July 4, 2017

So to start off, thank you for the advice you've given me so far, and also for setting up my blog :)

This past week has been kind of crazy, but it's still been a little spiritually filled. The best thing so far is that Palmer and I get along so well. Which I didn't realize how great that was until I started to see other companionships starting to argue. Eventually all of those other companionships started to try to pair up with other people and there's just a lot of un-needed tension. However, Palmer and I just keep pushing on and work together, and we've grown quite close. Our lessons with our investigators this week have gone really well. Palmer and I are really good in lessons, sometimes we're recorded and once or twice another companionship told us we were really good so that made me happy :) That really stinks that mom broke the lawn mower, I loved that thing. And you should give Eli some candy or something for keeping his room clean... like frickin props, I couldn't have done that at nine years old. Also, what do you think of the new bishopric? I think its really cool that Musick is the bishop now. But I seriously cannot wait to get out into the field, I love the MTC and all... BUT I GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE! I cant wait to hear back from all of you and whats going on at home!
Stay safe and awesome! :)

28th of June, Wednesday

Today wasn't that bad of a day. We taught an investigator who has a child and wanted to get baptised, but in order for her to get baptised she needed to get married to her boyfriend first so she didnt break any covenants. It was a little hard to prepare for but we taught her about families and temples and she decided to get married sooner rather than later and it all worked out really well! That investigator was just a one time deal, but we gained a new investigator that we have for the rest of the MTC and her name is Leah. She literally has no background of any church and she started taking the discussions because her friend is LDS and it sounded like something she was interested in. In the lesson today she asked the really hard question of "Why do bad things happen to good people?". Palmer and I really stumbled there for a second but he started looking through the scriptures for something and while he did that I started to bare my testimony about having faith and the truth of this gospel which was a huge save on my part for the moment but we weren't expecting that at all. The rest of the day was nice though and I also learned something quite odd... in England damn and hell aren't curse words so that's weird to hear occasionally.

29th of June, Thursday

All of the missionaries went into Manchester today to kind of learn how to proselyte. I'm not going to lie it was a little nerve racking, but Palmer and I got the hang of it really fast. The first person we talked to was some guy who knew an LDS person and we just gave him a pass along card and went on our merry way. The next was really crazy, this lady took like 45 minutes of our time talking to her but it was really awesome. Basically she hated going to church but loved the gospel she knew of; which was basically just being Christian. I swear she quoted probably 20 scriptures and she opened her scriptures and had tons of things marked, but it was kind of an eye opener to see that you dont have to be mormon to follow Christ, and it was apparent she was trying the best she could. The last person was a really old guy that goes to The Church of England. That was an interesting conversation but we ended up giving him a pamphlet about the plan of salvation because he asked a lot about whats going to happen when he dies. Apparently there is some drama in other districts happening though and I am just super happy that none of it is in Jacob. We're all super tight and none of us really have any problems with each other.

30th of June, Friday

Another day down in the MTC. Nothing special really happened today, just classes and a lesson with our second and new investigator Thomas. He basically just had us over to talk about gospel, which kinda stinks because we couldn't really spark a conversation with him because he just says yep and yeah the whole time. One of the missionaries I've gotten really close to here is Alfonso. He is an Elder from Spain and he is crazy good at football. He struggles a little bit with his English but he is really nice and pretty darn funny. For pretty much all day, I've had Chevelle songs stuck in my head, and Royal Blood, and Offspring, and everyone else that's awesome. That's probably what I miss most but whatever.

1st of July, Saturday

Happy Canada Day! Today was just a normal Saturday full of lessons and classes. It rained literally all day. Dinner was pizza and I had like 20 slices... it was frikkin awesome

2nd of July, Sunday

First time I've ever really fasted for something was today. I need to get better at memorizing scripture, but I think I'll get the rest of it down this week. Today was a really nice laid back just relax day. We had a family home evening thing where it was basically a scripture chase but we used the white handbook or PMG. Palmer won some British candy thats super freaking good.

3rd of July, Monday

Another day in the MTC of just classes and stuff. Had another lesson with Leah and she is starting to recognize the Spirit. She ended our lesson with a prayer. Tomorrow is a much needed P-day and im pumped

4th of July. Tuesday

FLIPPIN' AMERICA DAY. Today we've gone to the temple and to the LDS store in town. I got a nice Scotland Ireland mission tie bar and I look freaking sexy when I wear it. We had a huge fourth of july lunch with burgers and hot dogs and I'm super stuffed right now. I'm also going to get my hair cut later so that will be fun :) (Sarcasm) and later we're going to go into Chorley again. Still, for like the whole day every day I've been jammin to some good ol rock music in my head all day.

Elder Erik Orchard