October 2, 2017

Whelp, I'm not in Livingston anymore. I was a little sad to leave but I am a million times more excited to leave that place. The ward there was great but the finding was seriously rough. I am now in an area called Cumbernauld. It's like an hour away from Livingston and 30 minutes outside of Glasgow. Which is the biggest city in all of Scotland. My last day in Livingston was spend packing all of my stuff and watching conference all day. Because of the time differences we got to see all of conference except the Sunday Afternoon session. Anyways, about Cumbernauld. It's pretty much another Livingston which I'm not looking forward to much but I am happy that I'm not there anymore. Even though I did go from one hard area to another hard area I'm really still trying to be grateful for what I have. At least I'm not in Shetland right? (The island at the very top of Scotland) My new companion is Elder Calley, I don't really know much about him but I've heard great things. He seems like a nice enough guy so far. I am sad to leave Elder Crowley because he is such an awesome guy but I could sort of sense something our relationship would have gone south if we stayed together much longer. So we went out and took some cool pictures since we knew that we were going to be departing momentarily. We met with Gary and I got some pictures with him, and there were some other cool landmarkish places. Livingston had it's moments but I'm happy I'm not there anymore.

In all reality however I'm feeling super dead right now. Trying to be enthusiastic about an area that's known to be pretty much barren is really hard to do. It's not that I'm measuring my success by baptism or even how many people we find (which isn't anyone) I think that as long as I know that I'm working my hardest then I'll know that I'm being successful. Yes it's true I'm here to convert people into the gospel and bring joy into their lives, but in all reality the most important person I'll be converting on my mission is me. That's why a mission is so hard in the first place. All of the worldly things are stripped away and then for some reason, your personal flaws are magnified by a million. Then we start from rock bottom and work our way up. Although I'm not really all that excited for this new area I know I'm still going to work my hardest.

Family, you're all the best and I love you all so much.

Elder Erik Orchard