, which are a blast! Elder Campbell and I sang “Silent Night” at one of them. We totally put off preparing for it until the night before, and I thought it was going to be awful because of that. But I said a prayer right before we went on, and it actually turned out pretty well! At least I think it did, I’ll let you know for sure next week when I have the video recording.

On Sunday night, we went to a Stake Musical Fireside called “Carols to our King”. It went really well! We went with one of our investigators named Chris. They really enjoyed it too, but they had to take off right away afterwards to take his son home. Chris is doing great, he really has a strong desire to be baptized! The biggest thing that is holding him back is not having as much of an understanding as he should, and overcoming his struggles with some of the commandments. He’s making progress though, and he’s on date for the 23rd of December, so everybody pray for him!

I hope you all have a great week, I know I will! I get to go to John Mungin’s sealing on Saturday morning, I’ve been looking forward to this for the entire last year! I’ll talk to you all next week!

Elder Ethan Orchard

“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness” Moroni 10:32

A picture of a picture taken at a Christmas party a week and a half or so ago, back when my hair was atrociously short:

Light the World!

Hey Everybody! It’s been a good week here in the UOM! We’ve been busy and working hard, and a few fun things have happened along the way. We had a baptism this week! Her name is Sabrina, her husband is a returned missionary and she’s grown up around the church and even graduated seminary but never got baptized. I only taught them once before the baptism, but I’m looking forward to working with them more during the after baptism discussions! The only service project we had this week was raking leaves. We thought it would be a quick project, but we ended up raking leaves for almost 3 hours! Not to mention it was December, which it’s weird enough to be raking leaves in December. This weekend also kicked off the beginning of the Christmas Party season. We had 3 Christmas parties on Saturday, a breakfast and two dinner parties. And there are plenty more to come! It’s going to be a crazy month!

Friday also kicked off the beginning of the month, which means it was the beginning of the Church’s #LighttheWorld initiative. There is a great video introducing the program, as well as a theme for every day based on a scripture. The purpose of the program is to serve others and ultimately become like Jesus Christ through small charitable acts. The end goal is to build momentum and have people feel the spirit of charity and love throughout the year, not just during the Holiday season. The intro video, a calendar with all the days, and a video for each day can be found at Mormon.org. Everybody can take part and serve one another as we try and light the world one person at a time! You are all amazing people, I hope everyone has a great week!

Also! We got to go to the temple this morning! Amazing experience, as always. Temples truly are the house of the Lord!

Elder Ethan Orchard

“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness” Moroni 10:32

P.s. My companion and I committed to give up desserts and sweets as an act of solidarity with an investigator who is trying to give up tea. If anyone is planning on sending stuff for Christmas, feel free to leave out the sugar! Tank you!

Light the World!

Sabrina’s baptism

Our district at the temple

Our district, still at the temple

A bunch of dear we saw in a field