Ça va aller

Bonjour!

How's everyone doing? I hope everyone is doing alright, and summer is going well! This week has been kind of rough, but we'll get into that. 

First of all, this week has been pretty good, weather wise. I don't know what it's like back home in Nebraska, but over here it's been pretty cool. For example, today it is overcast, with a breeze, and I'd say it's about 70°. I'd even say it's a little cold! It's been pretty nice to get a break from the sun, and 90° weather, that's for sure.

On another note, this week has been pretty bad with our friends. It just seems like none of then want to progress, and come to church. Sometimes it feels like they just want to talk, to talk to us. It gets pretty frustrating, especially when they promise to keep commitments, and promise to come to church and everything. When they don't do those things, it gives us a false sense of hope. I'd rather them be direct with us, so that we can focus our time on other friends, but at the same time, I know that the mission isn't easy. We're gonna have difficulties, and the mission is gonna be hard no matter what. That's why I titled this email "ça va aller" meaning, it's gonna be alright. I know that I'll look back on this time, and be grateful for the difficulties I've had, and how I've learned from them.

On another note, the transfers are coming to an end soon, and I have no idea what's gonna happen. This Saturday, we will get the transfer call, and see what is going to happen. Elder Mahoungou has been here for 3 transfers already, so he could easily leave, but there's also a chance that we stay together. The only thing I'm pretty sure about is staying here. Whatever happens will happen though, and I'm good either way. I'll update next week with what happens.

Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week, and a great last little bit of summer. These past couple of months have flown by for me, as I'm sure they have for all of you! 

Take care, and I'll try to update this more frequently. 

Elder Orchard

A couple photos of me and my companion, and a photo of this cool open field that we found, while exploring the sector.

Bonne semaine à Kpogan!

Bonjour!

How's everyone doing? How is summer? I hope everyone is doing well, and staying safe. It's been a while since I updated this, but I'll try to inform you on everything that's going on.

First of all, I'm in my new area, Baguida 2, with my companion, Elder Mahoungou. We meet in the Baguida ward building, but we work mostly in another sector, called Kpogan. It's kinda far, and we take a taxi to the sector everyday. On the day's that we don't have church, weekly planning, or district council, we will spend the whole day in Kpogan, eating lunch and everything there. It's hard for our investigators to come to church, because of the distance, but soon here there will be a split in the ward, and we will have a building in Kpogan.

My new companion is awesome. We get along great, and are having an awesome time together. He's a hard worker, and super positive, which has been a great change. He just got out of training, but he is already an amazing missionary. The days and weeks have gone by, and I can't believe that it's already been 4 weeks since this transfer started. 

The work in the sector is pretty good. My first week here, we had two baptisms, but obviously that was Elder Mahoungou, and his last companion, Elder Fowers, who did all the preparation. Cool story though, so, Elder Fowers took my place in Attiegou, and I took his place here. Well, he baptized one of my investigators, and I baptized two of his, so we actually got to go to each other's areas for the baptisms. So, we did a mini-exchange that day, so I got to go to my investigator's baptism, and he to his.

We had a multi-zone activity last week, and because there are only 2 zones in Togo, all the missionaries in Togo were there. It was nice to see a bunch of my friends from the other zone, that I haven't seen in a while. It was a pretty great day. We played Spikeball on the beach, played cards, caught up with each other, and just enjoyed the day on the beach. The beach we were at was super nice as well, and we got free food. It was an awesome day. Except that, since it was overcast, I thought I didn't need sunscreen, and got absolutely fried. However, the reason for the activity was the 10 year anniversary of the Benin Cotonou Mission. It's crazy to me that Benin and Togo have had their own mission for only 10 years. It's awesome seeing the growth here, and helping build up the church. 

Speaking of that, it's crazy to see the growth of the church here in Togo. I know someone, Brother Haycock, from back home who served in this same mission less than 10 years ago. I was catching up with him, and told him I was going to Baguida. He told me that he served in Anfame (pretty far from Baguida), and Baguida was part of their ward boundries, and there was one family that lived out there. Now, Baguida is almost ready to split, and expand the church over into Kpogan. It's crazy to me how much the church has grown in less than 10 years! It definitely shows that the work that missionaries do is working, which is awesome!

Other than that, not much else is going on. Just working, and enjoying my time out here so far.

I hope everyone has a great week, and a great summer so far! I'll attach some photos of my time over here!

Au revoir,

Elder Orchard

Me at the beach

Last zone conference for Elder Pace, our ZL

My companion, a magician

Selfie with a cute kid

My companion and I at the mountain of bottles

The statue of liberty, of Togo

We have the coast in our area, which is pretty cool