Orchard Takes on Ogden.: Missionary Christmas Party, and watching miracles take place!

HOLA.

If anyone tells you a mission is easy, they're lying. However, I kinda sorta love it. ;) I hit my two month mark yesterday and WOW. I can't believe it's been TWO MONTHS.

This week was a good week. It's getting closer to CHRISTMAS and I am stoked! At the beginning of this week, we had an awesome zone conference. The district leaders in our zones had the opportunity to go up and talk about why they came on a mission... And why they stayed. Something our district leader said was that he stayed on a mission because the cause is bigger than himself. Also that, "the mission is supposed to be hard, but it's supposed to be enriching" and "endure your missions cheerfully and happily." I love that! All three of their talks were amazing.

Powerful words coming from 18 or 19 year old guys.

One thing I know for sure is that miracles do happen and FASTING WORKS. Since last Sunday was fast Sunday, we fasted for two meals to find people to teach because we don't have very many. Let's just say, we've gotten a couple miracle phone calls from people that have a family member or that found someone that wants to be taught. There is a family in the english Ward and their daughter is dating a nonmember that wants to be taught in his native language-Spanish. We had our first lesson with him on Sunday and it went so well. I recited the first vision and asked him to be baptized! He said yes to baptism, but no to the date we invited him to be baptized on, but we will continue teaching him every Sunday.

We are also taking one of our less active members to the temple this Saturday! He will be able to do baptisms and WE ARE SO EXCITED. We will be going with him, so we are super happy. I love teaching him and I can't wait until Saturday.

Yesterday was such a great day. Why? MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS PARTY. We started the party off with a devotional sort of thing. We listened to a few of our leaders speak and a couple music numbers. My companion actually played her clarinet for everyone. After, we watch the animated version of the grinch, ate lunch and dessert (so.many.desserts.), and had the talent portion of our party. It was so awesome and I had a blast. It's always fun meeting other missionaries, too.

We also got our presents! YAY. I felt so loved seeing the packages and cards that came in for me. Besides the gifts from my family, I also got three packages from people I don't know. Many people donated Christmas gifts and there was a lot. It was so nice and I can't believe how generous some people are. One of my boxes includes 15 individually wrapped presents, so I'm saving those for Christmas. The other included food and candy and socks and gloves and gift cards! The last was a stocking full of treats and stuff I could really use. Wow. It was insane. I wish they included their name so I could thank them.. I couldn't wait to open these gifts, but I am waiting until Christmas to open the rest. :p

It has been a great week. The language is still tough, but it's definitely better. I love the people we teach and their desire to learn more. I also love being a missionary, no matter how hard it can be.

I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Orchard

Big pile of presents!