Jason Orvin

Monday and Tuesday flew by for me. I only had two classes in all so I went to the temple and thoroughly enjoyed myself before vacation, that way I wouldn’t be on school withdrawals by the time Wednesday hit and I wouldn’t do anything crazy.

We had a great time in Arizona celebrating the season and talking about old times current times and future events. I love being around the family to learn and express great ideas. It is no wonder that the family is the centerpiece of this world. They bring so much peace and happiness to the people. Just looking around the apartments today it is evident that people are much happier after seeing their families.

Since the season of service is coming up, there seems to be a great amount of time spent on lessons of that theme. In Kanab where we stopped for church on the way home Sunday, there was a talk given on President Monson’s talk on service. Today I had the opportunity to listen in and participate in a reading and discussion of that same scriptural talk. There is much to be learned and applied as this world has greater and greater needs of service.

I have learned through my last two experiences of Thanksgiving with the Halgren family, that one must earn the giant dinner through a series of long workouts and near death experiences through energy exhaustion. If it is not earned in this manner it would not be nearly as justifiable to eat one pie per person in a three day period. One of these such workouts was a great bike-ride on tandems. I am impressed at how fun they are. It makes for a great easy date. Out here we can rent them for under $10 an hour, so it might have to be a date to ride up one of the canyons together.

It is depressing to be back here in Provo, yet there is excitement in knowing that the winter break is in sight. This Friday there is a Military Ball that Lexie and I get to go to. Should be pretty fun.

Saturday we are seeing the Christmas concert with BYU choirs of the best of the best of the best. Everywhere you look there are ornaments for Christmas already, I have really missed this kind of sight over the past couple of years.

I hope you all had great Thanksgiving weekends, whether working or playing or otherwise. Let me know how your week was.

Love

Jason

Sorry, last week I forgot to explain why I titled my letter “just keep swimming”. Friday we went swimming as a platoon. It is just another army way to disguise a heavy workout. We had to swim laps for 10 minutes and then tread water for 10 minutes. It was easier than I expected but still a good workout. It had been way to long since I had been in the water. Maybe now I can do the triathlon in Lamar. Near the end we did a buddy rescue so cadet Erb, my battle buddy came to rescue me. He used to work as a lifeguard, but when he took hold of me he sank and said that I just cant float. I had tried to explain this to him but he wouldn’t believe me. So this Friday we went to swim again but this time in full uniform. we jumped blindfolded off of the high dive with a rifle and had to hold on to the rifle and swim to the wall. You gain about 20 pounds with the wet ACU’s and shoes. At least they didn’t make us wear our boots. Then we had to swim a lap holding a rifle above the water, and wearing an LBE (a belt that holds canteens, ammo, compass, first aid kit. Then we jumped from the edge of the pool again with LBE and rifle and had to drop the rifle in the water and ditch the LBE before we hit the surface.

Thursday we had a lab to do what we call lanes, basically they give the squad leader an order and explains the situation and we go defeat a bunker or whatever it is. We had a COB (Civilian On Battlefield). I was put in charge of holding him and moving him around, by this time we had to be friendly to him and he wanted to be a little too friendly with me. He was itching to hold my hand and insisted walking right next to me. I learned that that is a really bad idea. By the end he was mad that we wouldn’t give him back his rifle and took off running and I had to chase him and bring him back. Afterward he told me that when we go to camp’s and such the COBs are even harder to handle. It wasn’t very fun but it was really funny.

Friday Lexie and I went outside and played some frisbee with a bunch of kids here at the apartment complex. Near the end the sun was setting and we went and hiked the Y. It was really fun, we will have to do it again when we can get up there before the sun sets, what a view.

Saturday morning I was asked by cadet Jones, one of the higher up guys to help him take down a flag at a ward activity of his. About the time we were setting up a good sized fire in the middle of the parking lot and talking about how to cut the flag I realized that we werent just taking it down, but retiring it. That was a really neat experience. To top that, one of the Deshazer boys was there, apparently he is in the ward. I think it was Dillon, but I am not really sure, I never did have them all distinguished, I was too young when they were still in the ward.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving week. Keep it thankful

Jason

PS Psalms 100

MMTG La Mejor Mision

Well what can I say if I am going to see you all within about a week.  Let me just tell about the wonderful experiences of the week.
Monday was a crazy day as always of moving the missionaries all around the state.  Elder Glazier came to our area to take my place when I leave.
Tuesday we got together with the missionaries a bit to get to know them and tell them some things to do.  In the afternoon we did get to work a bit, Wednesday was used to organize the multizone conference for 120 missinaries.  Thursday my companions went to a special counsil with Elder Grow, the first counselor of the president of the area Mexico.  I meanwhile was left to organize the missionaries arriving and get everyone where they were supposed to be.  Once I was home My companions arrived again and we worked together on some subjects that we would help explain in the conference and we were awake until about midnight, then we were up and about at 5:30 so we could go open the building and organize everything once again.  After the conference, which was excelent, we had to clean up and return things borrowed from other chapels and by the time we got home, it was time to go to bed, not before treating an elder who got a bit sick.  Again Saturday we were up early to go to the hospital and help a child who had fell from a roof.  From there we were on the run to organize a wedding of one family and the baptism of another family.  We got home a bit late and had to plan our talks, 2 each for Sunday.  Sunday we never stopped running to be able to get to meetings and appointments.  My companions have been really tired.  I feel good, maybe I am too used to running around constantly.  It made it funny that my mother had written me last week to say that this is my last week of work, but really I hardly had time to work, but we did have the blessing of 4 Baptisms on Saturday.  Right now we are going to their house to have a Family Home evening and cook the last of the pies I have made in the mission.
That is all for the crazy week, next week I will be home and will tell of the last experiences of a mission well lived.
Love you all
Elder Orvin

How many blessings can one hope for in one week. One of my many investigatores that have almost been baptized before fleeing the city for work or family got into comunication with a ward member here. She says she has been baptized and is serving as teacher of Sunday School in Aguascalientes. That was the first great news of the week, skipping to the most recent, we are pretty sure we will have 6 baptisms this week. There is a family of four who we found last week and they came to church, this week again and they want to be in the water before I leave. Then a couple who I am sure I have talked about, they were waiting to get married and I just heard my comp get off the phone with the lawyer and we have a date for the wedding. Hopefully all goes well and we see more good news. In a little city outside of Tuxtla we hope to see 13 baptisms next week too, they have a couple families to dress up in white and hand out blessings. I am really excited to see the missionaries have success. Today will arrive a new Zone leader to take my place, from now until I leave I am in charge of training my companions and helping them get on a roll. I feel like the mission president with two assistents, I have all the final decisions but I can delegate almost everything. I just have to take charge that they learn how to do everything.
I hope everyone has a great week, and recieve as many blessings as we are recieving down here in the heat.
Love
Elder Orvin

I felt really well this week, I am not sick in any shape or form. However of the 28 missionaries in my zone, 10 are sick and bed ridden. Of the sister missionaries, there in only one companionship in all of Tuxtla that worked this week. The strange thing is that they all have diferent things. I think I have called the mission doctor about 150 times in the last week. The best part is that almost all of the sicknesses are contageous and if we go visit we have to wear our face masks and wash our hands and all sorts of crazy stuff.
This week we our zone conference and we had a great class. 6 missionaries couldnt come due to sickness, but outside of that it was great. The president left us to ourselves to have the class. He didnt even pretend to show up. We learned a lot and gained confidence. The greatest part is that it touched me to review what the president had told us and shared with us about his personal studies. He had also explained some talks given by President Uchtdorf and President Eyring, and I was able to explain it then to my missionaries. I really felt and understood how God works to teach us and help us grow. The spirit testified to me and the missionaries more clearly and openly than it had in the counsil with the Zone Leaders.
The next day I sent my companion off to Independence to get a signature and work a little bit. I hope some day they open the area down there, everyone we talk to lets us into their houses. My comp came back excited and had some great stories. That was just from 3 hours there in the city.
Last week I had interviewed a sister in the other side of Tuxtla for her baptism, however she wasnt ready yet, she hadnt quite given up her cigarettes still and I gave her the ability to clean up her life a bit more before taking the baptism. This week I went back and since the interview she never picked up another cigarette, and truly felt better and more conviced of the power of God to redeem His people.
Saturday, my birthday, we went to LAS AGUILAS, to help with an activity, I was able to walk some of the streets and remember everything that I did there. Every corner had a story. From there we came racing back to my area where I baptized a little girl. It was a great blessing because my companion and I had a tough time lately baptizing in our own ward.
We are trying to get a couple married and baptized in another ward we are covering. They are really excited, but this week they had some arguments and problems and almost ¨split the sheets¨ as my dad would say. We counseled them for about 15 minutes on how to resolve problems, just like we as companionships solve problems and we left them to talk it out. The next morning they came to church and excited as if something had happened to bring them more close, than they already were.
A great week for some great blessings
Love to all
Elder Orvin

Querida familia. I dont have much time to write, but I will comunicate the best feelings I have about what has happened in this last week.
In the mission, everything repeats itself every six weeks, there are clases, conferences, councils, transfers, divisions. Transfers are a big division, that is where new missionaries arrive, old missionaries leave, and many people are moving from city to city. About half way through the six week period we have counsil, where many leaders of the mission get together to plan what we should teach so that the missionaries are excited and work hard, and have success. Then there are conferences, where the mission president makes a run through the mission and visits each zone, having conference, and interviewing the missionaries. So now that I am in my last 6 week cycle, everything is happening for the last time. This week was my last counsil. When someone finishes the mission as a leader, they always give their testimony in front of all the other leaders in the counsil. At that point I really started to feel the fact that I will soon be seeing a plane ticket home. Truly a sad thought, but I am excited to see all of my loved ones again.
Of the 13 missionaries who will leave with me, 2 used to be leaders and 8 are currently leaders, so the testimony session took a while in the counsil as each one passed, but I came to realize I blessed I am to be counted within this group of missionaries. Something was special about this group. Usually one doesnt find so many leaders together, but it was a great experience to be with them.
One last thought. We were told that many years ago, a leader of the church in Germany was assigned to come here to Tuxtla and talk to the church in general. He first went to Utah to a training session and would come here to talk. He got into an elevator and found himself there with President Hinckley, the president of the church in all the world. President Hinckley asked him where he was going, he responded Tuxtla. Then President Hinckley closed his eyes and took hold of the leader´s hand and said, “Take care of the little ones there”. I think they have done a good job here taking care of the little ones, and the church has much potential to grow.
I truly love this work and hope to always be a part of it. This week we have all sorts of conferences and such things, again some of the last times I will be doing many things, but the great thing is that the memories are eternal.
Have an awesome week
Elder Orvin

Hola familia,
This week was pretty special.  After talking to my family last week, everyone has started to realize that I have been in this area a long time and it must be time for me to go home.  I think everyone and their dog has asked me when I go home.  they dont want to just know the month, they want to know my schedule of everthing I am going to do.  I felt the presure of what others feel that makes them trunky (or thinking too much in going home and not enough in the work.)  However, I was pondering these things and realized that I needed an idea to be able to persevere until the end, so I asked God, and he told me to wait until Saturday.  Saturday there was a special Stake conference and vino Elder Grow.  First President Velasco, the mission president spoke of Marriage and the importance of planing as a family.  Then his wife talked about the importance of teaching our children and talking to them as adults because there is no such thing as a child spirit, we are all well grown espiritually.  I realized that thinking about families probably wasnt the answer I was looking for to take my mind off my house.  Elder Martinez, also from the 70´s talked about eternal families.  Then Elder Grow testified of his calling as a special witness of Jesus Christ and opened the meeting to questions.  Since it is not every day we see someone who is so close to the profets, it is a great chance to ask soul binding questions.  He let us meditate for 1 minute so that we could think of a great question.  I thought, and an impression came to my mind about the atonement of Christ, but then as I meditated it, a firm feeling came that I shouldnt ask just yet, that I would have to study it first.  So there was my answer, My studies will keep my mind “in the game”.  We as missionaries will have the same oportunity to ask questions when we have a multizone conference in a couple weeks.  So I have a lot of studying to do before then. 
Sunday they changed the stake presidency and Elder Grow talked about how Mexico will become a powerful nation to preach the gospel.  It was a great talk, but I missed most of it as I was ushering people in and finding seats in a building way too packed.
Hope all has been well.
Love you all
Elder Orvin

What a fast week. The first few days of the week were the same as the end of last week, lots of scare from the influenza, but then Wednesday night was something strange. We were told to take off our corbatas and not use them until Monday. So all week we walked around feeling strange because we have almost 2 years wearing a tie and all of a sudden we cant use it. Every time the wind blew we found ourselves reaching to hold down our tie, only to find that we didnt have it. Everything felt awkward. They gave us permission to have our sunday services again since the kids were going back to school and all, but then the govt came out on Saturday and suspended everything again until next week. In some parts of the mission they had their church services as normal, but we couldnt. Sunday makes for a really long day when you dont have church to distract yourself in the morning. All morning I felt really anxious to call home and talk to my mother for Mothers Day.
Yesterday was the day of transfers where all the missionaries changed places and went to new cities. I am still here in Tuxtla. I am excited to be able to finish my mission here in the city where I learned to be a missionary. Hopefully it will be a successful month.
I was with my comp in a van this week and all of a sudden as we were coming to a stop we hear a snap and the whole front end of the van collapsed to the ground. The entire front axle was broken en little pieces and the van was stuck in the middle of a main road. That was entertaining to see, but we took off before seeing anyone come to help out.
Almost all of the missionaries are back to good health. Hope all of you are well.
Love
Elder Orvin
PD Feliz dia de Madres