Tuesday, September 24, 2013


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 :)