Mount Timpanogos Temple

Hey Everybody!

This last week has been quite eventful! A lot has happened that has provided spiritual growth. I know that Heavenly Father has placed many of these things together in the same week for a reason, and I feel that reason was to make sure that I was spiritually fed. I hope to be able to remember these things in the future and always keep in mind how much our Heavenly Father loves and cares for each and every one of us.

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to attend the Timpanogos Temple as a district. We get the chance to go once every three months, and I personally look forward to that opportunity every time. Elder Johnson and I arrived a little early so that we could get breakfast from the cafeteria under the temple. It was pretty good and kept us full well throughout the session! I love going to the temple because not only do we get to be physically fed if we choose to, but we also get to be spiritually fed. I love being able to just sit in the temple for a few minutes and relax and feel the spirit. It is one of the most refreshing things that I have the opportunity to do.

Wednesday morning was transfer morning, but since Elder Johnson and I stayed together, it was mostly the same as any other morning. However, we got an email form the Vehicle Coordinator saying that we had to come into the mission office to get our new insurance cards for our car, so we got to make the trip to the mission office anyway. I love going to the mission office on transfer days because I get to see a lot of the missionaries that I wouldn't normally get to see during the transfer. I've met so many other amazing missionaries so far, and it is really nice to get to see them every now and then. It definitely helps that our mission is so small and travel around the mission is incredibly convenient! The next day we had our beginning to the transfer District Training Meeting, but our entire district stayed the same, so it was just like any regular DTM.

On Friday, we had our bi-annual Missionary Musical Fireside at the Alpine Tabernacle in American Fork. For these firesides, we typically have a guest keynote speaker and a guest musical performer or group, along with testimonies, conversion stories, and musical numbers from missionaries in the mission. This time around we had Hank Smith as our guest speaker. He is a lot like John Bytheway in that he speaks to a lot of youth groups and such, but is overall just a great inspirational speaker. The musical guest was the Utah Valley Children's Choir. They were awesome, except I don't know if I would call them a "children's" choir because some of them drove themselves to the tabernacle. The theme of this fireside was the family. As a mission, we were asked to attempt to memorize The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Elder Johnson and I were able to memorize the whole thing, and we recited it as a mission at the fireside. All in all, it was a fantastic evening!

Saturday went by as any other day, and on Sunday we had Stake Conference in one of our Stakes. We watched the general session at one of the other buildings in the Stake other than the Stake Center so that we could watch with some investigators, but all of the talks were still very spiritual. We had the opportunity to hear from our mission president, President Killpack, who was in attendance. We were also able to hear from Elder Kevin G. Worthen, who is a member of the quorum of the Seventy as well as the president of BYU. It was a great meeting and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

The rest of Sunday was pretty casual. In one of our wards, we had the opportunity to teach a combined youth class about missionary work, but other than that, it was a normal Sunday afternoon. That brings me to this morning when I am writing this. We have the whole rest of our p-day to use, and I'm sure we'll find a great way to use it! I hope everyone has a great week and has all of their prayers answered, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Elder Orchard

Our district at the Mount Timpanogos Temple

Hank Smith and Me after the Musical Fireside