February 11, 2019

Awh man... I'm leaving Dublin. I'm leaving Valiati. Some of the closest friends I've made on my mission are here. We got the call on Saturday after teaching lessons all day. There were a few investigators there with 4 or 5 of our recent converts to help us teach. Everyone was just so sad. I dropped my head on the table and just died halfway through the call and everyone there was like "awh nooooo" at the same time.

I'm moving to Cork with Elder Peterson.

Cork is a good area though. Not as good as Dublin. Like every single day here we've struggled to even have time to go finding. But every time we go finding in the little amounts of time available we always have success. My skills have gotten soooo much better here.

I've made a lot of friends here. We started teaching some Brazilian dude named Andre this last week, and he is freaking hilarious. Vali thinks that Andre is me without the gospel. The cool thing though is that he will probably get baptised after I leave. Oh my gosh I'm so sad I'm leaving :(((((((((((((((((((((((

Elder Valiati is probably one of the few companions I've had that when either one of us have a problem we talk it out. Normally and we resolve the problem. And even if we don't agree on the solution we just continue to talk it out so we have and understanding of each others opinions. That's a pretty big quality I hope to find in my wife. As I've gotten to know the Valiati more though I've discovered that he is actually a really skilled missionary. Probably the best finder in the entire mission. As for the recent converts I've learned most of them actually do have a testimony too.

Awh man I'm going to miss everything about this place.

Elder Erik Orchard