Happy New Year!

Hello family and friends!

This letter won't be too long, so I am so sorry about that!

I am so grateful for all your support and letters and AH. I have an incredible support system and I for sure could not do it without ya'll.

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEARS. I can't believe 2015 is HERE. It's so crazy to think that 2015 is my mission year. This whole year is going to be dedicated to serving the Lord ;) I'm determined to make this a year to remember, so I am excited to see what this new year will bring. I hope you all make it a year to remember!

For New Years, we got together with the missionaries in our zone. We planned on playing Capture the Flag, but it was way too cold and dark, so we did games and stuff inside. It was nice to hang out with other missionaries, but the best part was... I GOT TO WEAR JEANS. I was happy about this because it was the first time on my mission. HA! It was actually pretty weird.

We have done a bit of teaching this week and we have found a couple of new people to teach. It was pretty exciting. Sister Lucas has been with us for about a week now because her companion went home. She is an incredible missionary and we've loved having her out with us!

Transfers are tomorrow! After this week, I will have officially been in Utah longer than Mexico. AH. WHAT IN THE WORLD. My companion and I are both staying in Roy, so here's to another 6 weeks here! This morning we had transfer breakfast with our zone. Last time meeting together as a zone! The plus side is that our district is basically staying the same :)

I watched a Mormon Message this week called The Will of God, based off a talk from Elder Christofferson, called "As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten."
I also read the talk, but both are INCREDIBLE. I strongly suggest going and
watching the video
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8xvw0cgw0 )
or reading the talk!
( https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/as-many-as-i-love-i-rebuke-and-chasten?lang=eng )

There's a scripture Elder Christofferson uses in his talk from the Book Of Mormon,

Mosiah 23: 21-22

"Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.

 Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day......"

LOVE THIS TALK & I know you can all get something from it.

I love you all! PRAYING FOR YOU ALWAYS.

Thank you for all you do!

Hermana Orchard

Icicle fighting!

JUMPING!!!

(From back) Hermana Nava, Orchard and Lucas

(back)Elder Vincent, Alsterberg & Ambrose

Elder Knudson

Giving the companion a piggy back ride!

With Sisters Lucas, Sekona, and Kingsford

Sister training leader Kingsford and I

With Zone Leader Elder Salazar

Caroling, Ice cream, good food and snow pics!

HOLA.

This week has been one of the BEST. Christmas was awesome and I really enjoyed skyping my family and spending the day with members from the branch. This year was the most I've focused on Christ, so that was nice! I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and I CAN'T BELIEVE 2015 IS SO SOON. Can't wait to see what this new year brings!

We've had a pretty crazy week. We had lunch with our Zone and an activity Christmas Eve and it's always great hanging out with other missionaries. We've met up with other missionaries quite a bit this week. After our Zone party, we went Christmas caroling... AGAIN. I love Christmas caroling! We went out with Elders Alsterberg (District Leader) and Hansen and Hermanas Lucas and Calder. We had a blast visiting some of the people we teach :)

Christmas morning I woke up with a killer cold that I'm still fighting. We opened up presents from our family (thank you, family!) and I took a nap because I was feeling terrible (I ended up losing my voice the next day... thankfully I still had my voice while I skyped my family!). We skyped our families for a while and later on, I skyped again with Courtney! I miss my friends and family so much, so skyping them was definitely needed! :)

We had dinner with an awesome family and ate steak, ham, and shrimp! We honestly had no idea what to do after dinner because who wants us over on Christmas Day?! We got a message saying I had a package, so picking that up from our senior couple gave us something to do (Thank you Ruggieri's)!

We were so lucky to have a white Christmas! It didn't really snow until Christmas! We still have snow and IT IS SO STINKIN COLD. Holy cow. I do not like the cold weather, but I am so very grateful that we are in a driving area right now! Today is the coldest day since I have been here, so we haven't been outside too much. The walking missionaries have been told to find rides, so they wouldn't be outside too much. Pray that we'll stay warm and people will actually let us inside ;)

Sorry this letter is a little short and boring, but I love you all! I am unbelievably grateful for all your love and support!

HAPPY NEW YEAR.
HAVE A GOOD WEEK.
PRAYING FOR YOU ALL.
Hermana Orchard

Christmas Lunch

Christmas PJ's from Mom and Dad

Farr's Icecream

In front of the Ogden Temple

Being silly!

Playing in the snow!

Out caroling