Little Miracles

Hello Everyone, 

It's been a while, so I'll update you on how things are going here.

Well, not too great. After having baptized Sr Justine, we literally have 0 progressing investigators. We had 3 young men that accepted baptism, and then a week later, they told us they had to move to go back to school, so that's kinda how it's going.

We're in the process of finding new people to teach, but all of it right now is through our own efforts. The members of the church here in our area haven't been of great help lately, but I'm hoping that will change. There's this old Nigerian man in our ward that LOVES missionary work, and apparently he's about to give us 5-6 people to teach, so things are looking up in that aspect. Not having church at the building because of Covid hasn't been a great help either. It just kinda gives people an excuse to not come to church, or at least, they think that.

We did have a super cool experience yesterday though. So, we have these friends that we keep inviting to Sacrament meeting at a members house, and they keep accepting to come, but never do. They live kinda far away, so what did we do? We decided to have a small Sacrament meeting at their house. We got everything set up, we talked to the bishop, and got a member lined up to go with us, it was all good. Then, we got there a little late, and the mom was out front picking weeds, and the children were dancing inside to a speaker blaring music way too loud, and the member was no where to be found. I thought to myself, why? Why can't we just have Sacrament meeting? Why do they have to be dancing, and working, when they should be getting ready for Sacrament? Well, then something super cool happened.  The dad, who we thought hated us, told the mom to get ready, because it was important that she take the Sacrament. How cool! She got ready right away, and we had the whole family gathered together, ready to start in less than 5 minutes. And then, I said the prayer to start the meeting, and I look up, and the member was there. We ended up having a wonderful meeting, and I could really feel the spirit there.

That's about it. We have zone conference on Wednesday, so I'm looking forward to that. Have a great day everyone!

Until next time,

Elder Orchard

Bittersweet

Bonjour à tous!

I hope everyone had a great week, and is just doing great in general. My week was, as you could guess, bittersweet. 

So, to start out, we visited Sœur Justine just about everyday this week, leading up to her baptism, which was a good choice. She was always a little skeptical about baptism, but her family members are members of the church, so I knew that she needed to trust God and take this leap of faith. It turned out being super awesome! She fell super sick the day of her interview, with Malaria of all things, but still made it to her interview. Then, the next day she texted us about an hour before the baptismal service, and said that she was super sick and couldn't make it. I was super devastated, and was pacing around and everything. I called her, with no answer, and then I called the district leader, just trying to figure out what to do. Then, 5 minutes later, she walks in. Turns out she was just messing with us haha. She ended up getting baptized, and confirmed and it was super awesome. Then, last night, to add onto that, she called us and was just thanking us for being persistent, and baptizing her. That was a super awesome confirmation that what we did was the right thing!! 

OK, so that was what made this week super cool. Now, what made it suck. So right after weekly planning on Friday, we got a text in our church group chat that said the government of Togo is going to shut down all church services for a month, due to Covid, starting that day. Now, we can't have church as a large congregation at the ward building, but as small congregations in the homes of families. That makes it really hard to get our friends to church, or even know how many came to church. Also, normally we could have confirmed Justine on Sunday at church, but we ended up doing it right after the baptism. It sucks because I thought leaving the states would be leaving Covid behind too, and at first it seemed like that. The first couple of months here were no masks, and Covid wasn't a problem. Now the case numbers are rising, and it's becoming a problem. I just hope that it's really just a month, and doesn't turn into 2 months, and then 6 months and just escalate really quickly like that. I'm sure it will be fine though. We got to have sacrament meeting in a members house with about 6 of us there, which was a super neat experience, and that's how it will be for the next couple of weeks. 

Well, that's about it, and that's why I had a bittersweet week. I would say that the good definitely outweighed the bad though.

À bientôt, 

Elder Orchard

1 Year!?

Bonjour à tous, 

How's everyone doing, and how has the week gone? This week had been awesome for me! I'll get right into it.

First of all, we had district council this week with the Zone Leaders. My companion and I were tasked with giving the lesson, which we were gonna do on following up after the lessons. I wasn't too nervous about it, given that I've taught before in district council, but when the Zone Leaders showed up, I got a little nervous. I'm not sure why, they are both super cool. Well, we didn't even give the lesson, because we ran out of time, which was OK because we had an awesome discussion. Maybe we'll give it tomorrow, I'm not sure.

Then, on Wednesday we had interviews with President. Again, not sure why, but I always get super nervous at interviews, for no reason. President Proudfoot is super nice, and always gives me great advice, and solutions to the problems of our area. I also got to see a bunch of other Elders there, which it's always fun to catch up with them.

That night, my companion felt really sick, and woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me that. I had him take some medication, and go back to sleep. After that, I found that I didn't feel too great myself, but I fell back asleep. We woke up, and my companion felt fine, but I felt pretty bad. I didn't want to be the reason we didn't go to sector, so I sucked it up, and we went out. We taught a lesson, and we came back right away, and I slept for 3 hours, and took some medication. I woke up, felt fine, and we went out in the afternoon, but we came back after less than an hour. While I felt fine in the apartment, walking around in the sun was something different. I called the couple missionaries, and they weren't too worried, just told us to stay in and get some rest. 

That wonderful day where I was sick all day was also my one year anniversary of entering the MTC, a whole year on the mission. What a way to celebrate haha. Halfway done. It's crazy how fast this year has gone by. I still feel like a new missionary. I've learned so many things, and I'm so grateful for my time here. Living in West Africa for a while really puts into perspective how nice we have it in the United States. It's crazy to think how many times I complained about my life, or something small, when the people here are some of the happiest, and kindest people I've met, and compared to us, they have nothing. I am grateful for this eye opening experience for me, and the time I have left here.

To end off the week, we continued to work in the sector, even though I didn't feel to great. A lot of our key indicators were pretty crappy this week, but we finally got 4 people at church, a whole lot better than the 0 we had last week. We have a baptism planned for this Saturday for our friend Justine, so keep her in your prayers. 

Other than that, things are going great here. Here's to another year!

Take care,

Elder Orchard 

mangez-vous

waiting for the rain with some pals

we found a go kart track haha