Dear Family and Friends, I'm officially a killer! Elder Fatani is dead and I have received a new companion who is making his way down from
Bethel. His name is Elder Caroll and he is a singer. I will have also spent 6 months in the YSA and the work is going forth and each week feels like a day of working. I can't believe I'm already 6 months in!! Last P-Day we went hiking up a mountain named Pioneer Peak and it was more like a climb then a hike. Anyways, we got to a point where we were about 4,000 feet up and had about another 4,000 feet to go. Me and one of our Zone Leaders was leading the way when we got to a point where there was a 9 foot rock cliff, so I dashed up really quick and with my walking stick I helped pull up every single person in our Zone, don't worry I helped the sisters with my walking stick, no touchy! Well anyways everyone got up safely and the last guy was a 320 pound Samoen and so he climbed up and reached for my stick but he slipped and fell sliding down the mountain and then came to a stop. I jumped down because he was not moving and the other Zone Leader came down with me. We asked him some questions like we were ER doctors, like "can you move this??" He would then moan, and we would ask "how about this?!" Another moan would follow! We went through our back packs grabbing our first aid stuff (Eagle Scouts are prepared) and at one point he finally spoke, "my shoulder is out of my socket!" Oh bother! I have no idea how to pop a shoulder back in and neither did my Zone Leader, which by the way we were left alone because everyone else was to lazy to come and help! So I asked if we could roll him over onto his back and he said sure, so I felt like I needed to put my hands under his arm and pull up, so I did and I heard a pop and he then shouted "it's in!" Man talk about luck!!!! We had to call the others to say we are going down the mountain, so we made our treacherous journey down the mountain. I am safe to say that he is fine and alive! That's all I have time for this week. I love you! Elder Orton! My dear Family and Friends, it's so nice to hear from you and to be able to write you every Monday. There are lots of things that have been cooking off lately like gross foods and really hard hikes to the simple and
plain truths of the Gospel. Things come and go here as usual but what cool is we have an investigator who is being baptized and he wants to be baptized in the lake....There is still ice so I guess we are cutting into it. Cool stuff though and he is super ready for change, its amazing how the Lord works to prepare people to hear the Gospel. Last P-Day we went on a hike up Lazy Mountain.... And it was so hard the trail felt like Mimi's stairs but no steps and it was covered in ice like a nice sheet. Our Zone Leaders did not tell us about the conditions so I showed up with my simple Nike Air Zooms. I think if I waxed the bottom of my shoes it would have been better (not). I was stuck going up 10 feet and sliding down 9 feet. What an effort on my part. So everyone else had shoes with ice cleats except me and my companion, we died going up. Well thanks mom for preparing me for hikes. So we went about 3/4 of the way before we threw in the towel and went back down. It was harder than going up. We would walk and then slip and slide for 20 yards (no joke!) crashing into thorn bushes and trees. We finally made it being really sore, not from walking but from falling. I will never ever hike again! So I found our there is a television show that this guy goes around and eats the grossest foods in the world. One of his interviews he had a quote that said "Alaska Native foods are the nastiest foods he has ever eaten and that he will never try it again!" Great, guess what...I'm in Alaska!!! So we went to a house of a potential who is Native, the only way to teach Natives is to eat their food... So you can guess that we did eat some Muk Tuk which is whale meat and to make matters worse, they covered it in seal oil, which is pretty much oil from the seal skin. It went right through me, making a sliding attempt into the bathroom to call it safe. (No I did not puke) I forgot to take a picture so Elder Fatani gave me his, in his picture you will see Muk Tuk in the back it looks like a pink piece of raw meat and its cut into a rectangle, then there is raw Caribou which they do not cook, you can see it to the back right, then raw salmon in the front cut up, then Whale meat which is the bloody hunk of meat thing in the front, followed by the bag of fish which is the fish they use to make Stink Head... I hope the Lord blesses me and Elder Fatani for the sacrifice of eating such a horrid sight. They eat everything raw! The Seal oil is in the container. Well this is my letter, tune in for next time!! Elder Orton!! Dear Family and Friends, Life goes on here in the mission field and life here is going
really well. Elder Fatani and I are just having a blast serving the Lord and doing His will and not our will. As you all know, Elder Fatani has been out for 23 months and 5 weeks, he is going home! I'll receive a new companion and I'll probably stay another transfer here in the Cottonwood/YSA wards in Wasilla. That will be my 6 month mark next month in April. The Wasilla stake is growing so rapidly that they announced yesterday at church that they will be splitting the Wasilla stake into two stakes, the Palmer stake which consists of the following wards: - Lazy Mountain - Pioneer Peak - Palmer - Matanuska - Colony - Fishhook - Cottonwood And now the Wasilla stake: - Big Lake - Willow - Settlers Bay -Knick Fairview - Wasilla - Memory Lake - YSA If you couldn't tell, both my Wards are in different stakes! The Lord will figure it out I'm sure. Missionary work can be really hard and fun. I have found that if we trust in the Lord that we will find that the Lord will make up for the rest, like in Joseph B. Worthlin last talk in October before he died, he went on talking about "Come what may and love it!" And I love that talk and at the end it says to put you trust in the Lord and He will make up for the rest. So true! I have seen that here on my mission that when you give your WHOLE self to the Lord that He can make all things possible. To that I Testify of the truthfulness of one of our deceased Apostles and that we all need to look at life and say "Come what may and love it!" And by doing so the Lord will bless our lives with not only the strength to overcome our Goliath's (President Monsons talk about overcoming our Goliath's) but He will fill us with the love of God that passeth all understanding. Stay well and I'll see you next Monday!! STAY TUNED! Love: Elder Orton! Dear Family and Friends
How is everyone? Elder Fatani and I have been really cooking up a great meal, (metaphorically) we have been having appointments around the board and we sometimes have to miss lunch, so we have only 1 hour for dinner a day. Man has this month flown by!! I have been starting to pick up a lot of Russian lately because there is a lot of Russians here and I've been trying to learn the language so I can speak to them. So far it's been working but I get as far as "hi my name is Elder Orton, what's yours?" and the other sentence I can say is "I have a big house" which does not work with sharing the Gospel. The transfers are near and I will be doing my first kill to my companion Elder Fatani. He gets to go home in 2 weeks! Man it's crazy how fast times flies. It's good because he isn't trunkie (home sick) he works hard to counter the affects which is exactly what I need. I don't want to catch his trunkie. We have Samoan families in our ward and they have been feeding us a lot because Elder Fatani is a Tongan, also they have not fed the Elders in the past because they couldn't eat a lot so they didn't make food for them because they want eaters. So we went over to this Samoan family, the Mutinis, and man did they bake a feast!! We started to eat and the dad looked over at me and said "do you eat?" And I said yes. Worst mistake of my life! So I kept eating because I was hungry and because I couldn't be that lame white kid that just eats 1 piece of meat, so I dug deep plate after plate (yes plate) I just kept eating, trying to keep up with their son. Finally we all had enough and we finished with dessert and the battle was over. The result was 1 and a half racks of ribs, 1 full chicken, 3 full plates of spaghetti, 5 hamburgers, and I finished it with a slice of apple pie the size of a dinner plate. I ate more than my companion and so I am now what they call a white/Poly so I'm a Palanga. I crawled out of that house, and we go back in 10 days! Don't worry because before my mission I was 245 pounds and now I'm 230. Yes, working out with weights in the morning really has lost me a lot of weight and people are noticing. So Stevie made semis again, who does she play? Also when did she get those knee pads? And why won't she wear mine? And it's P-day, that means time to kick butt in basketball! Well I love you all so much and wish you the best of luck!! Love Elder Orton! Hello family and friends! Lots of commotion here in Alaska! We have been really hard at work sharing the Gospel and running into a lot of Anti people....like what the heck! Just stop being rude and let us be!! Anyways me and Elder Fatani have been really going to work. Yesterday we had no church because the roads were a sheet of ice so we got to walk all over Wasilla for awhile sharing the Gospel! Transfers are coming up and I will be here for I think one more transfer, while Elder Fatani gets to go home and enjoy his 85 degree weather while I am here serving the Lord! My mission still is flying by and it's super sad because all the old timers here say after 6 months you will wake up and you will be at 20 months. I don't want that. I am reaching my 5 1/2 mark next month so it's a little crazy!! So because of the cancellation of church, our investigator who is being baptized this Saturday has to be pushed back to next Saturday. He is a little upset about it but the Lord is mindful. The Iditarod Is in full affect and the race is March 6th. I have learned a lot about the race and about the dogs and the history of the race. A couple Elders from my Zone got to help out with moving things for the Iditarod race and we all got official hats for the Iditarod!! I even got to be on one of the sleds. (As shown below) I probably wouldn't have won the race because I'm lacking a really important part of the race.... The dogs! But if they put me on a downhill slope, I would have maybe had a chance. So much goes on here in Alaska but little time to send stuff. Love you all!!!!! Elder Orton
Dear Family and Friends!
This week has been full of miracles and just really awesome blessings and cool stories. To start, Elder Fatani and I have been working really hard, talking with everyone and even getting a couple of people that threaten you - good stuff! We now have 8 progressing investigators with 4 on date. Speaking of on date there is a YSA or young single adult that we have been teaching named Quentin. He is really an awesome guy. He is changing because the ATONEMENT is real!! Well, four days ago he called asking for me and asked if I would Baptize him on the 27th of this month!!!! This will be my 3rd baptism (the other ones were done by Elder Garver) and I will be able to see Quentin make covenants with our Heavenly Father. The others dates are in March. My cool story of this week has to do with me almost being trampled. Elder Fatani and I went Tracting down a street, and we were Tracting until we went to dinner. Well we had knocked 4 doors and no one was interested but they were really nice to us! So I made up a joke about moose and how dumb they kinda look, well karma comes around fast. We were walking and I looked up to see a baby moose 5ft away to my left in the bushes. Now if you don't know about moose, whenever a baby moose is around there is a really ticked off mother nearby. They will trample you to death if you get too close. Now I was 5ft away!! I stopped and said quietly to Elder Fatani, "moose"! He turned to see the moose also, now he is a tan guy and he was whiter than me at this point. Well that's when I said "where is the mom?" ok great, we can't even find the mom which makes this situation even better. So we too off running toward a members house and they let us in. We stayed and shared a message then left thinking the moose is long gone.... Nope! We got back to the road and the baby moose was walking away into the brush. Our dinner appointment was about 2 houses down, that's when we saw the mama, she was in a dead lock stare at us. Good thing I was wearing my brown pants. 😳 So we stopped again and Elder Fatani looked at me and said "Elder Perkins (his last companion) once told me if you're in danger, all you have to do is outrun the other guy!" So he took off. I looked at the mama and she stomped and came trotting/running toward us, I ran faster than any man alive, if only they had me on a speedometer I would have been on Sports Illustrated for being the fastest man alive. We reached their house but I don't know if the moose followed us because we just were too fast. Like it says in the scriptures "you shall run and not faint and walk and not be weary", well I was blessed to have the legs to run. That is my story and my week, hope you like it!! Love: Elder Orton! Dear family and friends, so yesterday me and Elder Fatani went Tracting before our lesson. We knocked a bunch of doors and got some
potentials. It was going really well. We were laughing while we walked around for another hour Tracting and getting a lot of people asking us to come back next week because it's super bowl weekend! (BRONCOS) 🏆🏈🎉🎊 While we were Tracting I heard the amazing news about the game and ignored the spirits prompting not to knock on a particular door but we walked up to this house anyway and I knocked.... No answer but there was barking, a loud deep bark. I looked down and saw a doggy hole and was like "oh NO!" but my dumb self stayed on the porch thinking "that dog wouldn't". But the dog came flying out of that hole grabbing my leg and biting down. I screamed and I swung, connecting with the dogs face and it let go. I finally looked at the dog and it looked like a bear. It kept barking so while I limped in a full retreat my companion, (who has eaten dog before) went on a full scale attack trying to get the dog, but the dog made a full retreat back inside. My leg was mauled and my black suit pants ripped to shreds. We walked to the car and called our mission nurse, still in pain she told me to wash it out so we walked to our appointment, went inside and our investigator looks at my ripped pants and was confused so we told him and he helped ME with nursing my leg. Now it's just sore but has some good size puncture holes around my leg. We have 2 golden investigators that we just got, so now we have 2 on date and maybe 2 more on date!! Dad, I'll need a new suit now because my black suit is ripped pretty bad. I love you all and thanks to all my uncles for just really putting a smile on my face when I receive your mail. You guys rock!! Love Elder Orton. Well hello again my family and my friends!!!
It is so great to serve the Lord this day. Thanks to everyone and my family for writing me. Well, Alaska is getting colder and colder and it makes me like super super cold. January has passed and it's time for February and Stevie's birthday!! I have been really busy with the departure of my trainer Elder Garver, he went to Clapp as a Zone Leader in southern Anchorage. We had a baptism this week, her name is Bridget and we were asked to teach her all the lessons because her mom wanted us to, so it helped me and my companions how to teach really simply because she has down-syndrome, but she is the sweetest girl ever. Me and Elder Fatani laugh all the time, we have just the best of fun. He is the new District Leader now that Elder Garver is gone. We also have been teaching a girl who is just GOLDEN!!! Her name is Meagan and she is 20 years old. She asks us to meet up so we don't have to ask to set up an appointment!! Yesterday the Spirit helped me when I invited her to be Baptized, she said YES! Now we wait..... Hey mother can you send me the audio of my talk again please. Also if the Broncos win please tape the game for me!! That's all for this week. Sending all my love! Elder Orton My dear beloved family and friends,
Another P-Day begins. My two companions and I have been really working hard before Elder Garver leaves for another area on February 3rd. We have seen a lot of blessings in this area and are making really good progress for missionary work. I get to give a talk on the 31st of January about my feelings about the Savior. My feelings about the Savior is really just something I love to talk about, in Helaman 5:12 it talks about building your foundation around the Savior and not around the Natural man, for the Natural man is the enemy of God, if we build a foundation around Christ we can have it be unshaken, steadfast and with full hope and faith in Christ. But if we build around men the devil shall send forth his winds, yea his shafts in the whirlwinds and your foundation will fall, and the devil will bind you up and you will be cast in the gulf of misery. So we must turn to Christ for a foundation that will not be put down, this scripture makes me feel really good, it comforts me that if I look to Christ I CANNOT fall. Family and friends study this scripture, it is my invitation to everyone. Study it with your family. PONDERIZE the scripture. Here in Alaska we have been really busy with a ton of lessons and findings. The lord truly does bless you just as the prophet Alma taught "I behold that ye are lowly in heart; and if so, blessed are ye." We can see that if we humble ourselves and turn to the Lord, He will bless us. We were teaching a recent convert a lesson at a restaurant and the lesson was going really well and I told her that "when we look and pray for strength the Lord will deliver it unto us" and a man came up and asked me to repeat what I said so I looked to him and told him that the Lord loves all and that we will be blessed when we do what the Lord asks of us. In D&C 82:10 it says "I, the Lord, am abound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." He then asked if he could sit in and listen to what we were teaching. We taught him for about an hour and he wants us to come back and teach him more. Blessing will come when we look to the Lord. I have been studying a lot about how we can fully keep the commandments and it is through: Prayer, Feasting on the Scriptures, showing Love to all, following the Spirit and being a worthy Vessel of the Spirit. The word Vessel I have been thinking about a lot, a Vessel could be a ship that Carries you around, but we are Vessels of the Lord, the Spirit resides in us and we are Temples the Spirit cannot dwell in unclean places, so we must be worthy, clean, and obedient Vessels of the Lord so we can always have the Spirit with us so He can guide us and comfort us in times of need. Also have a family discussion about Vessels it's super cool, talk about different things we can be Vessels of. Love you all stay strong Elder Orton |
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