2020 Let's Gooo!

It was basically the last week of the holiday season so we had to soak up the fun a bit. New Years Eve was an absolute party and the rest of the week was super fun as well. 

Tuesday (Dec 31): Such a fun day, we had district council in the morning, and then we went on exchange with the Stratford Elders. So I spent the day in Stratford working with a missionary from my MTC group from Albania, we had a fun time and we were able to get a lot of things done, including myself having a crazy bash with this guy for like a solid 30 minutes, haha it was great. After the day was done we all slept in Stratford flat because tonight was New Years Eve so we figured it would be fun to watch all the fireworks in London from above in the air. Let me just say it was absolutely incredible!! We ended up staying up until 1am watching because it was just so cool. Definitely one of the best nights I have ever had. Needless to say I was pretty tired the next day. 

Wednesday: 2020 let's gooo! This morning we traveled to another district council in the zone, and then we had to head straight back for a lunch appointment which we had with a member from Jamaica. She is really nice and we had a wonderful lunch. Then we headed out to do some street contacting as well as messaging all the people we have met for the last couple of weeks. Did a bit more finding and then it was time to go home. 

Thursday: Not a whole lot ended up happening today because we had MLC, but this month it was a super MLC so we had the district leaders there as well which was cool. It was about an 11 hour meeting though, definitely the longest MLC in history. We started at 9:30am and didn't finish up until just after 8pm, it was insane. Lots of trainings, accounting, but most of all talking about our 2019 goal and trying to set a new goal for 2020. I think by the end we finally got things figured out but it was some craziness talking about that forever. 

Friday: This morning we did our weekly planning and then had lunch. After lunch we did a few hours of street contacting and then we needed to travel into Hyde Park to work the Giving Machines for one last time. It has been really fun being able to do this but I'm ready to have more time to work in my own area. It was quite chilly today and there was a lady selling caramelized nuts pretty close to us, so I just went up and asked her if I could have a small taste to warm me up and she just gave me a whole cup for free, what a legend! Then we ended up coming back from Hyde Park and going straight to the chapel for games night where we played ping pong and board games, it was a really fun day! 

Saturday: Another solid day here in the UK. Going finding in the morning, having lunch, and then while we were eating lunch this random drunk guy came walking up into the church and said he wanted to talk about faith. We mostly just listened and invited him to come to church, we'll see what happens from there. But after that we went with the sisters to help do service for a guy who was paralyzed a couple of years ago but is now recovering and gaining back control over his whole body. He had a really great story that he told us about the whole situation, and we were able to just help organize his home and make everything a little easier for him. Then my companion and I were walking past a Muslim Mosque and wanted to go check it out so we walked in and asked someone if they could show us around, it was definitely interesting and I learned some things I didn't know. My testimony was strengthened in Christ though for sure after seeing something a bit different.  After that we reconfirmed some of our friends for church and then went to a DA where we had some dang good African food, then had to travel home to be there on time.

Sunday: Church was pretty good today, we had a great sacrament meeting and then afterward had a short meeting with the ward clerk, and then went over to the Brazilian members home for lunch. We had a great time there as usual, and then we also went to another family's home because they recently moved there and they wanted us to come over and dedicate their home, they also fed us as well so I was super full today as well haha. After that we had to travel home and correlate with the leaders in the zone and just finish off the night.

That's about all from me this week. I hope everyone else had a fantastic week and is excited to make 2020 the best year they have had for a long time, it's all about your focus! Love you all.

Elder Orchard