MERRY CHRISTMAS and A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :D

HEY EVERYBODY!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I hope that y'all had a wonderful Christmas!!! I know that I did! Talking/skyping with the family was WONDERFUL!!! And the Clouses (who were kind enough to let us skype over at their home) are SO much fun! I just love them!!! :) Anyways, I don't have much time now, so I'll quickly go over my week! Monday was wonderful! We talked with the Kemps briefly, then we went over and visited Sister K. and helped her put her Christmas decorations up! I love her! :) Tuesday was Christmas Eve, of course! And we had a wonderful District Meeting, and I was able to see my beautiful MTC companion, Sister Lochridge, for a minute at the beginning of zone portion right before District Meeting (cause she's in my ZONE now!!! WOO HOO!!!)! I love her SO much and I am SO grateful that I am going to get to see her every week now!!! :) After District Meeting, we stopped by the apartment and had a quick lunch, then we went and visited Pokuwah, which was really good! I love her SO much! People from Ghana are WONDERFUL!!! :D After that, we stopped by the Grigg's to pick up a present that their 17-year old daughter bought for us, which was a mini Christmas tree and mini ornaments! It's adorable!!! :) I love the Griggs SO much! They are wonderful!!! After that, we went to the church and did some online proselyting (AKA: facebook time), which was really good!!! After that, we went over and had a really good visit with Amber!!! I love her SO much! She is adorable!!! :) After Amber, we stopped by the Sheng's and had a quick visit with them, and sweet Sister Sheng started tearing up and crying a little bit when I was telling her that they're one of my favorite families, and she was telling me how much she loves us - especially me, cause they're moving at the end of this week to go back to California. :( I'm SUUUPER sad, but it's ok. They're definitely ones who I'll be sure to keep in contact with forever!!! :) After the Shengs, we went over to the Kacher's and had dinner with them, and spent pretty much the rest of the night over there, since we weren't allowed to go out and proselyte on Christmas Eve. It was SO much fun! After dinner we acted out the Nativity and me and Brother Kacher took turns reading it from the scriptures - and we even put on some costumes! It was SO much fun!!! :) It brought me back to my good old theater days for a minute! :) Wednesday was CHRISTMAS!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Christmas was WONDERFUL!!! I got SO many packages and letters and cards from SO many people - I was really overwhelmed with gratitude and love from everything! We opened up our presents as our companionship study (after we sang a Christmas hymn as our opening hymn, of course)! Then we went over to the Grigg's and had brunch with them, which was SO good!!! They made a delicious gluten-free french toast thing in a pan, and it had eggs and homemade berry jam! It was AMAZING!!! :) Then after we were done eating and before we left, they gave us their own Christmas present! It's a cute popcorn bucket with a coloring book and crayons and chocolate and a toothbrush and toothpaste and some other essentials like that in there! SO sweet!!! :) After that, we went back to the apartment and relaxed and enjoyed our gifts until it was time to go over to the Clouse's for skyping the family! :) Then we spent the rest of the day over at the Clouse's! They really are wonderful! They are easily one of my favorites here as well!!! :) Thursday was SO good! We did more online proselyting, which was really good! Then later that afternoon, Sister Clouse called us and told us that they enjoyed having us over so much yesterday that they wanted to have us over for dinner again - that night! So we went over and had dinner with them that night, and it was SO good and SO much fun! :) After the Clouse's, we had a quick visit with Sister Ho, and it was really good! :) Friday we weekly planned most of the day and did some more online proselyting. Then we had dinner that night with the Bartons - I LOVE them!!! And one of their little girls who's about four years old LOVES Elder Stone! It was SO cute!!! Appartently Elder Stone and Elder Harper had dinner over there the week before and Elder Stone played his banjo, and their litter girl became his biggest fan! It was adorable! :) Later that night, we had a lesson with Carol and she said that she wants to be baptized!!! So that's awesome!!! :) Saturday we briefly saw Pokuwah, which was really good! Then later that day we met a cute member in the ward named Sister White, who I LOVE! She reminds me so much of one of my BFF's, Heather Lindsay!!! :) And she told us about a woman who just moved into the ward recently who she's become friends with, then asked us if we wanted to visit her that night! We said yes! So we went over there and got to know her friend, named Renee, who is amazing! She's African-American, and I LOVE her!!! :) Sunday - church was really amazing! We got a referral from a member in the ward from Ghana named Patrick, and it's a woman named Nana, and just moved here from Ghana a month ago, met with missionaries there, and she wants to be baptized! No big deal, but MERRY BELATED CHRISTMAS TO US!!! :D Then we finished the night off by having a lesson with Opoku, which was... interesting... Haha. All in all, we had a wonderful week! :) I LOVE YOU ALL!!! THANK YOU ALL SOOOOOOOO MUCH for anyone who spoke on the recorder and made/sent the cards and everything! You all are the best!!! :D THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :D LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock

Missionary Christmas Choir Performance

Try this link for a Missionary Choir that performed with Sister Aubrie Orrock in it! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1xbeiSS8069VndJSm43bXJBVWs/edit?usp=sharing

MERRY CHRISTMAS... almost!!! And Mexican Avocados are THE BEST!!! :D

HEY EVERYBODY!!! Oh my goodness!!! WHAT A WEEK!!! This past week has been crazy - but I guess what week out in the mission field ISN'T?? Haha. Anyways... Monday, as I think I mentioned in my e-mail last week, Sister McKenna and I played the board game Life with Elder Stone, Elder Harper, and Elder Richards - while Elder Smith watched. Haha. It was SO much fun!!! :) I really am blessed with the Elders who I serve with! They are all really remarkable and I've become such good friends with all of them, too - especially Elder Stone. ...Speaking of Elder Stone, he got a few packages before he left the area on Thursday, and they've still been comin' for him even after he left! Haha! But it's ok. Elder Harper's going to bring them to District Meeting tomorrow and give them to the Zone Leaders to take to the Mission Office and get them to Elder Stone. :) Monday night, we went over and visited Sister Stolpe. I really do love her! She's such a sweetheart! Seriously! She was afraid that one of us might get transfered, so she bought each of us a going away/remember her present! She got us make-up (lip gloss - mine's a barbie pink, mascara, eye liner, and a whole eye shadow color palet!) and then each of us a bracelet! She is really too kind! I love it! :) Don't worry - I took pictures of everything she gave us, so I'll send the pictures so y'all can see! Also, besides the wonderful gifts, she practically fed us dinner cause she asked us if we had had dinner - we told her not really (I never leave enough time on P-days to actually have a meal for dinner, so I usually just end up eating a granola bar, or something like that... Oooopsies), so she took all of this food out of her fridge and insisted that we eat it! I was like, "OK!!!" I'm not gonna complain if someone wants to feed me! Haha. :) But in all seriousness, that really was such a HUGE tender mercy from the Lord that she fed us, cause we were really scrambling to get everything done for the week. God truly IS our loving Heavenly Father, and He is SO mindful of us and knows EXACTLY what we need and when we need it! It's truly amazing to me sometimes, but at the same time it's like, "DUH! OF COURSE He knows all of that! He's God!" I really am SO grateful to know that I am a daughter of a King - the creator of the universe - and He loves ME. :) Tuesday we had Zone Training, and it was SO good!!! We talked a LOT about gratitude and being more grateful in our everyday lives! Then our Zone Leader told us to write down 10 things a week that we're grateful for, and we're going to share them at Zone Portion of District Meetings every week! I'm SO excited! And I thought, "Well, this is gonna be easy! Only 10 things a week?? I write in my gratitude journal every day! This is nothing!" And I don't say this to boast at all, I want you all to truly know how much it has helped me to diligently write in my gratitude journal each and every day! And if I miss a day or two, I always make sure that I go back and catch up! It really helps me to keep my mindset on Christ and all that He did for me, and Heavenly Father and all of the blessings and tender mercies that He gives to me each and every day! I am SO grateful for this wonderful Holiday season and the spirit of Christmas!!! It is truly a magical time of year! I LOVE it! :) That afternoon after lunch, we went over to a part-member family's home, the Roze's, and I cute Sister Roze's and her little three year old daughter's hair! It was SO much fun! We also shared a nice Christmas message with them, and she made gluten-free mushroom soup in return for me doing her hair - which, of course, was totally unnecessary, but she wanted to do it and she already had it basically done when we got there, so it was sweet of her! :) This really was such a wonderful visit for many reasons - one of which being that Sister Schramm and I had tried scheduling a time with her MULTIPLE times to go and visit her before, but she didn't seem too thrilled about it. And then this time she actually invited US over - granted it was for a haircut, but still. Baby steps. :) And when we saw her at church on Sunday, she was really excited to see us, and even more excited to see that I didn't get transfered! :) After that, we did some facebook time, which was really good! I was able to chat with some really amazing people! :) That night, we went by Sister Davis' and gave her a Christmas card from the Relief Society, and she gave us each a Christmas card and a candy cane! She really is such a sweetheart! I love her! :) I love Kingstowne! After that, we went to our Gospel Principles class at the church... that didnt' really happen... Haha. We sat around and waited for anyone to show up for about half an hour, but everyone who might've come ended up being no-shows. It's ok, though. We had a good time chattin' with the Elders, and Elder Smith and I talked about hair and what our favorite hair products are - true story. This boy knows more about hair than anyone I know who's not a cosmetologist. He's a really cool Elder! He told me how to get to a Sally's Beauty Supply. True story. Haha! We finished the night off by visiting Bobbi and her sweet mom. I really do love Bobbi SO much! :) Wednesday we had our very last Launching Leaders, which was sad cause it was the last one, but it was an amazing class, as always! :) After that, we had lunch, then we did some online proselyting on facebook, which was really great, as always! Speaking of which - y'all could help me (and God) out by spreading the good word via facebook by simply "liking" and/or "sharing" my posts! So THANK YOU SO MUCH to those of y'all who have already been doing that! It means a lot - as silly as that may sound! :) And I strongly encourage each and every one of y'all to do what you can individually - ESPECIALLY this Christmas season when people in general are SO much more apt to listen to people talk about Christ - to share your testimony and/or simply share the gospel with others! :) We are now in a very electronic world, so as sad as it is sometimes, one of the best ways to share the gospel now is really through facebook - which is why you may have noticed that SO many missionaries are now online, it's CRAZY!!! After that, we visited the Clouse's for a bit! I LOVE them!!! And they had their adorable little dog perform for us by barking along and sorta dancing to a disney song! It was absolutely PRICELESS! Don't worry - I got it all on video, and I'll send that home. I just can't e-mail that, so I save all of those to a jump drive that I'm going to mail home very soon! :) After that, we went over to the Carver's and I cut Sister Carver's hair (and Sister Carver is also a hair stylist, so we were able to talk hair, which was really fun, because none of my companions understand my crazy neurotic-ness with hair! But she DOES! It was WONDERFUL!!!). After I was done with her hair, we had dinner with them, and it was SO good!!! Sister Carver made a wonderful home-made gluten-free vegetarian lasagna where she used cut up squash as the noodles, and then layered it with various types of cheeses. SO good!!! :) I love the Carvers, I really do! :) After the Carvers, we went over to the Kemp's and visited with them! I love them SO much! They are seriously such a sweet elderly couple! They ALWAYS give us cream soda, gatorade, and/or water every single time we go over there! I'm tellin' ya - for some reason, there are SO many people out here in this mission who just want to spoil me in various different ways! I'm definitely not complaining by any means, but I'm just sayin', your prayers are sure workin', Mom, Dad, and Cory! Haha! :) After our wonderful visit with the Kemps, we went and saw Desmond and had a wonderful lesson! I am SO grateful for Desmond and for his interest in learning about the gospel! It sure is refreshing to teach a man who actually wants to learn about the gospel more than just talk to a cute girl! Seriously! The latter gets WAY too old! We finished the night off by stopping by Elder Stone and Elder Harper's apartment to say goodbye to Elder Stone (and give him his jump drive back that I borrowed from him earlier to get a video off of it, but mostly to say goodbye. Haha). I really am sad to see him go because we really developed such a strong friendship, but it's just like how it was when Sister Schramm and my other companions left - it's the nature of the beast. But it's all good. I'm sure I'll see him around some other time, just as I see my past companions once in a while. :) Thursday we did our weekly service at Koinonia - the local food bank. I really do love everyone there! They are all SUCH wonderful people! And they always give us food, or at least some sort of treat to take home at the end of our two hours, or however long we're there for! I love them! :) After lunch we did some online proselyting, and I was able to chat with some other amazing people! :) Then that night was a MIRACLE!!! We were delivering Christmas cards from the Relief Society to less-active women in the ward, and we went to an elderly woman named Sister Asher's home to give her her Christmas card. We knocked on the door, and she just yelled, "Come in!" Not wanting to intrude, I shyly opened the door a crack, and said, "Is it really ok for us to come in?" and she said, "Yes! I said 'come in!'" so we went inside, and she had us take a seat and we ended up talking with her for about an hour and a half! She even introduced us to three of her children, and we shared a Christmas message with her - pretty much every Christmas message that we share with people lately has been using Elder Holland's talk "Maybe Christmas Doesn't Come from a Store". Thank you SO much, Steve Gordon, for being so kind and e-mailing me as often as you do with all of your uplifting stories and talks, including this very one! I don't know if I ever would've come across it if it weren't for you, so THANK YOU!!! :) Anyways, Sister Asher really enjoyed what we shared with her and she said that she would read the rest of the talk on her own time! Truly remarkable! The Lord's timing is AMAZING!!! Seriously! I don't know if we would've ever met Sister Asher if it weren't for us delivering those Christmas cards, so I'm so grateful that we did deliver those! :) After that, we finished the night off by popping in and visiting sweet Sister Owens! And she ended up telling us in Relief Society yesterday that that was EXACTLY what she needed right when she needed it! I LOVE those moments!!! :D Friday morning we were surprised to receive a wonderful call from none other than PRESIDENT RIGGS!!! And he ended up paying us a visit to our apartment with PRESENTS!!! He told us that there are some sweet temple workers at the DC temple who donated several (possibly dozen) gift bags and told him to give them to missionaries who he felt like needed them! So he said that he loves us so much, so he wanted US to have them (one each)!!! It really made me almost cry, because that was EXACTLY what I needed right then! I just needed to see President, and seeing him playing Santa for me was that much better! He told us that he doesn't have one for everyone, so to keep it on the down low! :) Later that morning, we went over to Sister Davis' and helped her wrap Christmas presents, then shared a Christmas message with her! It was really fun! :) Then we spent the rest of the afternoon weekly planning. However, that night was a MIRACLE!!! We spent most of the night in Fairchild, but first we visited Carol. Then we went and saw Mama Paulina; after Mama, we visited Pokuwa, but she wasn't home, so we visited her twin sister, Pokuwa, who isn't a member, but has met with missionaries before. ...Well... we ended up teaching her the Restoration and scheduled a return appointment for Christmas Eve! And she said that we can continue teaching her! Yep! New investigator! I LOVE this work! It's amazing!!! Saturday we spent several hours at the Clouse's helping them clean and organize their apartment. After we were done working, they had us stay over for dinner and we had a delicious home-made gluten-free and vegetarian meal! I LOVE them! And they're who we're going over to their place to call home on Christmas! :) Sunday was wonderful, too! We had another lesson with Carol, which was really great! :) And she even came to church, which was amazing! :) And she kept on making all of these hilarious comments all through church, and once even in Relief Society as an announcement to EVERYONE, saying, "This is the most fertile church I have ever been in!" She was referring to all of the children and the pregnant woman in the ward. Yep. It was great. Haha! Anyways, I gotta run! But have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :D I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Remember to keep Christ in this beautiful wonderful Holiday! :) LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock

SNOW DAYS and CHRISTMAS PACKAGES!!! :D

HEY EVERYBODY!!! So... ya know when I say things like, "I'm really sorry about how short this e-mail is going to be this week cause I really don't have much time", and then my e-mails still end up being pretty long?? Ya... well, let's just say that this is NOT going to be one of those weeks... SORRY MOM!!! P-day was CRAZY busy today (we played some games with the Elders in our ward - Elder Stone, Elder Harper, Elder Smith, and Elder Richards - and that was SO much fun! However, we spent longer on that than we planned, and we didn't calculate much time for e-mailing... So anyways! This past week has been SO good! I'm for realsies just gonna give you the bullet point high-lights for the week this week, even though I HATE doing that. Hopefully I can really fill you in next week! Monday: I cut Sister McKenna's hair and it's SUPER cute! She gets compliments on it every day! :) We went grocery shopping at Aldis - a Greek store that sells everything for SUUUPER cheap! Seriously - I get about $75 worth of groceries for under $40. It's AMAZING!!! LOVE it!!! :) A nice woman at Rite Aid said that my hat was cute! That was nice! Haha. Seriously though, it made my day! :) Had a really great lesson with Derek! :) Tuesday: SNOW DAY!!! I REALLY wish that I had more time to tell you about this day because it was SOOOO much fun!!! We weren't allowed to drive for basically the entire day, and pretty much all of our investigators live WAAAY too far away to walk there in the freezing cold, so we went out to lunch at Chipotle with the Elders in our ward, then we went to the church and did some online proselyting via facebook. After that we had choir practice at the church, which is always SO much fun! :) After choir practice, Sister Clouse taught me and Sister McKenna some amazing vocal exercises that made me realize that I can still really sing! :) (She's an incredibly well-known opera singer, by the way. No big deal.) Wednesday: Got our oil changed in our car. Visited the Orlands and Sister Orland offered to make me some gluten-free banana bread! I LOVE HER!!! Saw Katy for a minute right as she pulled in her driveway and talked to her really quick and invited her to the Christmas Fireside on Sunday night and she said that she might come with her family! :) Finished off the night by visiting Sister Stolpe! She made us hot chocolate and showed us some Christmas lights around their neighborhood! SO fun! :) Thursday: Helped out with the toy distribution with Koinonia and helped give gifts to families who are less fortunate so that they can have a Christmas! It was SO speacial! :) Choir practice with the Clouses! SO fun! :) Found out I officially have bed bugs, so we spent some time that night de-bugging everything. SO fun. NOT. It's ok. At least on the bright side, I was able to get all of my laundry done a couple of days before P-day! :) Then we went to the Relief Society activity, and Sister Clouse came, too! It was SO much fun! There was a white elephant gift exchange, and I kept on getting baby things... weird... Haha. It's ok. People finally stole from me and I ended up with some little spice organizers. Fun. Haha. Then sweet Sister Sheng felt sorry for me and gave me her gift - which was a mug that says "Be Merry - and stay that way!" I LOVE it! :) Friday: We had a full mission Christmas conference! So I got to see all of my past companions! SUCH a blessing! I got to see Sister Akin and Sister Schramm - the two that I wanted to see the most! :) Sister Akin gave me a gift that Keren (investigator from Crystal City) gave to her to give to me that she got for me when she went to Israel! It's a really pretty necklace that's the symbol for "God". I LOVE it! :) Had dinner with the Shengs and made pizza (mine with a gluten-free crust). SO good! I LOVE THE SHENGS!!! :) They also gave us gluten-free oreos to take with us! :) Saturday: we went to a baptism for a couple in our ward that Elder Smith and Elder Richards taught. Then we spent most of the rest of the day helping Brother Clouse sew scarves for all the Sisters for the Christmas fireside on Sunday! SO much fun! :) Sunday: Christmas fireside was AMAZING!!! We were definitely the hit of the night! I LOVE it! I'll tell you more next week! :) I love you all!!! Thank y'all SOOOO much for your continual love and support!!! Mom: I got the package on FRIDAY!!! WHAT?!?! Haha! THANK YOU!!! And thank you SOOOOOOO much to everyone who spoke into my recorder and sent me a message!!! I've listened to those over and over again! But don't worry, Mom! That's all that I've gotten into in my package! I'm saving the rest for Christmas! :) Oh! And Elder Stone loves his package and he says thank you SO much!!! :) The church is true!!! Please everyone follow me on facebook and "like" and "share" my posts to help share the gospel! Thank you! I love you all!!! :) Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock

ATTENTION!!! CHURCH IS CANCELLED!!! TOO MUCH SNOW!!! ...seriously...

HEY EVERYBODY!!! How was y'all's week?? Well, mine was pretty good! It had its ups and downs due to me being sick... AGAIN... I know, right?? I keep on downing all of my vitamins like there's no tomorrow, but I guess my body just doesn't like the climate here in VA very much or something, cause whenever the slightest illness goes around, I ALWAYS get it. But that's fine... Sort of... Haha. Anyways, so as I told you last week, I woke up last Sunday with the flu and threw up. EW. Then I thought I was getting better on Monday, but I guess that it was the beginning of my flu turning into a terrible chest and sinus cold. FUN! Haha. NOT! But it's ok! Cause despite me being sick all week, we still did some good work and the Lord truly blessed us each and every day! In fact, even though I'm not that great at writing in my regular journal, I've written in my gratitude journal that you gave me, Mom, every day since the day that I got it last Saturday! :) And let me tell y'all - I know this is nothing new, but really, writing down all of the things that I'm grateful for and all of the ways that the Lord blesses me each and every day truly makes me SO much more aware of how blessed I really am, despite my trials of health or whatever else. Life is still a beautiful, WONDERFUL thing that is meant to be ENJOYED, not endured. So go out today and live it the way that God intended you to! Life is a GIFT - don't waste it! :) With that said, I'll get on to tell you about my week last week! It really was a wonderful week, despite all things considered! Monday we had a wonderful member-present lesson with our investigator, Derek, at his home. The Lord's timing is really quite perfect, however, because we would not have had a member-present lesson if it weren't for the fact that Derek was in the middle of eating dinner when we showed up for our lesson that he knew we were coming for. He asked us to come back in 15 minutes, but we couldn't get another visit in in fifteen minutes... so what did we do?? We called a member who lives just a few buildings down from Derek in the same apartment complex and asked if she would be willing to come with us to a lesson at the last minute. She said yes! She had nothing going on and her husband was working late that night, so it worked out perfectly!!! HALLELUJAH!!! By the end of the lesson, Derek agreed to read the Book of Mormon everyday and pray about it! WOO HOO! Then at the very end of the lesson, Derek's brother, Desmond - who Sister Schramm and I had sort of taught a lesson to once or twice (he sat in on one or two lessons of us reading from the Book of Mormon with Derek) - got home, and we set up a time to have a lesson with both him and Derek a week from then! So tonight we're going back at 8:00 and having a lesson with both of them! I am SO excited!!! After that, we were able to have a quick visit with a sweet less-active woman in our ward who also lives close to Derek, named Pokuwa, and then schedule a return appointment. She is such a funny and sweet lady! I LOVE Gahnaians! :) Tuesday we visited the Kemp's (an elderly less-active couple in the ward who are working on coming back to church), and sweet Brother Kemp feels the need to stalk us up with drinks every time we go over there! So we left with a whole six-pack of cream soda! SUCH a sweet man! I love him! :) After that, we went to the church and had our Gospel Principles class, which was really great! After the class, we talked with the Clouse's, and since Sister Clouse is pregnant right now, we gave them two of our cream sodas and she really appreciated that. Then Elder Stone mentioned that he really liked cream soda, so we gave him and Elder Harper one, too. Wednesday was when my cold really started to hit me HARD. I woke up that morning with my voice practically gone. Mal and Lance - remember the Christmas several years ago when I lost my voice shortly after I woke up - as soon as Mom took out the video camera?? Yep. This was just like that. Only there was no grace period when I actually HAD a voice when I woke up. Nope. I tried saying "Good morning" to Sister McKenna, and I could barley squeak out a whisper. Sister McKenna thought it was pretty funny, though. However, after Sister McKenna said a prayer that I would get my voice back, slowly but surely, it started to come back to me! The church is true! :) Anyways, that night we went and bought some soup for Sister Davis cause she was sick, and I was grateful that we were able to do that, because then I was able to get me soup, too! :) Anyways, on Thursday we did our service at Koinonia and they gave us some food to take home! SO sweet! We got served for doing service! LOVE it! :) We also visited the Sheng's that night and they gave me two loaves of gluten-free bread and some home-made gluten-free chocolate chip cookies! SO sweet! I LOVE the Sheng's! They are wonderful! Friday we had zone conference and I was able to see wonderful President and Sister Riggs! I love them both! :) Saturday we had a really great visit with the Clouse's! I LOVE them!!! They are truly remarkable people! :) Sunday was... interesting... Apparently people in DC are TERRIFIED of snow, so when there's only about an inch of snow outside, and it's not even blizzarding, they cancelled church. ...Yep. True story. And on top of all that, the AP's sent out a mass text warning everyone to stay inside because the roads were too icy and it was too dangerous... Well, after a couple of hours of feeling like a caged animal, we finally got permission to go out and visit a member who lives just a few minutes up the road from us. Then we ended up staying there for a few hours and visiting with them cause, well, we couldn't really go anywhere else. Then they let us stay over, and invited the Elders over, too, and watch the General Christmas Devotional since they cancelled showing it at the church due to weather. Anyways, I gotta run, but I LOVE YOU ALL!!! The church is true!!! Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and WELCOME WINTER!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! This past week was REALLY good! ...not so great as far as the work goes - seeing as most of the people who we're teaching were busy during the week for the Holiday, as well as most other people around. So needless to say, tracting and street contacting didn't do us much good this past week. But that's ok! The work moves forward! So anyways, Monday was pretty good! We called Carol that night, but didn't quite have a lesson with her. She was upset about some stuff, so we mostly just talked with her and did our best to calm her down and help her to feel the spirit through the Book of Mormon. It seemed to help a bit. :) After Carol, we visited one of our recent converts, Jenny! I LOVE Jenny! She is SUCH a sweetheart! Tuesday was a big and REALLY good day! We had District Meeting (as always), and Elder Stone announced that he is stepping down as District Leader, and Elder Lyman has been called as the new DL. ...kinda weird, but whatevs. Elder Stone's still WAY awesome, so no worries there! After District Meeting, we went out to lunch at Chipotle with Sister Russell in the ward, which was fun AND delicious!!! :) Then after lunch, we went over to our less-active friend, Lauren's home and visited with her for a bit. It went really well! By the end of the time of us visiting, Sister Russell and Lauren were already friends, and they were already planning times to hang out! I love them both SO much! :) After we were done visiting with Lauren, we had a lesson with Wondifraw... more of a DTR (determine the relationship) chat, if you ask me... Haha. We basically asked him what he wants out of meeting with us now, since we've taught him all the lessons, but he's not really progressing - aside from coming to church; however, he's told us multiple times that he doesn't plan on getting baptized. So anyways, he pretty much told us that he enjoyed meeting with us for the social aspect and he enjoys talking about Jesus with us - which is great, but we told him that we enjoy meeting with him, too, however, we won't be meeting with him regularly anymore. But we invited him to continue to come to church, and he came yesterday, so that's good! And he even wasn't feeling well and left after Sacrament Meeting, but he still made that effort to at least come to that! That's dedication! :) After our meeting with Wondifraw, we got on facebook for a bit (I'm still getting used to actually scheduling fb time in my missionary planner. WEIRD. Haha). After that we had dinner, then we went to Fairchild/Lockheed (AKA: the ghetto part of town) for a bit to check on a less-active who lives down there, but she wasn't home. However, it wasn't a loss going there because we ended up meeting and talking with her neighbor named Rita, who told us that she would love to meet with us after the Holidays! :) After that, we went to the church for our weekly Gospel Principles class. However, this week was a little bit different because we didn't really have class; instead, we listened to a semi-less-active couple in our ward named the Clouse's play the piano and sing. Apparently Brother Clouse is a convert to the church of about five years, and he used to be a big deal and play the piano and sing for the Pope. That's cool. Anyways, we talked with Sister Clouse and we really hit it off with her! She's an adorable sweet lady! I love her! :) And both her and Brother Clouse asked us to come over to their apartment sometime and visit with them! Sweet! :) After that, we had a quick visit with Sister Taylor. I love her! She's a sweet heart! :) Wednesday wasn't too eventful. We had our last ARP meeting cause the Riggs are gonna be working in the mission office now. :( Oh well. At least I got to have them in my District/Zone for most of my mission so far! I sure do love them! They're a sweet Elderly couple! :) After that, we did our time on FB. Then we went to stop by the Carver's to pop them a visit, and they ended up inviting us to come back later for dinner! OK!!! SURE!!! Haha! So we had dinner with them, and it was SO nice! And delicious! Brother Carver made a traditional-style dinner that he used to eat frequently on his mission in Mexico - consisting of beans and tortillas - no, NOT burritos. Haha. But it was still really good! :) Then we topped the night off by visiting Bobbi. I sure do love that woman! :) Thursday, or should I say - THANKSGIVING - was SOOOOOOOOOO good!!! We weren't allowed to go out and proselyte, so we spent the entire morning inside and had some extra study time, plus some nap time (ALWAYS appreciated and MUCH needed), then around 12:30ish we went out and did some FB time. After that, we went over to the Grigg's and had our Thanksgiving meal with them! And it was almost a completely gluten-free Thanksgiving meal, too! And it was DELICIOUS!!! Best gluten-free (and only, so far - haha) Thanksgiving I've ever had! I'll have to steal some of their recipes for when I'm home! :) After we were done eating and hanging out at the Grigg's, we went over to the Fitzgerald's and hung out there for a bit and played "Picturades" (Pictionary/Sharrades put together). It was really fun! :) Bobbi and her son, James, were there for a while, too! It was really great! After we were done there, it was shortly after 8:00, but we just went home cause we didn't have anywhere else we could go. Friday we weekly planned... as usual... But what WASN'T usual about this weekly planning was that Sis. McKenna felt like we should finish our weekly planning at the church, so we did. Well, shortly before we were done, a couple from the Spanish ward came into the Relief Society room where we were, and gave us left-over donuts and hot chocolate from Dunkin' Donuts! SO sweet! - literally! Haha. So, Sister McKenna enjoyed the Donuts, and I enjoyed the hot chocolate, and then we gave what was left to a couple of Elders who were there. Needless to say, they were grateful for it. :) After that, we did some FB time, then we had dinner. After dinner, we visited Lorene. I LOVE her!!! She is SUCH a sweet heart! :) After Lorene, we visited the Orme's. I love them, too! :) Saturday we visited Sister Davis, then shortly after that, we visited Sister K. They're both doing alright. Then after dinner we visited Sister Schroeder, which was really good! It had been too long since we'd seen her! After that, we visited Bobbi - we got a LOT of visits in with Bobbi this week! It was AWESOME!!! And when we visited her this time, we met her mom, who's not a member. She's a very sweet lady. :) Sunday... we REALLY didn't do much. I kept on waking up early in the morning between 12:30 AM and 2:30 AM cause I felt nauseous, and I finally got up shortly after 2:30ish in the morning and threw up. Yep. I got the 24-hour flu. There's something going around with sickness lately. But it's all good. The really funny and ironic part is that I had already started my fast for fast Sunday, and we fasted as a mission for a couple of different things - one of which being the health of all of the missionaries in the mission. Now, if that's not irony, I don't know what is. I fast for the health of all the missionaries and I get the flu. FUNNY. Haha. So, anyways, we didn't go out and work at all yesterday, due to my illness. But we did call the Elders and they came over and gave me a blessing, and I was able to make it through church without feeling too sick, so that was good. :) Anyways, I gotta run! But I love you all SOOOOOOO much!!! Thank you all SOOOOOO much for your continual love and support! :) THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :D Love Always, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. I've been reading a lot of conference talks from this past General Conference over the past week, and I LOVE THEM ALL!!! I HIGHLY encourage you all to pick a talk this week and READ it! And even share it with a friend! :) Then please feel free to share your missionary experiences with me! I always love to hear! :) And Mom - THANK YOU SOOOOO much for your package!!! I LOVE it!!! It means THE WORLD to me!!! And it came at EXACTLY the time that I needed it! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! ...almost!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! SO sorry I didn't finish telling y'all about my previous week in my e-mail last week! So I'll tell you all about it right now! Thursday, November 14 - Sunday, November 17, 2013: Thursday was transfers, so we spent the morning going around and Sister Schramm said her final goodbyes to people. Then transfer meeting happened, and I got my new companion, Sister McKenna, and she's great! After transfer meeting, I got kinda lost on our way home, PLUS there was crazy VA traffic, so it ended up taking us about 1 1/2 hours to get to our dinner appointment instead of 30-45 minutes... It's fine... It was making a memory. Haha! Anyways, we had dinner that night with a SUPER cute new family in the ward named the Barton's, who are just SO sweet and they have the cutest kids! I LOVE them! :) After that, we visited the Carver's, and that was really good! :) Friday we weekly planned... not much new there... Haha. Then later that day we got on FACEBOOK!!! *GASP* APOSTATE!!! Haha! Nope! SURPRISE!!! Actually, as of that Wednesday, so almost two weeks ago now, my mission has officially been on facebook! CRAZY, huh?? So y'all have probably already seen a friend request from a "Sister-Aubrie Orrock" recently; well, THAT'S ME!!! Haha. So ACCEPT IT! It's NOT a prank, I promise!!! :) That night we stopped by and visited our less-active friend, Bobbi, who I LOVE! :) Then after that, we went over to the Grigg's and did some service for them and helped them clean up their home a bit. It was fun. I LOVE the Griggs! We're going to their house for Thanksgiving! And they're also gluten-free! So this is going to be SUCH a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! SO much wonderful food that I can actually eat that won't make me sick! YAY!!! :D Saturday we had a lesson with the wonderful potential investigators who Sister Schramm and her last companion, Sister Hills met and had just been doing service for! Their names are Katy (the mom) and Abby (her daughter). I LOVE THEM!!! After Katy and Abby, we had a quick drop-by visit with the Fitzgeralds (they were about to leave somewhere, so we couldn't visit with them long). I LOVE THEM! They are SO sweet and SO cute! :) After the Fitzgeralds, we had dinner with the Shengs! They are WONDERFUL!!! They are BY FAR one of my most favorite families in the ward!!! :) And Brother Sheng just found out that he's gluten-intolerant, too, so now they REALLY know how to cook for me! :) Sunday we visited with Amber, and it was SO good! I really DO love her SOOOO much! And every time I see her and talk with her, I just have that feeling reaffirmed that she is one of the people who I was supposed to meet out here, and it just helps remind me that I'm EXACTLY where the Lords wants and NEEDS me to be at this time! :) After Amber, we had meetings for forever and a day (well, from like 12:45 - 3:00) until church at 3:00. Then church was SO good! :) After church, we had dinner with Sister Chipman, and it was really good. Sister Chipman's really sweet, but has a tough exterior that you just have to get past, then you see how sweet she really is. I love her! :) After dinner, we visited Sister K., and it was a really good visit! I really am coming to love Sister K. more and more! :) Ok! Now onto this past week! Monday, November 18 - Sunday, November 24th! Last Monday was crazy, but good, as P-days usually are! Haha! But what was really funny was right after we were done grocery shopping and I was in the car, driving and backing the car out of the parking stall, and Sister McKenna was backing me, a woman started talking to us. She appeared to be laughing, so at first I just ignored her since I've just gotten used to people giving me weird looks when my companion is backing me, or when I'm backing my companion. Haha. But then I thought I heard her say something like, "Are you learning how to drive?" Surely I had heard her wrong, so I rolled down my window and asked her what she said, and she laughed and said, "It's ok. My daughter's learning how to drive, too." Realizing that I had, indeed heard her correctly, I quickly corrected her and laughed and said, "Oh, no. I'm not learning how to drive. We have to do this as missionaries to be extra safe and cautious." She then was obviously somewhat embarrassed about the mix-up, and tried correcting herself by saying, "Oh, don't worry. I think that's great. In fact, I think that more people around here should do that." ...So apparently I look like I'm 15 or 16 with my bangs cut straight across and my hair high-lighted again... Yep... Kinda forgot about just how young that really makes me look sometimes... AWESOME... Sister McKenna thought that it was THE FUNNIEST thing in the world and wouldn't stop laughing about it... Me, on the other hand... not so much. Haha. Tuesday we had District Meeting, as usual. I LOVE LOVE LOVE District Meeting!!! :) After District Meeting, we visited our good less-active friend, Lauren! :) I LOVE Lauren! Later that day, we had dinner with Sister Blake! She's wonderful! And she has the cutest baby girl! :) After that, we went to the church for the Gospel Principles class; but shortly before the class, we talked with our investigator, Carol, on the phone and just checked to see how she's doing. Well, apparently she wants to come back to VA cause she HATES Ohio, so we might just end up teaching her in person again! Anyways, Elder Smith and Elder Richards taught the Gospel Principles class this week, and it was SUCH a wonderful class! They taught all about Christ's life and drew a timeline and everything! It was SUCH a great lesson! They're wonderful Elders! Wednesday we had Launching Leaders! I LOVE Launching Leaders! The Ritchies are WONDERFUL!!! I always learn SO much from their classes! :) After that, we went on exchanges! Sister McKenna went with Sister Stones and I stayed in Kingstowne and Sister Borland came to me! :) It was SUCH a wonderful exchange! I was able to learn SO much about myself and I felt like it helped me to grow SO much and to truly see my potential! I LOVE Sister Borland! And I LOVE exchanges! They're so great! :) And what made our exchange even sweeter (literally) was the Carvers! Sweet Sister Carver texted us earlier that night during dinner and invited us over to have some gluten-free cookies that she made! Um... YES! Ok! THANK YOU!!! So yes. The cookies were DELICIOUS!!! So we got a really great member visit in, and ate some DELICIOUS (and supposedly healthy) cookies! :) LOVE IT! Anyways, unfortunately I am out of time once again, so I am so sorry that I will not be able to tell you all about the rest of my week last week! But I will tell you quick bullet points and then fill you in the rest next week! :) Thursday we exchanged back and then had a phone lesson with Carol again! Then we visited Sister K. again that night. Friday we had this INCREDIBLE conference by a member of the seventy named Elder Teh (he's from the Philipeans)! I LOVED it! I'll tell you more next week! After that, we got on facebook for a bit. Saturday we visited with the Kemp's (a less-active elderly couple we just started working with), and they told us that they want to start coming back to church! The church is SO true!!! That night, we did some service at a retirement home called Manchester Lakes and helped organize musical performances for the night (we did that throughout the week), and it turned out pretty good! Sunday was... interesting... and kinda sad... It was announced in Sacrament Meeting that an older less-active woman named Sister Sausville (who Sister Schramm and I would visit pretty regularly) had passed away last week... Sad! Anyways, we finished the week off with a good member visit with the McCunes! I LOVE them! :) Well, I REALLY gotta go now! But I love you all SO much! :) Have a Happy Thanksgiving! :) Love Always, Sister Aubrie Orrock

SQUIRRELS and NEW HAIR!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! So - first things first! Transfers were on Thursday, and yes, I did get a new companion. Sister Schramm and I were just getting along too well, Heavenly Father knew that he had to split us up! Darn it! :( It's ok, though. Cause even though I miss Sister Schramm, I have Sister McKenna now, and she's wonderful, too! The funny thing is that Sister Akin (my trainee), Sister Schramm, and Sister McKenna were all in the MTC together, and even in the same District - in fact, Sis. Schramm and Sis. McKenna were MTC comp's! Crazy, huh?? So we're predicting that after Sis. McKenna and I get split up that I'll get Sis. Akin's MTC comp. as my next companion, which is Sis. Christainsen. Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see! :) This past week was pretty crazy with transfers, so I'll do my best to tell you all of the highlights that we've had! :) Oh! But first before I do that, I just realized that I've been neglecting to tell y'all about a HUGE event that happened a few weeks ago with our DL, Elder Stone and his comp. Elder Harper! So, I'll do my best to paint the best picture of this for y'all so that you can fully enjoy this moment as much as Sister Schramm and I did! Once upon a time, at the very beginning of this past transfer of me and Sis. Schramm together, we discovered that we both have an abnormal fascination with squirrels. We don't know why, but do we really need a reason?? I mean, come on. They're SQUIRRELS. What's NOT to love and be fascinated in?? 'Nuf said. So - now fast-forward back to about three weeks later. Elder Harper had carved Jesus' face into a pumpkin and put it on their balcony. Well, what Elder Harper DIDN'T know was that squirrels eat pumpkins. In fact, they LOVE pumpkins. So, a few days later, he went back out to the balcony and saw a squirrel chillin' inside his pumpkin. So, remembering the very first words out of Sister Schramm's and my mouth being about how much we LOVE LOVE LOVE squirrels, he thought that it would be a good idea to bring the pumpkin inside and capture the squirrel and then show it to us... Well, what he also didn't realize is that Squirrels don't like being captured by humans in their apartments. They really just wanna eat their pumpkins and be left alone. So, needless to say, the squirrel was MUY (VERY) upset when it realized that it was being captured and then that its capture was also creating a video in the mean time to show his fellow missionaries (specifically certain Sisters) about it being captured. Elders Stone and Harper then had the BRILLIANT idea to take off the plastic or glass see-through container that they had on top of it in the pumpkin for a while and attempt to place a plastic crate on top of it to keep it captured, but allow it to breathe better... As they were in the midst of making the switch of capturing devices, the squirrel darted out of the pumpkin and into what it hoped to be freedom at last! However, to its despair, it was still captured in their apartment... So it then continued to dart to and fro around their apartment for a period of about 45 minutes while Elder Stone (who resembles Cory Ruward quite well in height and stature) proceeded to chase the squirrel around with his bathrobe on backwards over his clothes, and wearing gloves. The squirrel eventually leaped onto their therma-stat and broke it... After having so much fun, both the squirrel and the Elders had finally had enough of their game of capture and tag, so the Elders opened their door and the squirrel ran away. The squirrel still holds a vendetta against these Elders - particularly Elder Stone. Seriously - I'm pretty sure that the squirrel spread the word to all of his friends and family in town, cause whenever there's a squirrel near their apartment and it sees one of the Elders, it will immediately run up a tree and then proceed to make warning calls to those around. Seriously - they make squawking sounds (kinda like Lola does when she's upset); and now they particularly direct these sounds to the Elders. They also throw acorns at the Elders as they ride their bikes or walk. True story. Well, I guess that's what they get for temporarily holding a squirrel hostage. HAHAHA!!! Oh man! Don't worry - I've made a deal with the Elders to get a copy of the videos from them, and I will be sure to put them on a jump-drive and send them home soon so that you all can enjoy! :) Well, anyways, now I REALLY don't have much time to tell you about this past week, but I just HAD to tell you about that because I've been DYING to tell y'all about that for WEEKS now, but I've just been forgetting! So - here are some highlights from this week! Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were pretty much times that Sister Schramm said her goodbyes to people - especially Wednesday cause we got the for sure call on Tuesday night confirming our suspicions. So Monday we had a lesson with Opoku, which was really great! We finished talking about the Restoration, which was really good! :) Tuesday we visited with the Shengs, which was really good! I love them SOOOO much! They are seriously one of the cutest and kindest families I've ever met! After the Shengs, we had dinner with the Kachers, and they're adorable, too! That night, we had our usual Gospel Principles class, which went AMAZINGLY well - especially considering Sis. Schramm and I taught it with only a couple of hours notice! What can I say? The church is true! Wednesday we had a lesson with Wondifraw, and he's pretty much still the same. He comes to church every week, but he's not progressing in the sense that he doesn't wanna get baptized - not anytime soon, anyways. But it's ok, I guess. At least we're doing our part to bring him closer to the gospel. After Wondifraw, we went over and visited with Sister Davis and assembled another bookshelf for her. What can I say?? We're practically carpenters. :) After Sister Davis, we had dinner with the Ormes, and they are WONDERFUL! I love them SO much! :) After the Ormes, we went and visited a few other people, like Sis. K. and Jenny, so that Sis. Schramm could finish saying her goodbyes. Also - that day someone fed us an omlet, and let's just say that it was not American cheese in that, and we both (especially I) felt sick after it. Oh, the things that you do to be nice to people as a missionary, including eating questionable food. At least with me, it's been nice being a vegetarian and having other food allergies, because it usually keeps me from being in those types of situations. ...Not this time... Haha... Not much time left, so I'll just quickly tell you this last quick thing, then I'll tell you about Sis. McKenna and the rest of the week next week! Sister Sheng is a hairstylist, so she actually put highlights in my hair today - and FOR FREE, too! She's WONDERFUL!!! I'll take a picture and send that next week as well! Oh! And Cory! Thank you SO much for the extra cash in my account this week! I was able to get some more warm cloths such as a scarf and hat and gloves - all of the nice winter necessities that I left back home. Haha. But now I won't freeze - and I'll be cute and stylish! Thanks again! :) Anyways, I love you all SO much! Thank you SO much for writing me - those of you who have been! E-mailing counts, too! I just print it off and read it later! PLEASE write me!!! :) I LOVE YOU ALL! Y'all are in my thoughts and prayers! Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock

Transfers this week!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! So sorry again for having to cut things so short last week! Like I said, it was a crazy day! So anyways, I'll finish telling y'all about the week before last week (Friday, November 1st through Sunday, November 3rd), then I'll continue with this past week! Friday was SO good! We had interviews with President! I always love any time that I have the opportunity to see President! He just brightens my day! I cried to him and told him that I was having a hard time understanding why I've been having so many health problems since I've been on my mission - cause I had some before, but not like this, and not this frequent. He responded first by laughing slightly and told me that my health problems may have stemmed from my companions needing to learn things such as patience or compassion, etc. He then went on to apologize that they were having to learn these things at my expense. Haha... Love it. It's ok though. Cause, not to jinx myself or anything, but right at this moment, I'm pretty healthy and my current companion, Sister Schramm and I are getting along GREAT! :) ...We all know what that means... TRANSFERS!!! Haha. It's sad, but true. We all know that as soon as you really click with a companion and you get the brain waves goin', one of you is bound to get the boot. We think it's gonna be Sis. Schramm and that I'm gonna stay (and possibly train again) in Kingstowne, but no promises. This is all just our pure speculation. After interviews with President, we weekly planned. Then that night we had dinner with the Orland's. I love them! They are such a cute family! And all three of their kids have severe food allergies, so they totally understand the gluten-free and vegetarian thing with me! It's AWESOME!!! :) Sister Orland even made some DELICIOUS gluten-free banana bread and gave me a couple of loaves to take home! I love them! :) I really have been getting SO spoiled on my mission, it's ridiculous! And I'll even be the first to admit it; but not saying that anything needs to change... Haha. I really am in such a wonderful area! I love Crystal City and I love Kingstowne now, too! In fact, as far as a place where I would actually live in real life, I would definitely choose Kingstowne over Crystal City cause Crystal City's way too hustle and bustle, where as Kingstowne is a little bit, but it's not so big city-like. It's a lot more similar to Orem - just WAAAY more green and colorful and without the mountains, but I LOVE it! :) After dinner we visited a sweet less-active woman named Lorraine. I love her! We had a wonderful visit with her! :) Saturday was an interesting day. We had dinner with Sister K. that night at Gangus Grill for her birthday. YUM!!! Sunday we visited with the McCunes a bit before church, and that was really nice! :) Then church was really great! I really do love Kingstowne now! I love the ward and everybody and everything! That night after church (that's right. We have dinner from 3:00 to 6:00 pm. CRAZY, huh??), we had dinner; then we went and had a really great lesson with Opoku. This was my very first time meeting him, but he's from Gahna and is awesome! The lesson went great! We taught him most of the Restoration and he loved it! He even accepted the soft baptism invite! YAY!!! :) Now onto this past week! Monday was CRAZY busy, but SO much fun!!! We went to D.C. as a District (technically we're not supposed to hang out in large groups of missionaries, so since there were four sets of us, and Sis. Schramm and I are the only Sisters, the Elders mostly grouped off and we hung out by ourselves and then traveled together to and from on the metro! I love my District SO much! They're SO fun! :) After we were done hanging out in D.C., we came back and quickly did our grocery shopping and all of our other stuff that we needed to get done, then we had dinner and Family Home Evening with the McCune's in our ward and Lorraine and her son. I love them! They're wonderful! :) Tuesday was really good! We had District meeting, which is always wonderful! We even did a really fun practice teach activity where we practice taught blind-folded. I LOVED it! :) That afternoon we had a really great lesson with our investigator, Carol, and before I was even finished giving her the soft baptism invite, she told us that she would pray about baptism! OK! SWEET! LOVE IT! :D That night, we stopped by the Williams' in our ward and picked up our dinner from them, and then went home and ate. After that, we had our Gospel Principles class, which was interesting. Haha. It was good. It was just a funny combination of people who we had there. There was Sister K., Carol, and Sister Davis. I love them all, but they just all have very different personalities, so it was just funny to watch them interact with each other. Wednesday was a MIRACLE DAY!!! We visited a potential investigator family (this was my second time meeting them, and first time really talking with them) who agreed to let us start teaching them! The only reason why we haven't just started teaching them before is because they were kind of a referral through a couple of different people in the ward, but missionaries first met them through helping them move into their new house, and not through talking about the gospel. So it's started out and been a friendship with them for a while now (since long before I got here), but Sister Schramm and I finally basically told them our purpose and asked if we could start teaching them and they said yes! :) The church is so true! I love it! Wednesday we had a wonderful lesson with our investigator Fasaad and the Elder's recent convert, Darci, came with us! :) By the end of the lesson, Darci and Fasaad had a bro handshake goin' on and they were already friends! The power of member-present lessons! I love it! :) Thursday we started the day off at Koinonia (the local food bank that we volunteer at). After that, we went out to lunch with Sister Russell in the ward to Chipotle. I LOVE Chipotle! And I love Sister Russell! She really is wonderful! And she used to be in the Crystal City ward, so she understands my love for Crystal City! We bonded over that. It was great! :) That night we had dinner with the Cheeney's in the ward. They're such a cute, fun family! And the best thing was when we were sharing our spiritual thought and we all sang "The Wise Man" together and they all got REALLY into it! It's such a fun song! Friday we did our (possibly) last weekly planning together. :( We really think that Sister Schramm is getting transferred and we're both really sad about it! We became quick friends and we have SO much fun together! That night we visited Bobbi, which was really great! I love Bobbi! Saturday we did a LOT of service with Koinonia and helped out with their huge food drive! It was really fun! We had all of the Kingstowne missionaries there - Elders Stone and Harper and Elders Smith and Williams. That afternoon, we visited with Carol some more in the computer lab in the clubhouse of our apartment complex while Elder Smith and Elder Williams fixed her laptop and she told them about how she wants to get baptized, too! I love it! :) That night we had dinner with the Fitzgeralds! I love them! After that, we went over to the Grigg's and had cake and ice-cream with them (gluten-free cake) for their daughter, Sarah's birthday. I love the Griggs! They're wonderful! Sunday was really great! We visited with Amber E.! I love her! I know why I'm in Kingstowne now! :) That night we visited Sister Davis and it was really great! It actually ended up being a prompting and she really needed us! I LOVE those times as a missionary! :) THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! I love you all SOOOO much!!! :) Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. Read Mosiah chapters 12-14. They are SO good! :) Thank you all who have e-mailed me/written me! I really appreciate it! (Mom, Dad, and Cory. Y'all are the winners recently! Everyone else - PLEASE WRITE ME!!!) :)

Washington Monument!

Israeli Engagement!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! Just so ya know, this has been a CRAZY P-day, so this week's e-mail is gonna be QUICK! SO sorry about that! Anyways, last week was really good! Monday was so great! We visited with Sister K. and it was really good! I'm really starting to love her more and more! After Sister K., we visited a woman named Vanessa who we had met street contacting the week before, and we had a really great lesson with her! It truly amazing how the Lord places people in our path who are truly prepared! I love this work SO much! :) Tuesday we visited Sister Davis and put together a wooden shelf for her (I know, first we're assembling grills, and then book shelves. It's fine. I work better with putting things like that together than I do with putting food together and cooking! Haha. It's sad, but true!), and it was actually really fun! Later that day, we had dinner with the Bylund's in the ward, and that was good. They have the cutest little kids! That night, we had our usual Gospel Principles class that we taught that week for less-actives and recent converts. It went really well! We taught about prayer and why it's so important, etc. Wednesday was really good, too! We had Launching Leaders, which was amazing as always! I LOVE the Ritchies! They're wonderful! After Launching Leaders, we ended up having a mini District lunch with our whole district minus one set of Elders; so it was Elder Stone, Elder Harper, Elder Williams, and Elder Smith. We went to Noodles and Company. YUMMY!!! :) That night we went to our ward Halloween party, which was SUPER fun! They had a chili cook-off, which was delicious! To be honest, I only tried one of the types of chili that was there cause some ward member thought of me and made a vegetarian chili! SO sweet! But what was almost even sweeter was my District Leader, Elder Stone, made chili for the chili cook-off and he made me my own separate vegetarian chili. I love the Elders in my district! They're the best! Thursday (Halloween) was SO much fun! Earlier that day it was ...interesting... we went to go check on a woman on the Bishop's List, and she wasn't home, so we went and talked to some guys who were standing outside of their house across the street from where we were. They were two Israeli men, and... let's just say they REALLY enjoyed talking to Sister Schramm and I NOT about the gospel... They really liked our blonde hair and blue eyes and basically proposed to us. There was an older guy and a younger guy, and the worst part was it was the old guy who was hitting on us the most. Can you say CREEPY?? Ya. Anyways, he went on to tell us that if we just pay for a plane ticket to Israel, we would have free food, free housing, free everything. Cause we'd be married. Yep. That wasn't the first marriage proposal that I've had on my mission, but it was definitely the most forward and interesting one. That night we got together with our whole zone and watched "Monsters University" and "The Crudes". It was really fun! However, it showed me just how much my worst fear is coming to pass! I am going to be an awkward RM. It's official. I was freaking out a bit during the Crudes when they were were holding hands! Anyways, I gotta run! I'll tell you more next week! I love you all! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :) Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. CONGRATULATIONS DESI AND JENS!!! Welcome to the family, Jens! And Heather! Guess what?? Sister Kaitlyn Roper is in my mission AND she's my Sister Training Leader! She remembers you from St. George! I love you, my sister! :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! ...almost!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! Another week has quickly come and gone! It is seriously SO amazing to me just how quickly time really DOES fly by out here! So, here's what happened this past week! Monday night Sister Schramm and I had a really ...interesting... lesson with our investigator, Derek, and his brother, Desmond. It started out really good and we were talking about the Book of Mormon and having a really great lesson on that, when someone knocked on the door. There were other people (including women, don't worry, they were just busy making dinner in the kitchen right next to us) in the house, but nobody was getting the door; so Derek got off the couch and walked over to the door to see who was there. Now, this wouldn't have been a problem (aside from it being a slight interruption from our lesson), except for the fact that he didn't have any pants on... Yep. He was in a tank top and boxers. So Sister Schramm and I immediately looked away as soon as we saw he was getting off of the couch cause we guessed that he wasn't wearing any pants cause he just had a blanket wrapped around his legs. Can you say AWKWARD?!?! ESPECIALLY as a missionary! Also - we realized shortly after he stood up that Sister Schramm was sitting on his pants on the couch that we were sitting on. Don't worry, he quickly got pants on after that and it was fine, but it was just SO awkward!!! Anyways, after that, it was time to go home to our apartment. When we got home, we got talking about a wonderful rewards program for ourselves to give us positive reinforcement for us to do better work as missionaries (cause that's the way that I work best), and Heavenly Father inspired us with this BRILLIANT idea of a points system! Some of these things we were already pretty good at, like we always get up on time, but since I'm not really a morning person, it still feels good to know that if nothing else, we get to give ourselves one point by getting out of bed in the morning! :) Here's how it works: There are 13 possibilities of points that we can get per day, and they are as follows: 1. Be up by 6:30 AM 2. Be out the door of our apartment to go to the gym by 6:42 AM 3. Begin prayer for personal study by 8:00 4. Every new investigator 5. Get into a home on initial contact of meeting someone tracting 6. Practice teach 7. Be 1-7 minutes early to meetings (such as church, missionary meetings, lessons, etc.) 8. Pray for names twice a day (we have a list of names of all of the progressing investigators in the mission and we update it every week and each companionship prays for each individual investigator by name. It's really cool! We're supposed to do it twice a day - morning and night - but it takes about ten minutes to do it, so we've been slackin' on that and doin' it once a day, but it's ok! We'll get that point!) 9. No dishes in the sink from end of dinner to breakfast the next day 10. Be out of dinner by the hour 11. Use the word "light" in every initial contact - whether street contacting or tracting. Example: "Jesus Christ is the light of the world"; "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven", etc. This keeps things interesting and fun and causes us to think more! 12. Be done with nightly planning by 9:45 PM 13. Kneeling for nightly prayers by 10:30 PM Anyways, we told our District Leader, Elder Stone, about our points program, and he really loved the idea! We even joked with him and said that he could give us a reward if he wanted to, and he said that he will! So, we need to earn a total of 48 points per week (and you can't subtract points, you can only add them), and then Elder Stone will give us a prize! We weren't very good at keeping track of our points earlier last week, and our exchange threw us off, so we started officially keeping track on Saturday. So that's what we'll do. Saturday to Saturday we'll keep track of points and then cash them in to Elder Stone! It's been really fun, actually! And the best part is, it causes us to both be equally accountable for things, but eliminates the negative-ness of expectations. For example, if one of us is kneeling for bedtime prayers by 10:30, but the other one doesn't kneel til 10:31, we miss the point. But it's ok! We've actually had a lot of fun with it! And we've even both had times where we've said to each other, "I'm sorry I made us miss a point." Anyways, we talked to our Sister Training Leaders about it more on Saturday, and they LOVE it, too! They even asked us to e-mail it to President Riggs! So who knows?? This could go viral throughout the mission - at least with Sisters! :) Anyways! Wow! So sorry that took me forever to tell you all about that! I hope that y'all had as much fun reading about the points system as I had writing about it! Haha! Anyways, Tuesday was really good! We went on exchanges and I went with Sister Roper and Sister Schramm went with Sister Stones, and it was SO good! Seriously, it helped me out SO much! I felt like by the time I woke up on Wednesday that I was finally able to get out of that funk I was in of feeling homesick, and just not like myself, and I finally was able to honestly say to myself, "I think I'm gonna like it here in Kingstowne. I think this is gonna be another home away from home for me!" And I LOVE it here! And it IS a home away from home! Wednesday was wonderful! We had dinner with the wonderful Sheng family! I love them! Then that night we had a miracle tracting/street contacting (I'm not sure which it would count for since we were about to go to her house, but we met her getting out of her car) that night! We met a woman named Tisa, who fairly warmly invited us into her home. We had a great Q&A lesson with her, AND a return appointment - FOR THE NEXT DAY!!! Plus we invited her to be baptized, which she politely declined... but it's ok. It's the nature of it all! :) Thursday we did a lot of weekly planning since we didn't have time for it Friday, so that took most of the afternoon. Then that evening we had dinner with the Anderson family, and they're super great! And then that night, we had another lesson with Tisa AND her husband, AJ, who's blind! It was really cool! They're wonderful people! I love them both! :) Friday we had a Sister's Conference with all of the Sisters in the mission, and that was SOOOOOO good, and SOOOOOOOOOOO fun! I got to see Sister Lochridge, Sister Woodbury, Sister Akin and her tall trainee, Sister McBride, and all of the other wonderful Sisters who I LOVE! I am SO grateful that we had that time! It was wonderful! President and Sister Riggs talked a lot to us about modesty, but even more than that, about the Priesthood. They talked about the sad chain of events that have been going on in SLC recently with the "women for the priesthood" act. It really just makes me SO sad to see women from our own church rallying against us. I mean, really. God gave men the power to administer the priesthood through giving blessings, etc., and women are nurturers. All faithful members of the church (women included) can access the POWER of the priesthood through faithfully reading the scriptures, praying, attending church, obeying the commandments, etc. However, only men can ADMINISTER the priesthood. Personally, I am very saddened that this has even been an issue in our church at all. We all just need to have faith and realize that there's no way that we'll ever know everything or understand everything in the church. However, the important thing is that we recognize that we don't understand everything, but instead of starting a rally, pray and ask in faith; or if it's a really big deal to you, privately speak with a church leader. But there's no need for anyone's personal views or opinions of the way that our church is run to influence others not of our faith, or of our faith through big, public acts and displays that end up on the news and in the newspaper. This is not the way that God would have things addressed. Saturday was SO great! We had Stake Conference that night, which was WONDERFUL! I was able to see some people from the wonderful Crystal City ward, which made me SO happy! :) I also was able to see my wonderful President and Sister Riggs and talk with President for a minute and just say "hi" to him! I really love President Riggs SO much! He's like my earthly Heavenly Father! :) Sunday was pretty good, too! We had the other session of Stake Conference, which was really great! :) I was able to see Sister Lopez from the Crystal City ward! She saw me and came running up to me, and gave me a big hug, which really made me feel loved and missed in that ward! I love her SO much! :) Anyways, I gotta run, but I love you all SO much! Just so you know, y'all CAN e-mail me now if you want, cause I can print out e-mails for free at the club house of my apartment and read them later! I really would LOVE some mail! :) THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. I get to watch a couple of real movies with the missionaries in my zone on Halloween! We're having a big Halloween party together cause we can't be out proselyting from 5:00 to the end of the night! I'm excited! I hope that y'all are safe on this Holiday week! I love you all!

The Lord Blesses Us - Even in Times of Trial and Strife! :)

HEY EVERYBODY!!! This past week has been CRAZY!!! Oh! And really quick - I almost forgot to mention a little detail from the week before in my last e-mail! So, one day about a week and a half ago, Sister Schramm and I visited a less-active member of the ward and had lunch with her. This woman is very sweet and I love her to pieces, but she has THE WORST, stinkiest horder appartment I have EVER seen/been in! It was AWFUL! Honestly, I didn't realize just how good I had it in SO many ways in the wonderful City of Crystals (Crystal City), but I really DID have it SOOOOO good! Everybody there (or, at least 99 percent of the people I met there) is very clean and mostly high class - even the homeless people are so clean that you can't even tell that most of them are homeless until you start talking with them. True story. So, after coming from that to here in Kingstowne where there are some really nice, ritzy places, but there are also some REALLY ghetto and awful smelling apartment complexes. Really, it can be pretty bad. So, basically, that was it. We had lunch over there and I was struggling to choke down my Subway soup and salad (we buy our own food and bring it there to eat cause it's so dirty and smells like cat urine). But anyways, it just makes me sad more than anything when I see people living like this poor, sweet woman. I really just wish that I could help her! And I suppose that we are helping her in our own way through bringing light into her life through the gospel of Jesus Christ. :) Ok! Now onto this past week! I was really sick with a terrible virus cold that has been going around here lately. Seriously, SO many missionaries have been sick/are sick lately, it's crazy. So anyways, I've been taking TONS of cold medicine and amping up my vitamins every single day to try to fight this thing! Thankfully I only had one REALLY sick day, though. I ended up staying in all day on Wednesday and just sleeping for literally most of the day. It was really nice to finally get the rest that I know my body so desperately needed. As I mentioned in my e-mail last week, I started feeling kinda sick that Saturday before, then it was a lot worse when I woke up on Sunday, and it just got progressively worse each day since then. So Monday I wasn't feeling too great, but I still made myself go out and work HARD that night! We went and visited Sister K., and she was in quite the mood - she kinda scared me a little bit, to be quite honest with you. But it's all good. I ended up just mostly sitting on her recliner and Sister Schramm helped her clean and unpack some things for about two hours or so (since Sis. K. had just moved into a new apartment). Anyways, that was pretty much Monday. Not too terribly exciting. Tuesday we went to District Meeting, which was fun, as always! Seriously, I LOVE District Meeting! :) And my District Leader, Elder Stone is WONDERFUL!!! :) After District Meeting, we all went out to lunch at Panda Express (pretty much as with the other District in our zone), and that was really fun! I just LOVE any time that I get to spend with a group of other missionaries! It really is SO fun! :) That night, we went and visited a little family in the ward named the Mele's. They're really great! :) After that, we went to our Gospel Principles class, which was taught by the Elders this week - Elder Stone and another Elder who he was on exchanges with. It was a really great class! After the class, we went to visit former investigators and people on the Bishop's List (people who the Bishop has asked that we check on. They're usually people who want nothing to do with the church anymore, so they can reject us quite harshly). We actually found a woman on the Bishop's list who gave us the nicest rejection I think I have ever had on my mission! She told us that she's not really a part of the church anymore; however, when we asked if we could stop by another time, she welcomed us to come back! It was truly a mircale night - that's for sure! :) Wednesday was my all-day sick day. So I really just slept for most of the day and watched Legacy. Then that night, one of the Sister Training Leaders (Sister Roper), and my dear, sweet, Sister Butts, who Sis. Roper was on exchanges with, stopped by to visit and see how I was doing since they heard that I was sick! So they stayed over for a little bit and chatted, and then eventually Sister Butts and Sister Schramm went on a mini exchange together to go visit some members who we had scheduled to visit that night, and Sister Roper stayed in with me until they came back. It was really sweet! I love them both! I'm actually going to be going on exchanges with Sister Roper TOMORROW! I'm excited! She's SUPER sweet and I know that I can and will learn a LOT from her! :) Thursday we did our volunteer work at the local food bank. Then that afternoon, we tried doing some street contacting in a part of our area where Sis. Schramm had never been before, but it didn't work out very well cause it was all neighborhoods and houses, so granted there weren't many people out and about walking around at 3:00 in the afternoon. However, we did have some fun finding a butt tree! HAHA! Seriously! We found a tree that has a part of it at the bottom of it that's literally shaped like a butt! Don't worry, we both took pictures by it, so I'll be sure to send you some! :) Also, after that, we went to check on another person on the Bishop's List since we had so much luck with it the day before, and this time we had some luck as well! We met a sweet girl who looks like she's about in her early 20's, and her name's Kaitlyn. She was very welcoming to us and said that she was the only one home at the moment and she was getting ready to go somewhere, but invited us to come back some other time! We will reactivate these families and bring them back to Christ! I am SO excited for this! :) I really do feel like this is a big part of my mission - not only to bring souls unto Christ who don't know who he is, but to strenghthen the faith of those who already believe, and who may have already been baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This, I feel, is my main mission out here. Maybe it's because I feel such a strong connection with so many of the less-active members, but I really feel like a big part of what I was sent here to do is to bring people back to the loving arms of our Savior. Late that afternoon, we left and headed to the temple with the ward for a youth temple trip with our recent convert, Jenny! Jenny was baptized about two weeks or so before I came into Kingstowne and she is amazing! The temple was great! We didn't actually do baptisms or anything, we were just there as support for Jenny. But it was funny cause since they were a little short on temple workers that night, they didn't have enough to have a female temple worker be in the baptistry and confirmation room, so they actually split up Sister Schramm and I and called us - the Sister Missionaries, who have their own rules about being alone with the opposite gender - as the official ones to make sure that there was always a female in there with the other females. So needless to say, I just made sure that whenever the last girl was done being confirmed, I just went out of the room with her and then sat and waited in the chapel area until I was needed again. It was really interesting. So, I guess we were needed there for a lot more than just supporting Jenny. :) After the temple, we went out to dinner at Chille's with Jenny as a little celebratory event. It was SOOOO yummy! I LOVE their chips - and their salsa's pretty good, too. But if I had to choose between Chille's or Los Hermanos, it would be Los Hermanos; they win the best chips AND salsa! Haha. But anyways, Jenny was SO sweet and she even bought our meals! I just love her! :) Friday was crazy! We had a million different things going on! We finished a little bit of weekly planning, then we went and tried having a lesson with Fasaad (one of our investigators who Sis. Schramm and her last companiero met shortly before I joined the area), but he was busy, so we scheduled another time to see him. Then we visited Sister Nixon, our Stake President's wife. After that, we saw (and I met) Katy and Abby - a mother and daughter. Katy also has a son named Auggie (short for August) they are SOOOOO cute and sweet and I just LOVE them! They immediately threw their arms around me and just welcomed me into the area and made me feel SO loved! :) They seriously should be members already, but they're barley even investigating the church. They're just really amazing potentials, actually. Haha! But we set up a time to see them this week and we will actually have a lesson with them! I am SOOOO excited!!! :) That night, we let Elder Stone and Elder Harper take our car for a bit cause they had a dinner appointment kinda far away and they were walking, plus Elder Stone was getting the same thing I had that whole week, so he was NOT feeling good. So while they borrowed the car, we did some street contacting for a little while, and it actually turned into a miracle night! We met a guy and his son in the parking lot of their apartment, and we started talking with them. We told them that we're representatives of Jesus Christ and that we invite others to come closer to Jesus Christ and told them a bit about the restoration of the gospel and asked if we could talk with them about this very important message sometime - like right now. The dad looked down at his son and said, "What do you think?" the son smiled and said, "Ya," and the dad said, "Ok. Wanna come in?" We said, "Yes!" and followed them into their apartment, where the man's wife was sitting on the couch. They're a latino family from Honduras, so they are VERY kind and listened to all that we had to say! We taught them the whole restoration and most of the Book of Mormon lessons! By the end of the lesson, however, the parents weren't too interested, although they were still kind to us. But the son (who's probably about ten years old or so) spoke up and said, "Well, if it's alright with you, Papi, I would like to read The Book of Mormon and see what it's all about because I really enjoy reading the Bible." His dad said that he could keep the Book of Mormon and read it. It was AMAZING! We tried and tried to get a return appointment, however, the parents wouldn't go for it. But at least we planted a really good seed in their son's heart, if nothing else! And right before we left, the wife asked us if we could accept gifts, and we told her that we can. So she went into the kitchen and brought out a wooden napkin holder that says "HONDURAS" on it and looked as though it had been hand crafted, and GAVE IT TO US!!! It's really beautiful! I just LOVE latino and hispanic people! Why couldn't I have served a spanish speaking mission?? Haha. It's ok. I get it enough here in VA anyways, so it all works out! :) Saturday was AMAZING!!! We finished weekly planning that morning. Then that afternoon we went to Ashby Heights to try to do some street contacting, which turned out to not be a good idea cause it was another really cute neighborhood, so there was nobody out to street contact. But it was a cute area to look around. :) Later that afternoon, we had an INCREDIBLE lesson with Fasaad and PUT HIM ON DATE FOR BAPTISM!!! ...This is yet to be determined if he wants to be baptized more for us, or for the gospel. Haha... It's rough being a Sister Missionary sometimes! That night we visited a cute family in the ward named the Fitzgeralds really quick, just long enough for me to say hi and for all of us to introduce ourselves, but I already love them! They are wonderful! After the Fitzgeralds, we went over to Bobbi's house and visited with her a bit and then watched Legacy with her! It was SO much fun! :) Sunday was crazy! We barley had a lunch break, and we didn't get a full dinner break! We had two really great member visits - first with the Carver's, then with the Sheng's! I love both of them! I'm slowly but surely starting to fall in love with Kingstowne; however, I'm not gonna lie, it has been a REALLY hard adjustment for me since I left Crystal City. But Heavenly Father has been showing me SO many tender mercies this week - especially yesterday! It was the Primary Program at church (SOOOO adorable!!!), and right after Sacrament Meeting, I saw a woman from the Crystal City ward standing there, so I went over and said hi and gave her a hug and talked to her for a minute! I told her how much I love and miss Crystal City and the ward and she told me how much her and the ward love and miss me! It was very much needed right then, so I am thankful for a Father in Heaven who is so mindful of us and our needs! :) After church (we have church from 3:00 to 6:00 pm), we didn't even have dinner and we went straight to a lesson... who wasn't even there... but it was ok. Cause then I was MUCH happier when we actually were able to go home and have a bit of a real dinner break! :) After that, we went over to the Grigg's home and had a lesson with our wonderful investigator, Kayla... AND her athiest dad! It was INTENSE! The lesson went really well cause he just sat and listened to us and what we had to say. However, after the lesson when we were trying to sneakily remind Kayla of her baptism date and re-invite her to baptism, that's when her dad piped up and we had about a twenty minute discussion about it. However, what it all amounted out to is that once he feels that Kayla has proved how much she wants to be baptized, then she can be. So hopefully he'll see how badly she wants this sooner than later! :) I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Through the ups and the downs, the sour and the sweet, the good and the bad - it's all wonderful in the end! I love you all! :) PLEASE write me!!! :) Thank you SO much to all y'all who have been writing me! LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. Read Moroni chapter 7. I LOVE IT! :D

Me and Sister Akin prepared to take down the millipead!

Me and Elder Travis Ker!

Sister Schramm, Diana, and me

Pictures of me in the hallway area outside of my apartment in
Kingstowne! It was POURING rain this day!

Me and the Behnke's from the Crystal City ward!




Me and the Behnke's from the Crystal City ward! I love them and
miss them terribly!

 

Are you guys Mormon?" :-)

HEY EVERYBODY!!! SO SO sorry that I was so rushed last week so I wasn't able to finish updating y'all on the rest of my week! It was CRAZY!!! So here it is: (Here's the rest of the week from 10/03/13 - 10/06/13: Thursday (October 3rd) was transfer day, and I was SOOOO nervous the entire night and day (and even DAYS) before because I just didn't know what to expect! This was my very first time not either being trained or training, so I just didn't know how it was gonna go! Well, after days and days of being terrified and nervous and feelings of nausea, my fears were gone as soon as President announced who my new companion is! Sister Schramm is WONDERFUL! I love her SOOOO much!!! She was in the MTC and in the same District with my dear, sweet, Sister Akin! So it's been quite the adjustment here in Kingstowne, but it's been great at the same time! I'm senior companion - which is kinda crazy to me since I just came to a brand new area where I don't know ANYONE or ANYTHING, and Sister Schramm was "born" here (she's been here from the beginning). I mean, I know that I have been out for two transfers longer than her, so I guess it makes sense that I'm senior companion; however, I have been struggling MAJORLY with feelings of inadequacy as far as not knowing the area and the people. But it's ok. Little by little, I'm learning the ropes of Kingstowne, and it's really great! And I'm sure that soon enough, I'll grow to love it here in Kingstowne just as much as I loved Crystal City! :) Friday (Oct. 4th) was insanely wonderful! We started the day out by going to Launching Leaders and being spiritually and intellectually fed! Then that night, we were on our way to visit a less-active woman in our ward named Sister Trinh; we were walking through the parking lot when all of a sudden a woman who was pulling out of a parking space nearby yelled over to us, "Hey! Are you guys Mormon??" We reluctantly walked over to her, as we were sure that she wanted to bash, and we said, "Yes." What happened next surprised us SO much, I'm still not over it! She smiled and said, "Do you want to come over to my place for dinner tonight in about an hour? I used to feed the Mormons all the time - they were usually the guys on bikes, but you'll do." We were absolutely SHOCKED and smiled and said that we would LOVE to come over for dinner! So, long story short, we went over for dinner and talked a little bit with her (and her name's Danielle, but she goes by Dani), but mostly with her seven-year-old daughter, Kaitlin, about Church, and specifically Sunday School. Kaitlin is currently attending a Bible Study Sunday School class, but she was very excited to hear about ours and is planning on coming to church with her mom this Sunday! They both also came to almost half of a session of conference on Sunday! They would've stayed for the whole thing, but they had to leave early so that Dani could pick up her husband from work. It was AWESOME! Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 5th and 6th) was mainly General Conference, which was AMAZING, as I'm sure you all know! And SOOOO many talks were geared towards missionary work! I LOVE it! :) Also, we had an investigator at every single session of General Conference! It was AWESOME!!! :) So that finally finishes summing up the rest of that last week! Now onto this actual past week! 10/07/13 - 10/13/13: Monday was CRAZY!!! - as I'm sure y'all already figured from my quick e-mail last week! So, to start out the day, my dear, sweet companion, Sister Schramm, took off her jacket and threw it in the dirty laundry pile after we got back from the gym at our apartment complex. Well, what she didn't realize when she loaded all of her clothes in the washing machine - INCLUDING her jacket - was that our cell phone was in her jacket pocket... Yes. It's true. She accidentally washed our cell phone. However, I feel somewhat accountable for this as well because I had been having a prompting to ask her where our phone was so that I could call Sister Akin and coordinate when we could stop by and pick up some things that I left over there. However, I kept ignoring that because I was finishing getting ready for the day. Well, if I had listened the that prompting, our cell phone would've just missed being thrown in the wash. But on the other side, we wouldn't have gotten a new cell phone, so I guess we both learned our lessons, and it ended up better that way! :) Later that day, we stopped by and visited sweet Sister Akin and her new companion, Sister McBride. It was SO fun and great to see my dear Sister Akin again (even though it had only been a few days since we'd seen each other, I still missed her!). That night, we visited a less-active in the ward named Sister K. She's a sweet older woman, and I just love her already! :) Tuesday we went to District Meeting, which was great, as always! And guess what I've been forgetting to mention for the past several months! Do any of you know Elder Travis Ker?? I know for a fact that Makani Fisher and at least one or two others of y'all know him from back home in Orem/Provo! Well, anyways, we're in the same District now! We had been in the same zone for the past three transfers before this, and now we're in the same District! It's SO fun! I love Elder Ker! He's great! I have a picture of us together at a bowling activity for zone sports a couple of months ago! Although we had been in the same zone for all those months before that, neither of us had put two and two together until then and realized that it turns out we knew each other before our missions! He went to my 18th birthday party at Lagoon, and I've hung out at his house! SMALL WORLD!!! Anyways, I'll attach the picture of us to this e-mail! :) After District Meeting, we went out for lunch at Cafe Rio (it turns out that Cafe Rio is not very well-known out East. It's one of those West-coast things that I so desperately miss! However, thankfully I've been fortunate enough to be in areas close enough to a Cafe Rio, so it hasn't been an issue), which was of course amazing! Then that night, we taught a Gospel Principles class for recent converts and less-active members, and we taught it on the Creation. It was SOOOO fun! I was kinda nervous at first, but it ended up being great! :) Wednesday was crazy! We started out the morning right after studies with going over to the Saas home and assembling a grill for Sister Saas! Yep! You read that right! Me. Aubrie Anne Orrock, assembled a grill with my companion. Yes. I know. Maybe that's what it meant on that aptitude test in High School when it said that I'd be a good lumberjack or fire-fighter! I figure grill assembler is close enough, right?? Haha! It was actually really fun! And we learned a new word! Fascia! Apparently it's a part of the grill. Anyways, after that, later that afternoon, we stopped by and visited a potential investigator named Amy and had a lesson with her! It was awesome! Then we stopped by to say hi (...and use their bathroom...) to a member named Sister Romrell, who is AWESOME! She ended up inviting us to stay over for dinner, so we did! I think I'm gonna like it here in Kingstowne! :) After that, we stopped by and visited an investigator named Fasaad and scheduled a time to meet with him since he was busy right then. Then we stopped by to visit Patience and Ielee (a couple of investigators who are related to each other), and ended up seeing and having a quick lesson with their nephew Derek. It was a really good day! :) Thursday we went and did service at the local food bank (it's called Koinonia), which was really rewarding! :) The rest of the day wasn't too eventful, so I honestly don't remember much else about it (mostly cause I need to improve at writing in my journal, but it's ok. Haha). Friday was CRAZY!!! We spent a good portion of the morning/early afternoon weekly planning, then we stopped by and visited a WONDERFUL less-active woman named Lauren! I LOVE her! From the moment I met her, I felt like she's one of the people who I was supposed to meet out here! She's great! :) After visiting with Lauren, we had dinner. Then after dinner, we had a pass-off lesson to us (meaning we gained two new investigators cause they were in our area and not the other Sisters who met them), and it was AWESOME!!! It was seriously like the Pharisees and the Sadducees from the Bible! Honestly! At first I was SUUUPER intimidated cause they (it's a couple, and the husband's sister is a member) kept on asking all of these questions, just trying to catch us in something and prove us wrong; this, of course made things very difficult and stressful when it came to answering questions at times. We had to REALLY think before we spoke. What made things even more stressful was that out of the three of us (one of the other Sisters who actually met them came with us), I was the oldest (as far as being out in the field time goes), and then Sister Schramm, and then the other Sister is just barley into her second transfer! But it was ok. It all went well and they seemed to like us! They fed us dinner (which we had no idea of ahead of time), and they even had flower-less chocolate cake because they knew somehow that a gluten-free Sister would be coming over! It was amazing! I love them! :) We even got a return appointment for this Friday night that THEY initiated! :) The church is true! Saturday... wasn't so great... It was hard. We got dropped by our GOLDEN investigator, Diana! She's SO sweet and wonderful, and she agrees with pretty much everything in the church, it's just her parents... She's 18 years old, but she really doesn't want to step on her parent's toes at all, and so since she talked with her parents and they told her to stop meeting with us, she's going by what they said. So, needless to say, we were sad and needed a little pick-me-up. So, since we were already planning on going to get frozen yogurt with Diana, we went and got some ourselves really quick. It was a very much needed pick-me-up for both of us! That night, we had dinner with a family in the ward named the Grigg's, and then right after dinner, we had a lesson with our cute, sweet, 14-year-old investigator named Kayla (she's friends with the Grigg's). It was a really great lesson! Kayla's already on date for baptism for November 16th - she's just still waiting for the official stamp of approval from her parents. I love Kayla! She really reminds me A LOT of my wonderful (basically) little sister, Andrea Allen! :) Sunday (yesterday) was pretty good - minus the fact that over the past couple of days, I've accumulated a horrible cold. But it's ok. I know that there's something that God wants me to learn from this, so I'm just sleeping as much as I can (which isn't enough as a missionary), and taking naps during lunch and dinner breaks, and just praying that I'll learn whatever God wants me to learn from this experience sooner than later! :) Anyways, Last night was really great cause we found a completely inactive member from what we call the "Bishop's List" (a list that the Bishop has given us of people who he wants us to check on), who, despite telling us that she is in no way interested in the church at all anymore, was very kind and welcomed us to come back some other time! :) Anyways, That's it for now! I love you all! The church is true! And although the work and the life of a missionary isn't always easy (HA. FAR from easy), it's ALWAYS WELL-worth it! I am SO grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary and serving our Father in Heaven and our Brother and Savior, Jesus Christ. I wouldn't want to do anything else in my life right now! :) I love you all SOOOOOOO much! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep writing me! I am well-aware that I am terrible at responding in a timely manner, but I PROMISE I always love and appreciate hearing from all of you! :) THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :D LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. I am SO sorry that I have neglected to mention Sofi and Ashley in my shout-outs for quite some time now! I guess that I mentioned y'all in my mind, and so I thought that I had in the actual e-mail! I am SO sorry again! I did get the letters and the adorable, sweet package with the picture and the sweet letter from Ashey! Thank you both SO SO much! I PROMISE that I have cherished every single e-mail, letter and package that y'all have sent to me! I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! Y'all are the best! :) Also - Thank you SOOOO much to everyone else who has written me/e-mailed me/sent me a package recently! I promise I love and appreciate every single one of you and y'all are in my constant thoughts and prayers! :)