Elder Orgill and Elder Wilkerson

California is still great

Hey everybody! :D California is still great. It's starting to cool down over here which is awesome! We get this super nice breeze at night and in the mornings because Murrietta is kind of a desert climate. Elder Wilkinson is awesome, we get along so well it feels kind of like when Elder Alldridge and I were companions. I'm soooooo stoked for General conference it's gonna be awesome. I think one of are investigators named Marchello is gonna love it. He is kind of a hipster and loves everything about the Mormon church that might be strange to other people. Sorry I don't have a lot of time today but I will write more next week I promise.

Love,

Elder Orgill

Tired, but life is great

Dear family,

Well we had a district activity this morning where we got up at 5:15 and went on this hike that was pretty cool but not I'm just super tired and falling asleep at the computer. But other than that everything is awesome :)

Elder Wilkinson and I were assigned to start volunteering at the Library so we're gonna start doing that, I'll tell you how that goes. The work is going great here, I've learned so much about the New Testiment since I've been here because we have to use it a lot to relate to all these Bible thumping Christians, I feel super confident now though in the Bible though it's pretty awesome :)

sorry I'll be right back

Sorry I just had to grab the mail.

In our mission it sometimes takes a while to get the mail because it goes to the mission home and then the Zone Leaders bring it to us and sometimes they don't just give it to us when they get it they wait until they see us so it can take some time. Well I have to go, that hike took a while and now I have a lot of things to do today but I love you all!

Elder Orgill

Miracle after Miracle

Dear awesome family,

This week was awesome! The work has exploded with miracle after miracle. It was really hard at first to double in here (both me and my companion are new to the area).We had been working as hard as we could to try and get our feet moving. Our Bishop counseled us to teach the PMG lessons to the members which was hesitant with at first because I had found it hard because the members would get bored so in my last area I would always just build a lesson plan around the invitation I wanted to give them and had the freedom to expound into deep scripture that would interest them. But we followed his counsel and prayed about how we could tailor the lessons to the members. We had to get creative and come up with object lessons and figure out how to tie it into missionary work but it paid off so well. The Spirit was so strong when we taught the members and it helped Elder Wilkinson and I become pros at teaching the Restoration because we would practice during comp. study and then practice again over and over at member’s houses. We met most of the active members in just a couple of weeks.

Then during weekly planning last week we fasted to find direction. It was the most revelatory weekly planning of my whole mission. The Lord gave us so many ideas on how to hasten the work and on how to help the people we did have. I knew the work was about to explode I could just feel it. This last week we picked up four new investigators just from tracting and street contacting (and they say tracting is dead) and the ward started giving us referrals left and right. We went from no work to more work than we could handle. I just feel so blessed to be in a ward that is so trusted by the Lord to fellowship his children and to have a companion that is will to humble himself and do the "boring practices" during comp. study and tract. Even though I think tracting is super fun haha :) Over all I just feel super blessed.

Murrieta "a great place to grow"

Haha the subject title for this email is what's written on the mouse pads at this library, I thought it was a pretty true statement. Sorry about not sending any emails yesterday, the library was closed yesterday for labor day. So I'll make up for it now. Sorry for not really ever being specific or descriptive with legistics and stuff, that's probably a lot of what would be more interesting to you guys. I'll try to be better starting now :)

So I've lived in apartments my whole mission, always with just my and my companion, never a four man. Mom and Karie will be glad to know that Elder Wilkinson and I have one of the cleanest apartment in the Zone :). It gets up into the 100's but normally cools off at night here in Murrietta however it's been uncommonly humid here this past week and feels a lot like San Antonio. I have been in car shares my whole mission which is where you share your car with another companionship. I think this is the best and most effective way to use cars because half the week you get to ride bikes and talk to people on the street and be seen by members working hard. And then the other half you can just go visit everyone who lives on the outskirts of your area. We have car 3 days a week here but I would bet that we will be full time bike next transfer just because of the influx of missionaries and the fact that our area is pretty small and flat (unlike Encinitas). We still run every morning which is an adjustment for the Riverside missionaries that were in Murrietta when the boundaries changed and are now Carlsbad missionaries but it's ok because they'll get over it. Oh and I think we'll be getting Ipads in about 4 months.

All of the missionaries in our Zone are currently involved with a service project where we help the city every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning. Right now we're painting fences at a park. The goal is to become the city's main sorce of service work so that they can trust us with larger projects.

The work is going great here, we've met so many good people in this town :) the place is growing on me quicker than any other area I have served in.

Love,

 Elder Orgill

Murrieta is great!

Murrieta is great! I met Brother Sattely on Sunday who knew Sterling from his mission and he's gonna be having us over for dinner some time so that will be exciting. This area is growing on me quick. I'm getting used to the hot weather. We get close to the 100's sometimes but at least it's not humid. It's taken some time to get our feet moving since we didn't know the area but there are so many good, interesting people here and I think we will be able to help a lot of them. Bishop Pulsipher is great. I remember just feeling the Spirit so strongly when I first walked into his home. I will send a picture of me and my companion next week.

Love,

Elder Orgill

Murrrieta

Well I just got transferred inland to Murrieta and almost melted my first couple days (I've been on the coast my whole mission and have been super pampered by the nice weather). My new companion is Elder Wilkinson from Alb. New Mexico. He's awesome, he is always radiating the Spirit and is picking up everything so fast. This area is a lot of farm land and stuff and kind of reminds my of being in a small town in Texas. Everyone is super friendly and everyone reads the Bible and goes to a church on Sunday. I'll send you some pictures of the area soon, it's so beautiful but in a different way than the coast. Well sorry but I have to go. But I love you all! Thank you so much for all the love, prayers, letters, and emails.
Elder Orgill

Mission stuph

The work in Carlsbad 3rd ward is going great! This ward is so amazing the members are truly an example to me of consecration. All of the leaders work so hard to magnify their callings and they do such a good job at working with us. The Bishop meets with us every Saturday morning and we coordinate our efforts with him, the Ward mission leader is a ball of fire who is constantly thinking of others and is very bold with the members about reminding them to share the gospel with their friends, and the leaders always invite us to come into their different classes whether it be young mens, primary, or relief society to share experiences and pump them up about the work. To top it off they all have such great understandings of the gospel. Yesterday at fast and testimony meeting the Spirit was so powerful that our investigator Jess was in tears. We got notice a couple weeks ago they were going to split the area and put another set of missionaries here. We prayed and fasted to double the work before the split and that's exactly what the Lord has helped us do. I'll most likely be leaving this area at the end of this transfer (in a week and a half).  I will be sad to leave all these people I have come to love so deeply behind. I've been able to see the people we teach grow in leaps and bounds and develop powerful testimonies that they cannot deny.

Yesterday we were asked in to talk in the 16 and 17 year old young men's class about what we would have done differently to prepare for our mission knowing what we know now. I said I was grateful for how much I had read the Book of Mormon before my mission. It has given me such a powerful testimony and has made it easy to use it as a tool to help people. But I do regret not sitting down with people, especially those close to me, one on one and telling them how much the gospel of Jesus Christ really means to me. And really letting them know that I know he lives, and how I have come to know that. That's all I really do out here. Deepen my love for people by praying and studying for them and then helping them understand what I have come to know is true so that they can have greater joy. And when they understand that for themselves it's the best feeling in the world :)

As for some logistics, Preparation day (the day I email is now officially on Monday). Also, the weather is amazing, so glad I'm not biking and walking around in the Texas heat haha.

Thank you all for the love and prayers!

Elder Orgill :)

Miracles

Miracle 1: On Thursday we had dinner with the Venturi's (members in our ward) and they invited their friend who named her eight month old son Elijah and had asked them if they knew anything about the prophet Elijah. They told her that they were having us over for dinner and that we could answer her question. We talked about who Elijah was and tied it into the Restoration. The Spirit worked upon her and she set a date to get baptized on the 3rd of August.

Miracle 2: On Sunday before leaving the apartment we prayed together as we usually do. I felt prompted to ask that we would find someone who the Lord had prepared for us to teach. As we traveled to our appointment a man that we had tracted into on Father's day popped into my mind. Elder Moolenbeek remembered where he lived. We went to his house and he let us in. It was clear he had been going through a tough time. The nuclear power plant he is working at is about to close down and he is going to have to take a pay cut to keep a job. We told him that our message would help him be happier and bring him closer to his two boys that live with him. He said he would like that and we are going back to share the Restoration with him tonight.

Thank you so much for all the love and prayers and for my awesome family who are all such great examples to me :)

Love,

Elder Orgill

New Mission Prez

Well we just had interviews with President Kendrick last week! He's awesome! He is super driven and has a Texas accent ha-ha. The work in Carlsbad 3rd is going great! Our investigator Megan in getting baptized on August 10th! Her mom is a member but has been less active for a while. Megan's 16 and has lots of friends at church from her high school.

I gotta go but I'll write letters

Love Elder Orgill

New mission prez!

Hey everybody! I don't have a lot of time today. We had to email today because the mission is getting split tomorrow and President Cook is leaving. If I could make a request it would be awesome if you could look up missionary object lessons on the internet and send a few cool ones to me they really help with kids. It would also be awesome if you could forward Kelly's emails and maybe send me Dominic’s email and I could get my other friend's from him.

Thank you all for everything!

Love,

Elder Orgill

The mission is still going great! I'm gonna send home my sd card with all my pictures finally but I'll send you some today first. So I feel like I haven't told any funny stories lately so here you go:

The other day I was about to go on an exchange with one of the missionaries in my district. As I was packing I felt prompted to take an extra white shirt. During the exchange we were walking and a truck drove by and lobbed a handful of ketchup at me that got all over my shirt. After laughing I thanked Heavenly Father for having me bring an extra shirt to change into.

We were waiting out side of our apartment for a ride and these two Jehovah's Witness ladies came up to us and started talking to us. They tried to Bible bash but I have a no bashing policy so we turned it into a friendly conversation. While we were talking to them a bird flew over us and defecated on my shoulder. So yeah that was pretty crazy. I made a slightly sac-religious joke that the Spirit had descended in the form of a dove and then went in to change my shirt.

Well I have to go now. This guy next to me talked to me for most of my time.

Love, Elder Orgill

Hey everybody, so it's probably the nicest weather I have ever been in today. It's cool and sunny and the sky and ocean look beautiful. I got to go to the San Diego temple last week which was awesome! That's why I didn't have time to write much last week. I'm on crunch time this week too but I do have a cool story I would like to tell. Grandma Crouch sent me a copy of her talk about a month ago with her conversion experience and her experience of being sealed to my Grandpa who had passed away. We had dinner with a family and their neighbor who was not a member and the member asked us to prepare a lesson on Eternal families because her neighbor's husband had recently passed away. I felt prompted to bring the letter and read it during the lesson. It was very powerful and most of the people present had tears. I'm so grateful for my righteous, kind, and inspired Grandma who's example along with my Grandpa's have led me to understand what it means to live a Christ like life.

Love,

Elder Orgill

Grateful for righteous examples

Staying in Carlsbad 3rd ward - Just got a lot more busy

So I just got a lot more busy these past couple days. I got assigned to be a district leader and to be a trainer. I'm gonna be staying in the Carlsbad 3rd ward. Elder Haskin is going home after serving faithfully for two years and I will be meeting my new missionary today at transfer meeting. It's pretty scary but I know it's gonna be a lot of fun. It has definitely taught me to rely on the Lord a lot more especially because I have become very aware of my many weaknesses. But I do have a testimony of how through earnest prayer in faith all things are possible. I have had several experiences on my mission where the Lord has given me hard things to do that I could not accomplish otherwise but through earnest prayer I have seen miracles.

On other news our investigator Mike Mackenzie got baptized last Saturday! He has not been confirmed yet because it was Stake Conference (which Elder Quentin L. Cook came to!) but he will be this Sunday. Also we set a baptismal date for June 1st with this sweet lady named Madonna Snelson who is 84 years old. Her husband was a less active member of the church and she has been meeting with the missionaries for quite some time. Two nights ago we were talking to these three guys somewhere in their 50s on the street who had been drinking a little bit and an orange light started flying across the sky and then disappeared. One of the guys named Steve said "Gentlemen, we have all just witnessed a UFO sighting" and then proceeded to shake everyone's hand. We also saw a huge group of about 150 big tough looking bikers at the park having an egg toss. It looked like a giant family reunion for biker gangs.

Thank you all for the support and love you send. I hope to be the kind of missionary that deserves it. I just want to bare my testimony of the truth and power that come from the Spirit when we read the words of prophets in the Book of Mormon and other scriptures and am thankful for my family who helped me know how important it was from an early age.

Love, Elder Orgill :)

Thank you all for the prayers and letters

I feel like Moroni in Ether chapter 12 with my weakness in writing. I've been really bad about telling stories and being descriptive in my letters home. For the first time in a while I'll have some time this p-day to write letters and I will write down all the cool stuff that has happened and send it home next week. Being a missionary is still awesome. I have woken up in a good mood every single day on my mission. Thank you all for the prayers and letters they help so much.

Love, Elder Orgill

Zone Conference

Hey everybody! It was awesome we had Zone Conference yesterday which is where a couple of the Zones get together and we have trainings from the Mission President, his wife, and his Assistants. It was awesome. I had a lot of my prayers answered on how to be a better missionary from the trainings. It was also pretty sick because I got to see Elder Taylor and Elder Alldridge. I'm super excited for Mother's day this Sunday! I'm gonna be calling at 4 pm my time which is 6pm Kelly's time. Serving a mission is still awesome! Talk to you on Sunday!

Carlsbad 3rd Ward

      Hey everyone! My new area is awesome; the ward is really focused on missionary work. They've had a lot of baptisms recently and are really pumped up about the work. We have this investigator named Mike who we set a baptismal date with for the 18th, it's so cool to see how the Lord has been preparing him over the past couple years to accept the message of the restoration. He is very humble and is so sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit. It's made me think about how my Mom and Grandma were prepared to hear the message of the restoration and it has been nice to reflect on their conversion stories they've sent me.

      Elder Alldridge is in my zone now and I've got to see him several times already, it was awesome to catch up and tell him how the work in Encinitas has been. I miss him sometimes; we had so much fun together and had a lot of really powerful experiences. He'll definitely be a life long friend of mine.

      It was a little hard to get along with my new companion at first. Some of the missionaries that we share the car with and do our P day stuff along with him are older in the mission and are more lax when it comes to following the rules and it drives me crazy. It's definitely different than when I was with my last two companions.

      It's really making me stretch and learn how to not look inwardly. I've realized that I can only correct and uplift people if I really love and care about them first.

Transfered to Carlsbad 3rd Ward

Hey everyone!

      Woah it's crazy I just got a call on Sunday night from the assistants and they said I was getting transfered and needed to be packed up to leave in the morning. I got transfered to the Carlsbad 3rd ward. I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone except my ward mission leader and Elder Taylor who I had become very close to over my short time with him I'm gonna miss him a lot. It is very sad to leave my first area, there are so many people there I want to help and so many things I want to do but I know I'll become just as fond of the people in this new area.  I have a new companion now named Elder Haskin, he will be done with his mission in 3 weeks and I've got to learn the whole new area before he leaves. He doesn't seem as willing to teach me the area as I would like which makes it very hard on me.  He is an awesome missionary who has had a lot of success and knows a lot. I know I can learn so much from him I just don't know how to motivate him to teach me. I won't have a lot of time to write letters today because I've got to unpack and clean the apartment for cleaning checks tomorrow so I'm sorry if there's some people I don't get back to yet.

New companion

Dear people who do not live in Carlsbad,

      What's up!? It's pretty sad that my companion Elder Aldridge is now gone. I missed him a lot the first couple days ha-ha. But my new companion is awesome, his name is Elder Justin Taylor, he's from Illinois and Utah. He went to a little bit of school at Utah State and is a country singer. He's a little bit older in the mission (about 16 months as apposed to Elder Alldridge who is at 7 months now) I've already learned a lot from him and I look forward to a productive transfer in which I will be able to grow a lot. It took some getting used to having a companion that wasn't exactly like me like Elder Alldridge was but it's ok because Elder Taylor is awesome and I know that we will become great friends. He's teaching me how to work with the members more to find people who want to hear the gospel as apposed to what Elder Alldridge and I did which was a lot of tracting. We find a good mix together and I think it is working well and will be very fruitful (did I spell that right?). It's pretty cool, we're teaching this nine year old boy named Conner who is the son of a member of the church who has not been active in the church for a very long time and has a lot of word of wisdom issues. He asked us to teach and baptize his son and so we told him that we would teach his son but that he needed to work with his son and every commitment we extended to the both of them. I look forward to seeing the Lord bless and enrich the lives of this humble family according to their desires and faithfulness. I have a testimony that it is possible through the infinite power of the Atonement, concept that I still can't fathom but do have a greater understanding of since I have been out here. I've been studying the "enabling power of the Atonement" or in other words the "Grace" of Jesus Christ a lot recently. Elder Bednar's talk "In the Strength of the Lord" helped me to understand it a lot better.

      I gotta go.

Love, Elder Orgill

P.S. Being on a mission is still awesome :)

Things are great here in Encinitas!

Dear Padre and everyone else,

      Things are great here in Encinitas! :) today we have transfers and my companion Elder Alldridge will be leaving the area. He's gonna go train again and also be a district leader. I don't know who my new companion will be yet so you'll have to wait a week to here about him. It's a little sad that Elder Alldridge is leaving because we have become such great friends over these last three months. We've put a lot of hard work into this area together and have had a lot of fun while doing it. He's definitely gonna be one of my life long friends. But I'm looking forward to this new transfer, there's a lot of good stuff cooking here in Encinitas and I know who ever my new companion is I will be able to learn a lot from him.

      General Conference was incredible! It feels so good to finally here from President Thomas S. Monson after spending three months telling people that we have a prophet on the earth today that speaks to God and leads and guides us, it was something that I thirsted for. We had to stay on the Stake center all day Saturday because it was a bit of a drive and we had to watch all three sessions. By the time we got back it was almost 8 o’clock and we were so ready to share the gospel. We had so much joy and energy from being spiritually fed all day that we couldn't contain it when we talked to people ha-ha it felt like we were attacking them with positive energy.

      Being out here is awesome I love it so much, I don't know how to describe how sacred and personal this experience of serving a full time mission is. I feel very blessed to have this opportunity. I just wanted to say again how grateful I am for everything that everyone has done to get me ready to come out here and for all the letters and support that I get, it always pumps me up and makes me want to work harder.

News from Encinitas

Thank you all so much for the Birthday letters and packages! I love you all so much and am so thankful for the prayers and love I receive from all of you. I can definitely feel the support coming from Heavenly Father because of those prayers. The time I have spent out here has flown by and I receive so much joy and strength every day. Every time I get a letter it makes me want to work harder because I think about how much love and effort you have all put into preparing me to serve.

      Some news from Encinitas:

First there is some bad news about our investigator Stacy, she called off the baptism the week before. She had gone back to her old church one night and received a lot of anti-Mormon influence. She became very confused on what the Spirit feels like. She put up walls the next time we came over and said there was nothing we could say to her. We had to call off the baptism which was very sad but did not slacken the work. We started to work even harder and the members in the ward saw our efforts and gave us referrals because of it. After an appointment last night we were headed over to an apartment complex to do some tracting and felt like we should stop by Stacy. We saw her in the parking lot and started talking to her. We ended up having a lesson right out there in the parking lot. She felt the spirit strongly and even started to cry a little bit. I know Stacy will one day accept the gospel, I just pray that it is soon so that she can experience the blessings now.

      Things are going great out here :) Elder Alldridge and I have a blast. You guys are awesome.

Love,

Elder Orgill

First day at the MTC

In training at the Missionary Training Center

Elder Alldridge and Elder Orgill - San Diego Temple

Elder Alldridge

Del Mar District

Determined companions outside the San Diego Temple

Run, run, run

 Hey everybody I just wanted to say thank you so much for that book of pictures and messages from all of you! It helps me so much whenever I read it.  It just gives me a boost and keeps me on track and working hard. Hope those of you in Hawaii are having fun. Haha it's so funny, everyone here is always on vacation, even though they basically live in paradise and most of the time they go to Hawaii. It's pretty sweet, at ever members house they have super expensive berries and fresh avocados for dinner (like every single night). It's pretty awesome cause I'm probably not gonna get to eat this many berries ever again.
 I love my mission so much I have already learned and grown a lot. I know for a fact this is where I am supposed to be and that I was supposed to speak english. I am already convinced this is the best mission in the wold haha ;)
 My mission president is awesome he always is inspired in everything he says and does. His wife is awesome haha her overall rule is to run. If you are sick, run. If you throw up, run. If you hate running, run. Alot of missionaries hate it but we have the lowest cost for health care out of all the missions in the world. The first thing she told me when she heard about my ankle was to run and I did. I have seen so much progress with it and I know it will be back to 100% some time in the near future.
 I have already learned about the importance of obedience. Elder Alldridge and I strive to be exactly obedient and everything we do and I have already seen blessings from it. My trainer Elder Alldridge is awesome, we are getting some real unity down when we teach and in everything else we do. I am definetly gonna go visit him at Utah State after my mission. Haha it's funny because all my shirts are BYU and his are USU. Just a little bit about him, he is big into football he won state and played safety on the westcoast all star team on his high school team in Logan. He is 6 foot but pretty tiny for a football player. Big into running, played lax all of high school and is the oldest of 2.
 By the way Stu! We were at the Greives for dinner last week and they told us about their son who served in Mexico and we found out he was your companion! I gotta go soon but I just wanted to tell you some of the funny stuff that has happened on my mission. I have met the craziest people of my whole life out here (though I love them with all my heart) and I won't even try to explain some of the stories because I wouldn't do them justice but here is a list of the greeny things I have down during my first transfer (which is almost over!)
1. Fell asleep in my slacks because I was so tired
2. Fell asleep during nightly planning because I was so tired.
3. Forgot my tag to my first member dinner
4. Put my tag on backwards        
5. Called myself Sister Orgill, then Brother Orgill, then finally Elder Orgill haha........
Other stuff that I will remember next time

We can do this!

Thank you so much Mom and everyone else! I have loved all of your comfort in the letters and emails I have received. I promise I will work on writing y’all back haha. I'm so sorry it's taken so long but we can only write on p day and the last couple ones have been hectic. I got to go to the San Diego temple today! It is the most beautiful temple I have ever been in! It's awesome in this mission we get to go to the temple 4 times a year. The San Diego if you are in the southern part and the Newport if you are in the north. By the way I am in the Del Mar stake which is a really rich area and is close to the beach. It's also the lowest baptizing stake in our mission but Elder Alldridge and I have been working really hard to change that. Our ward only had two baptisms last year but their new goal for the year is nine. I know we can achieve that we have been working really hard to find lots of new investigators and get our members in gear to help us out. This week has flown by! It feels like I'm already getting scared my mission is going too fast haha. It started off pretty hard, we had a crazy night on Thursday with all these crazy people and then Friday it seemed like everyone just hated us. We focus a lot on contacts in our mission which is talking to people on the street. On Saturday we got up and we did not want to talk to anyone after the day before. But we put some smiles on and talked to everyone we saw. We were so blessed we found this Hispanic family and had the most powerful lesson I have ever been in. We set baptismal dates for the parents and the two kids that were old enough. I feel so blessed out here I just see tender mercies from the Lord all the time. I can feel your prayers for me as I work. More recently we have been acting more and more like sister missionaries haha. We started making brownies for investigators and less actives which really helps soften people's hearts and let them know that you care about them (especially when you drop by during the 8 o’clock hour). Plus we have been making index cards for members with their commitments, encouragement, and their follow up date on them. Oh by the way I got the book that you all made which is awesome! I love it so much! It has really encouraged me to work harder. Thank you so much for the encouraging and inspiring messages and for Mom and Dad's testimonies. I love you all so much I really wish I could be more specific and talk to all of you but I will work on those letters so I can do so. Thank you so much Grandma for all the letters! I just got them yesterday so I will read them tonight! I'm so excited that you are going to the temple! I love going so much, it is really just a time where you can feel close to God and be at peace from the world. You guys are the best family ever. I don't know what I would do without you. I will work my hardest out here so that I can represent you, the Lord and His church well.

Love, Elder Jeffrey Buchannon Orgill :)

The Work is picking up!

Hey Dad and everyone else! Things are going great here in Carlsbad California! The work has really picked up since I talked to you last. That first week was a lot of tracking and unsuccessful attempts at talking to less actives. We talked to every person we came across on the street and we knocked on so many doors but we had no success. Elder Alldridge were sorrowful that we could not make these people happy but we knew that the work was about to explode. Last Tuesday after I emailed all of you, I read Mom's conversion story and Sterling's letter that I hadn't read yet and my heart was filled with power, love, and comfort. I had this feeling like we were about to see a lot of success and that the Lord would bless us with opportunities if we continued to be obedient. I have many weaknesses but through the grace of our Savior all things are possible.

I was reading in 3 Nephi the next day and came across the part where the 12 apostles that Jesus had just called were praying and being sanctified through His atonement. I often remember the cleansing ability of the atonement and forget about how we can be sanctified through it and become better, more like our Savior. It said that as they prayed He smiled and His countenance shown upon them. I prayed very hard to be sanctified and have His countenance shown upon me. I could feel myself being filled with His love and felt guided in all that I said and did.

We then started to experience huge success we went to this less active person's house and no one was home so we went across the street to a apartment complex and knocked on one door. The person spoke no English and said no one else in the complex did. We went to another door and met this lady named Maritza. She spoke English and said we could come back the next day. She is in her early 20s and has a cute little boy who is very nice and a Mom and husband who do not speak English. When we came back we taught her the restoration and invited her to be baptized on March 2nd. She said she felt a peace and would work towards that date. After that the work started to explode. It seems like every other door we knock on is another potential investigator.

This guy named Omar who works at Shell and is currently homeless came up to us and asked us to start teaching him and this guy named Joe pulled over asked us for a Book of Mormon and then let us teach him at his house. I feel so blessed all the time. (Quick tangent) we were riding our bikes and were passing a cross walk when I suddenly just slam on my brakes and a car zooms a foot in front of me. We had the right of way and I didn't even see the car coming…. I just slammed on the brakes without thinking. I know that the Lord is looking out for me.

*I have to go soon…..

This ward has not had a baptism in 6 months so the recent success has really pumped everyone up. I got to bear my testimony this Sunday and I think everyone got really excited about missionary work. Our ward mission leader is awesome and always is looking out for us and the Bishop is very wise and guided. I feel blessed beyond what I deserve but am willing to do whatever the Lord wants.

I got the packages which were awesome! No letters yet because they are being forwarded. Yes, Karie I can see the pictures and thank you so much for the ones in the mail. Kim, you can send the pull up bar whenever and can Mom send an assistance band. I love you all, and will work on letters. :)

Love, Elder Orgill

1st week out - Encinitas area

Hey Mom and everyone else! I love you all so much sorry it has taken so long for me to reply but I have been really busy out here and haven't gotten letters yet because they were forwarded from the MTC and my zone leaders haven't given us the mail yet but I should get it tomorrow.

I absolutely love it out here! I am in the Encinitas area which is really nice and is close to the beach. There is actually an amazing view from the library I am in right now. My trainer is Elder Aldridge. He is from Logan Utah and has only been in the field 12 weeks. He is the only one in our mission training that early so it is strange but awesome. He is a super hard worker and we are always going non stop which I love. I love the bike that Dad got, it is super light weight. I'm not sure if it has fenders though. We ride our bikes half the week and the other half we get a car. I'm not gonna lie this area has a lot of really steep hills and I had kind of a hard time my second day when we rode 14 miles up and down hills. Hahaha I fell asleep in my white shirt and slacks one night because I was so tired. But I'm getting back in shape quickly and it has already gotten easier.

The members are great we get to eat with them pretty much every night and give them a lesson. All their houses are HUGE it's crazy. Well except for the ones that live right next to the surfing areas. The people are friendly... most of the time haha we have had quite a few people that love to yell at us and bible bash. We try to answer their questions and understand their point of view but most of the time you just have to testify and ask them if they or anyone else needs any service. And then there's a lot of people who are "spiritual" and say that "God can be that cloud or that tree" or that "they are on their own path and that we need to stop telling people to change their paths" we try to explain that all we are doing is inviting them to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know if it is true but it is very sad because there are so many lost people that will not even open up their hearts. My heart longs for them when I go to bed at night. I am so sorrowful that I cannot share this love that I have felt with every person I contact. But I do have faith in the arm of God and I know that as I work I will learn how to help people understand that. I love you all and am so grateful for all that you have done, especially for your testimonies. I have to go but I will email you again next Tuesday and try to get some letters out.

Love,

Elder Orgill