Easter - He is Risen!

Hey Everybody,

We had transfers this week, which I’m really bummed about. Elder Williams is leaving and I’m getting Elder Wood as my companion. He’s just coming off of being AP for almost a year, so it should be a good transfer. Not a whole lot has changed in the zone, so it ought to be pretty fun. I’m looking forward to it!

Other than that, this week has been pretty decent. We’re still teaching Shon, and he’s still soaking in everything we tell him. He’s pretty smart for someone as young as he is, especially considering that he barely speaks English. We got to go down to Provo on a Wednesday for a doctors visit for Elder Williams. It kind of made me sad because I’ll be there in a couple of months. It felt surreal.

I’m looking forward to this coming week. First off, I hit my 20 month mark tomorrow, which honestly blows my mind. We spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday, and the third speaker was a Sister that had recently returned from her mission. About halfway through her talk, I realized that she would’ve left on her mission after I left. It was then that I felt like an old fart. Also this coming weekend is General Conference. Saturday and Sunday, pretty much all day. If anyone is interested in hearing real life prophets and apostles, messengers from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, tune in on BYUTV or on LDS.org. You won’t regret it!

One last thing I wanted to mention. As you all probably know, this coming Sunday is Easter Sunday. The other day, we were riding in our car and listening to a song called “I Am The Resurrection” from the musical Lamb of God. While we were listening to it, the Holy Ghost hit me like a brick wall, confirming something I already knew. The resurrection is real. Our Savior Jesus Christ died, but three days later he was resurrected. He lived then and he still lives today, and because of that we can too. I have every reason to want to know that is true, but it’s not just a belief. I know it’s true, because the Holy Ghost taught and confirmed it. That’s our goal as missionaries, to help people have that same knowledge. I hope everyone can have that opportunity. I hope y’all have a wonderful week!

Elder Orchard

 

If you want to look super buff, put on a tiny jacket

Elk Burgers and French Fries, both homemade

Looking longingly at LaVell Edwards Stadium

I found a cool hat at DTM

Hey Everybody!

Sorry for not writing last week, we went to the temple and I just didn’t have enough time to do much else than what I needed to. But I’m alive! For the most part. It’s been a stressful week. Thankfully I have the Savior to give me strength! It’s been a good week though, I honestly can’t complain too much. In the last couple weeks, we’ve had Stake Conference, where Elder Kim B. Clark called a new stake presidency, and we sang in the Stake choir. We also attended all the district meetings in our zone because none of them were on the same day last week. That was really fun because we got to see a lot of people but now I’m kinda just done with district meetings for a while. Oh, also we went to the baptism of a girl that lives in our area. We had dinner with their family, and she invited us to her baptism, so we went. She was probably the smallest 8 year old I’ve ever seen. Probably the best thing was getting to go to the temple though. I love it so much, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of going. I honestly just wish I could go more often. We will probably go to the Jordan River open house soon with some investigators, so that’s sick.

In terms of teaching, it’s starting to pick up in our area. We started teaching this guy named Chris, he’s been going to church for a while and wanted to be baptized about a year ago but had a falling out with the missionaries. He wants get baptized in Utah lake, which I don’t know why anyone would want that. It’ll be interesting to work with him. We’re still teaching Sean, the little Asian boy. He’s starting to understand more of what we’re teaching him, so that’s good. We’ve also got some other people we’ll try to start teaching this week. Pray for us, we need all the help we can get!

I hope y’all have a great week, I always look forward to hearing from you and seeing how everyone is doing!

Elder Orchard

Majestic mountains in the background, majestic companionships in

the foreground.

The post morning workout struggle is real.

Million Dollar Idea: Accessorize-able sunglasses.

The happiest goodboy I’ve ever seen in my life.

Squad minus Elder Williams.

Tuesday will be Monday

Hey Everybody!

This week's email will be short, it’s been a busy day. We’ve been doing a lot of busy work, trying to find new people to teach, cleaning our area book, and meeting with as much leadership as we can to get our faces out there. We had MLC on Tuesday, super long and honestly kind of boring, but still a really great meeting. Then we had our zone meeting on Thursday, kinda just taking stuff from MLC and replicating it but still making it our own.

Oh yeah! We’re gonna start teaching this 9 year old kid named Sean. He was adopted from China and has been going to church for a couple months and loves it. He’s super funny, his favorite English word is diarrhea. I can already tell it’s gonna be fun teaching him. This weeks going to be a good one!

As a heads up, our p-day next week will be on Tuesday since it’s a temple day. So if you don’t get an email Monday don’t get too upset. I know, my emails are probably the highlight of your weeks, that must be why I get so many replies, but you’ll have to wait another day longer than normal. Hope y’all have a great week!

Elder Orchard

The beginnings of a masterpiece. I’ll send more progress next week.

I’d make a great Harry Potter.