HEY EVERYBODY!!!

4/22/13

HEY EVERYBODY!!!

I'm SOOOO sorry that I didn't write last week! Since I flew into DC last Tuesday (EARLY MORNING - the flight left SLC at 6:00 AM!), and P-day's on Monday, this is my first P-day that I've gotten since arriving.

Well, I'm VERY happy to report (as I'm sure you all will be very pleased to hear) that I am feeling MUCH less home-sick now and Arlington and Crystal City are feeling more and more like home to me every single day! :) On Tuesday afternoon, shortly after we got off the plane, we were picked up from the airport by the mission President and his wife - President and Sister Riggs - and they couldn't have been more friendly or welcoming! They took us to see the Lincoln Memorial and we were able to walk around and look around there and it was SOOOOOOOO cool - something that I KNOW that Malarie would LOVE! :)

After we were done there, we went to the mission home and after we hung out and got settled in a bit and chatted with each other (...or took a quick thirty minute nap like Sis. Lochride and I did on the couch while everyone pointed and laughed at us and then took pictures of us sleeping... Yep... That happened), we ate a wonderful dinner prepared by the Riggs' and their neighbors/ward members!

After dinner we had a little testimony meeting and then met and talked with the President, which was really good! Everyone probably thought that I was SUUUPER boring and half-deaf or something cause my ears were SUUUPER plugged up from the plane ride there, so I couldn't hear very well - PLUS I just so happened to get lucky enough to develop a terrible cold the night before, which continued to develop throughout the next few days. But do not fret, my friends! All is well now! My cold is almost one hundred percent gone now, thanks to the HUGE amount of daily vitamins that I've been taking, with a little help from good ole Day-Quil. :)

The next day was transfer meeting, where I met my new companion, Sister Woodbury (who is AWESOME, by the way!!!), and had to say goodbye to my sweet Sister Lochridge... :( I was sad about that, but it's ok. I'm sure we'll run into each other eventually. :)

Sister Woodbury kinda intimidated me for a minute at first because she has such a sarcastic sense of humor (which I'm pretty used to, but with her, it was a lil bit difficult to tell if she was being sarcastic sometimes), but once I got a feel for her personality and sense of humor, we get along WONDERFULLY!!! Seriously, she's a wonderful trainer and I am SO blessed to have her as my companion! As I've been out here, I've come to realize just how silly it was of me to have the fears that I had about a mission at first! I mean, I don't wanna jinx myself, but companions were one of my worst fears (or, I should say, having a bad, or crazy companion), but so far I've gotten along with my companions great! :)

So far the work has been going WONDERFULLY!!! Just three days after I got here, and on my third day of tracting (I started tracting on Wednesday - and yes, it was kind of terrifying at first, but once I just started talking to people, which I'm pretty good at, it's not so bad), we got TWO PEOPLE to commit to a baptism date! YEP! That's right! Their names are Wu Biao (pronounced Woo-Bee-Ow), who's a chinese man, and Reacha (pronounced Ree-Sha), who's a black lady. I love them both and I am SOOOOOOOO excited for both of them!!! Although they had already received a few lessons before I got there, I still like to think that I played some sort of role in their decision to be baptized! :D This truly IS a remarkable work and I am SOOOOOOOOO excited to share this wonderful gospel with everyone around me! :)

Saturday wasn't as easy, though, unfortunately. Nobody agreed to a baptism date - but then again, no baptism invitation was extended, either. However, as the day went on, it got much better! There were SO many tender mercies of the Lord showing us that our efforts were being recognized, just simply by people being nice to us - even if they didn't have time, or weren't even interested in hearing what we had to say. The church is true! That's what Sis. Woodbury and I always say to each other everytime something REALLY miraculous-seeming (like two people getting on date for baptism on the same day), or when we'd feel a little discouraged because we just keep on knocking on angry people's doors who look like they want to take their shot-gun out or punch us in the face. But at the end of the day, none of the hard, negative stuff matters. All that matters is that the church is SOOOOOOOO true and we are here for a purpose - to serve the people in DC and to bring them unto Christ. And that's what we're doing, and that's what we're going to continue to do.

Another really cool experience happened yesterday night when we were walking around an apartment building and we knocked on a door to check on a member, but the member that we went to check on no longer lived there. In fact, they hadn't lived there for over a year, and now there is a very sweet, non-member girl who lives there who looks like she's about in her mid-twenties. At first when we found out that the member no longer lived there, we just said, "Oh, ok. Sorry to bother you. Have a nice day." and walked away. With every step as we walked away, a pit continued to grow in my stomach and I KNEW that we should've talked to her and told her about the gospel, but I just kept on ignoring that feeling... Until my companion and I got in our car and we had just started driving away, and I turned to her and said, "Do you feel like we should go back and talk to her?" and she said, "I feel like we should go back and talk to her if YOU feel like we should go back and talk to her." So we did. And when the girl answered the door again, she was on the phone and looked kinda confused to see us back, but we told her that we felt like we should come back and talk to her. Then we told her a little bit about what our church is about and she told us that she doesn't really believe in God and she's not really religious, but she's always kinda felt like something was missing in her life and felt like there was something more out there. Then she couldn't talk right now cause she's on the phone, but she welcomed us to come back and talk to her some other time! HECK YEAH!!! THE CHURCH IS SOOOOOOOOOO TRUE!!!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

FRIENDS AND FAMILY, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WRITE ME!!! I would still LOVE to hear from all of you!!! :) I'm pretty sure that y'all can write me for free on dearelder.com! Oh! And also - if you wanna send me a package, please send it through U.S. Mail cause if you send it through anywhere else, it'll take longer.

Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOO much for all of your love and support! I love you all!!!

Sister Aubrie Orrock