Missing Thanksgiving

Hello everyone I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and a good week. I'm not gonna lie this week was right up there with my first week in the field as far as struggles and difficulties. It didn't start off terrible but by the end of the week I was really having a rough time. 

Monday (Nov 19): I had a great P day and at the end we went over to bishops house for dinner and family home evening. The dinner was so good but the best part by far was family home evening. We just played some fun games and stuff like that and it just felt so amazing to be able to spend time in a family setting because that it something that I really miss a lot. Bishop and his family are super cool and I just love spending time with them. Plus his son is one of only 2 young men in the whole ward so we like to be around him he's 15 and we play basketball with him and his friends every week. 

Tuesday: Today was freezing. We taught Mohammed again and he is so great and willing to learn. We gave him a book of mormon in Arabic on Monday and he read 6 chapters that night! We also had district meeting which was good but with travel it took up a big chunk of our day and then we had ward choir practice when we got back. Not too bad of a day.

Wednesday: When we woke up this morning there was some snow on the ground, which apparently is not very common here in England. So that should tell you that we had another extremely cold day yet again. 

The view of some snow outside the flat.

We taught Mohammed for the 3rd day in a row and also showed him some bible videos of Christ because he is very interested in learning about Jesus. He told us he would come to church on Sunday so that was a plus, given that he actually does show up. Also when we were doing street contacting there was this guy who told us "You guys should really take a step back and ask yourself, am I nutter?" Haha this guys was funny and he really made us laugh. Obviously he thinks we are crazy but it's not crazy if it's true! Also near the end of the day I got a nice food supply of chips, Mac n cheese, and chicken noodle soup from my wonderful family and Amelia through Amazon. I am very thankful for that because thanksgiving was the next day and no family invited us over. All in all it was a decent day and I am very thankful for the little things. 

Me being stoked about a package of food.

Thursday: Not gonna lie today was really difficult. I prayed hard this morning that a miracle would happen and that someone would invite us over for thanksgiving, but unfortunately it wasn't the Lord's will. I was especially sad when I found out every other companionship of missionaries in our zone had a good thanksgiving meal. So me and Elder Stoddard had to think of the closest thing we could have to a thanksgiving meal that wouldn't take too much preparation and that ended up being KFC. 

Enjoying some KFC

So we got some chicken for lunch and then we bought a bunch of chocolate and stuff to have later that night. We really worked hard today and spent almost 6 hours talking to people on the street with no luck. Thankfully just before we were going to head back home we found us one person who we are meeting on next Thursday. Also it was mutual tonight and they had a nerf war and invited us to come so we were able to end the day off with a little bit of fun. Although this was definitely the worst thanksgiving i have. Thankfully only one more left and I don't think it can be any worse.

Nerf War Baby!

Friday: We truly had another very difficult day. It was very cold and we spent lots of time on the street with no luck. Tonight we were stopping by members for a few hours and literally no one was home or answered the door. This whole day was super disheartening and I really felt like an ineffective missionary. We did see some crazy stuff today though. We saw a seagull steal a donut right out of a ladies hand, a guy driving a semi truck scrape against the side of a pole and metal fell down, as well as the police take someone and put them in the back of their car. It was definitely an interesting day but I really felt unsuccessful and that was hard.

Saturday: Today was very much the same as yesterday only it rained the whole day. It has truly been a difficult end to the week and we spent almost a total of 20 hours the last 4 days talking to people on the street and we were only able to get us one new person to teach. I have never been so excited for the Sabbath day and the chance to refresh myself for a new week up ahead. I am just trying to keep a positive outlook on things even though it has been difficult. I know we have to experience the bad days in order to be more thankful for the good ones. 

Sunday: Sundays are usually enjoyable and this one was particularly needed. Mohammed did come to church today which we were super happy about! He really enjoyed it and told us he is coming back next week. 

Mohammed wanted to take a picture during church.

Unfortunately he did have to take 2 smoke breaks in between blocks but hey, as long as he is feeling the spirit that's all I can ask for. Then we had a dinner appointment with brother Meacum and his family which he is a super cool guy from West Virginia and his wife is from England. He is the Elders quorum President so we enjoy spending time with him. Today was very nice and I am looking forward to a fresh new week of hopefully some success. 

Today for P day we are traveling in to Orpington to go bowling as a zone because one of the missionaries is going home at the end of the transfer in 2 weeks so that's what we are on our way to do right now. I will have more time to be able to email on the train ride back so you'll get some pictures as well as I will respond to anyone who has emailed me. I promise I will still have more time just after bowling. I love you all and thank you for your role in my life. Hope you have a fantastic week and make the most of it. 

Love,

Elder Orchard

Some other things we learned from Elder Orchard this week:

*No I haven't worn my thermals yet but I'm sure I will during the winter months. Bowling was fun we played 2 games and I won't both of them. I only got 149 as the highest though so that's meh for me.

*We see a lot of homeless people here but we aren't supposed to give them any money since what we receive monthly is only for food and travel. I do feel bad though. Our investigator Mohammed is pretty great. We have already taught him the 3 main lessons and half of the commandments. We are yet to teach him the 3 big commandments though which are word of wisdom, law of chastity, and tithing. He enjoyed church and is coming again next week so we hope he feels the truth of the gospel when we teach him those things.