General Conference and Easter!

Hey Everybody! Life’s good here in the Utah Orem Mission. Most of last week was spent dealing with transfer stuff, with three of the people in our apartment packing to leave, saying bye to a few people, cleaning, traveling, and moving stuff in and out of people’s apartments. Since I’m still fairly new to the area myself and Elder Wood is brand new we’ve spent most of the days just trying to get our feet under us and figure out the area.

The best part of the week had to be Saturday and Sunday. We got to watch General Conference pretty much all day both days. For those of you who don’t know what General Conference is, its where you sit and watch people talk for 8-10 hours. I know, it sounds super boring, I used to think the same thing. But honestly it’s the most spiritually uplifting thing there is. The speakers are inspired men and women that seem to know exactly what to talk about and what things need to be said. The talk I enjoyed the most was given by President Nelson. He spoke about the importance of receiving personal revelation and not just following blindly. I loved it because people think that’s what we do but it’s really not, there’s so much more to it.

The only thing better about this week than General Conference was Easter Sunday. Not that anything about the day was particularly special, but more so the feelings and emotions felt while reflecting on the significance of the day. I’m so grateful for our Savior. There’s really nothing anyone can ever do to repay Him for what he’s done for us, but we can at least try. He accepts the best we have to offer and in return offers so much joy and peace. I hope you all were able to feel that yesterday. Or really any day for that matter. Have a great week everyone, and don’t forget your worth in the sight of God!

Elder Orchard

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.

What a Week!

Hey Everybody!

I hope everyone is having a great week, I know that I certainly am. What a week this last one was! The highlight for sure was getting to see the Weilacher family enter the waters of baptism! It was so incredible and such a spiritual service. The whole family except the oldest daughter was baptized. It is such an amazing opportunity because even though I just got into the area and have only taught them once or twice I still love them already and have so much happiness for them as a family! There were so many people at the baptismal service that we had to hold it in the chapel, and we had to squeeze into the room with the font.

So I guess just a few other cool things this week, One is that I got to interview this guy named Fernando for baptism. He’s an amazing guy and I’m so happy he was able to get baptized! Also we gave two talks in sacrament meeting this week. My first one was on a few parts of the plan of salvation. I talked for 15 minutes about how the Atonement of Jesus Christ provides cleansing from sin, succor in our trials, and the gift of resurrection. I also talked about the importance of living righteously so that our families can live together forever. In my second talk, I talked about the blessings and freedom that are the results of obedience, and the bondage that comes because of disobedience. I have a very real and very strong witness of all the topics I was able to share my insights on. I feel particularly strongly about the restored truth of the eternal family. I’ve witnessed the power that knowledge brings into the lives of people I’ve taught, and more evidently in my own life. Anyone who’s struggling with loss can have peace in knowing that we’ll be reunited with our loved ones again. I can’t adequately describe how much I know that that is true.

I hope I’m able to provide some kind of comfort to others through my thoughts and emails. I’m eternally grateful for all of those who have blessed my life and I want to do what I can to pay it back. I hope everyone is safe in all they do and I’m looking forward to writing again next week. Until then!

Elder Orchard

The Weilacher Family

Saw a pretty cool book about the history of the world the other day

Sole the snow loving dog

Crazy Week, Super Cool

Hey Everybody!

It’s been a crazy week, lots of good stuff going on though. We had transfers on Wednesday, so I spent the first part of the week saying by to people and packing up. I was pretty excited for transfers for a few reasons, a couple of those being that I’m now in Saratoga Springs, and I’ve always wanted to serve on the west side of the lake, I’m serving in a trio with two other Elders that I get along great with (Elder Williams and Elder Johnson), and I’m part of a pretty sweet district. The only bad part is that we didn’t have a car for the first two days, and our area is pretty big, not to mention the zone covers like half of the mission. Thank goodness we’ve got some pretty rad elders in the zone who helped out a ton with rides and stuff!

So, I’m pretty pumped for this coming Saturday because we recently got clearance for this super cool family to be baptized. Because of their family background, they had to get special permission from the first presidency for it to happen. They did, and it’s happening this Saturday. It’s a family of 5 and their niece, so that’s pretty dang sweet. It was really cool because I was just thinking the week before that all of the people I’ve helped get baptized have been individuals and it would be really special for a whole family to get baptized, and now we have the opportunity to see it happen. I am 100% without a doubt sure that it is a miracle. The Lord really cares about his children and is involved in our missionary work!

That’s about it for this week, I’m short on time, but I hope everyone has a great week! Talk to y’all later!

Elder Orchard
 

Only picture this week is of my mission dad, Elder Zimsky. He finished up his mission this last week. Congratulations Elder Zimsky!

Going to Saratoga Springs

Hey Everybody!

We’ve had a great week, lots to do and lots of fun things going on! We had exchanges with some other Elders on Tuesday, I spent the day walking around in their area. It was in Pleasant Grove, where I was for the last two weeks of last transfer, so it was good to see some people that I knew and hadn’t seen in a bit. We had our apartment inspections on Thursday, and we did pretty good. Let me tell you what. You should’ve seen the look on their faces, it’s like they’d never seen a place look so nice. We also had a bunch of companionship studies with other missionaries in the Zone all week, that was really fun and a great way to connect with the rest of the zone. Then on Saturday morning we got to clean the chapel that our Mission Office is in. It might not seem that exciting, but we’ll take any excuse we can to get out of our proselyting clothes. Also on Sunday we got to teach a combined youth class. It’s their missionary month and they’re preparing for their missions, so we taught them how to teach the restoration. It was really easy because we teach it every night at dinner appointments, and it was also really fun!

In other news, we got our transfer calls this morning. I’ll be leaving Lindon, and I’ll have the opportunity to serve with Elder Williams in Saratoga Springs. I’m really excited because it’s always interesting going into a new area, as well as the fact that this will be my first time serving on the west side of lake Utah. It’ll be great! I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Orchard

If you look closely, you can see the tire treads from where my iPad got ran over. Thankfully, it still functions perfectly fine, with only minimal damage to my screen protector.

A beautiful sunset.

This wallet stacking deserves an “A” grade.

How to Distract Kids Trick #1: iPad cameras.

Spot the deer eyes.

6 rolls of sushi for $20? That’s hard to pass up!