HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY EVERYBODY!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!!

WOW!!! Another week has just FA-LOWN by!!! I really cannot believe how quickly time is going by out here! On June 3rd it'll be my two month mark! I know two months isn't super significant compared to 18, but still. It's shavin' down on that time. I'm almost 1/9th of the way through my mission now! WOW!!! CRAZY!!!

Anyways, I hope that y'all are having a wonderful Memorial day and having fun spending time with family! This weekend was pretty weird cause SOOOO many people went to visit their families (cause most of the people around here are from Utah or are college students at George Mason University), so our ward was about a third of the size that it usually is this week!

SOOOO much has happened this past week, that I don't know if I can even remember it all to tell you! Haha! Well, as I mentioned in my letter last week,  we went to DC and saw the sights around the Smithsonian, so I'm sending some pictures from that with this e-mail as well! We also had the incredible unique opportunity to go to DC AGAIN on Thursday with our ward's Relief Society and got a private tour of the Children's National Medical Center. It was SOOOOOO special to go in there and see the sweet little pre-mature babies and to see what they do there! They've started this thing there called "Hats On!" were they give a hat to an infant when they need to have surgery. These babies wear the hats during surgery to help keep them warm. It's a huge research project that they've started recently and our ward was able to be a part of it because the Relief Society made and donated 75 hats for the infants there. The Relief Society President also came and talked about the Relief Society program a little bit and what we do and how service is our main focus. And then this other lady in our ward who works at the hospital personally introduced Sister Woodbury and I (she didn't introduce anyone else besides the Relief Society President or people who were nurses or on the board at the hospital, so we felt pretty cool). Anyways, we got to put on these full-body zip-up things and put little slippers on to cover our shoes. We looked pretty legit, let me tell ya! And don't you worry - we got pictures! :-)

Return and Report was on Thursday, and that went really well! Some of the comments from the trainers to the trainees were pretty funny, I'm not gonna lie! They said things such as "Don't flirt". ...I didn't realize I had a problem with that until I came out here... Oooopsies... And it turns out that the comment did originate from my trainer, but luckily no one else besides her MTC companion, Sister Cushing, knew that. HAHAHA!

On Friday, Sister Woodbury and I went on an exchange, and she stayed at the apartment and Sister Berg came to her, and I went to her apartment with her companion, Sister McKee. It was really cool to get to leave my tiny TINY area of Crystal City for a bit and learn lots of new and wonderful things from Sister McKee; but by Saturday afternoon when it was time to go back, I couldn't be happier! It was nothing against Sis. McKee or anyone, for that matter. I just felt home-sick from my little area and my companion and my bed and everything. Transfers are coming up this week, but luckily Elder Litchfield, one of the AP's let it slip to us that we're staying here!!! YAY!!! Another six weeks in Crystal City!!! I really DO love it here!!!

Last night we had a New Member Fireside for anyone who's been baptized in the past few months or so to come and attend, and about six of them spoke. It was truly uplifting and inspiring to hear all of their amazing conversion stories! Some of them said that they'd had missionaries knock on their door for twenty years, but it took until NOW for them to actually listen and get baptized! So it's NEVER too late for people! Never give up on ANYBODY! They say that it usually takes people an average of seven good encounters with an LDS person to even begin to CONSIDER wanting to learn more. So even if you're not the one physically bringing that person into the waters of baptism, you ARE a stepping stone to that moment! So always be thou an example!

And I am SOOOOOOOO happy for and proud of all of my friends and family members who are preparing to serve missions/are currently serving right now!!! This really IS THE BEST thing that I could've ever done in my life!!! JESSICA PAGE, I am mainly talking to YOU, baby girl!!! I got your letter and I am SOOOOOO proud of you!!! You go out and serve and be THE BEST missionary EVER!!!

Also - I can e-mail all family AND friends, so if anyone wants to e-mail me, I can't promise that I'll be able to personally respond to each of you, but I would LOVE to hear from each of you! My e-mail is: aubrie.orrock@myldsmail.net.

I LOVE YOU and I pray for you all each and every day!!!

 

LOVE ALWAYS,

Sister Aubrie Orrock

Sister Woodbury and I in our hot outfits in the OR at the hospital! Aren't we cute? Haha!

Huget feeds us SOOOOOOOOOO much food!!! WAAAY too much!!! You think that plate's for three people, right?? Nope. Just me. She let it slide on the not having four scoops of ice-cream this time, though, cause Sis. Woodbury told her I'm sensitive to dairy - which is true. ...So I really shouldn't have had THAT much, but that's fine... Haha.

This one is a picture of (left to right) Me, Sister Woodbury (my wonderful companion), Sister Kuang (our incredible Chinese investigator who got baptized on SATURDAY!!!), and Sister Olson (Sister Woodbury's old companion)

Smithsonian, Museums, and food in DC!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!!

This past week has come and gone as quickly as ever! Monday was Sister Woodbury's birthday, so we went to DC and got to walk around the Smithsonian (which, by the way, is NOT just a museum - it's an actual area with all sorts of sights in DC. Yep. Didn't know that. Haha) and went in the Museum of Natural History, which, aside from all the taxodermy (I don't know if I spelled that right... Haha. All of the dead, stuffed animals) in some parts of the museum, I really LOVED it!!! I thought of Malarie the whole time! I think she'd really love it! My favorite part was the dinosaur museum! That was SOOOOOOOOOO fun!!! After walking around in the museums and seeing all of the cool stuff there, we went and got some food out of a Van-thing... Yup... Don't trust 'em. We went to Kabob Palace (it was Indian food), and they didn't even have any kabobs there! I mean, it says it right there in the name - HELLO!!! Haha. Just kidding. ...But seriously though. They really don't have kabobs. I was slightly disappointed and Sis. Woodbury was VERY disappointed. So anyways, I, of course, got a vegetarian meal, which was really good - SPICY, but good. But Sis. Woodbury got something with meat in it, and I guess they like to make their meat fresh or something, cause she found a piece of something in her food that was NOT meat, but was DEFINITELY a part of an animal. We're pretty sure it was a piece of brain. Yep. SUPER. We both almost threw up. I took a picture of her holding it and I'll send it to you cause I know y'all wanna see. Haha.

Tuesday was really good! During our power hour, Sis. Woodbury and I street contacted into a chinese girl, and we asked her if she believed in Jesus and her response was SO golden! She said, "Not yet." She went on to say that she WANTS to believe, but she's not sure if she believes just yet. We got her info and don't you worry, we'll be sure to baptize her! :)

Wednesday we had a half mission conference and we were priviliged to hear from Elder Echo Hawk, a member from the quorum of the seventy!!! It was SOOOOOOOO cool!!! And I totally shook his hand afterwards! Plus, he lives in Orem, UT, y'all!!! Don't worry, I had NO idea all this time that I lived so close to a general authority!

Friday was really good! We had another lesson with Diane (I don't know if I've mentioned her yet, but she's an investigator of ours, and she used to be a former investigator, but we've got her back on track ever since we started visiting her since I got here! I asked her to be baptized with a soft invite on my first visit with her, and she didn't totally decline, but she just said that she didn't wanna rush into it - which I totally understand) and Sister Woodbury invited her to be baptized, and this time with a date. Diane got kinda nervous at first, but after we explained that the date is just so that she has a goal to look forward to, and if she's not ready by then, we can move it back. After we explained that, she seemed more ok with it, but was still unsure about the date we had given her - June 22nd. After talking with her more, she said that she wants to be baptized, but she just wants to be ready before she gets baptized. After we were done with the lesson, she said the closing prayer and during it, she said, "Thank you for sending the Sisters back to my house, even when I kept on sending them away. I'm thankful that they were so persistant and didn't give up on me." Those words right there nearly brought me to tears and told me right then why I am here in Northern Virginia on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!!! I am here for people just like Diane, who know that this wonderful gospel is just what they need in their lives, but they may be a little bit afraid of changing certain things in their life, so they push  the missionaries away over and over again; but at the end of the day, they're grateful that you haven't given up on them!

We also went over to Reacha's house to check on her, but she wasn't there. However, her sister, Sabrina was, as well as Reacha's daughters. Although Sabrina and Reacha's daughters say that Reacha's still interested in learning about the church, I'm not so sure that she is. But just like with Diane, we've been persistant and we WILL NOT come down! (anyone know that scripture/talk? "I am doing a marvolous work and will not come down"... I think that's what it was... Haha. Something along those lines). But if nothing else, two of Reacha's daughters - one who's about 18 years old, and the other who's about fifteen said that they're interested in us coming back and talking to them!!! YAY!!! The work WILL continue to move forward, even if some people may not be ready to accept the truth of the gospel in their lives yet.

Also - last quick thing: We just started teaching a lady in her early 30's named Carmina. She's a wonderful, sweet lady and a minister for a non-denominational church. Her friend Karen who she's roommates with sat in during our lesson and they both seemed interested. Carmina's friend who lives in New York referred her to get a Book of Mormon and a Restoration DVD, so when we went to drop it off, she invited us in and we taught her the restoration and she invited us back! Hopefully all goes well and they both get baptized! :)

Well, unfortunately I'm about outta time, but I LOVE YOU ALL!!! :D PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE write me!!! I know that I've been TERRIBLE at writing individual people back, but I PROMISE I'm working on it! :) I really DO love you all and I pray for you all each and every day!!!

Read Moroni chapter 10! I just finished reading the Book of Mormon (not like I started it from the beginning on my mission. Haha), and I LOVE it!!!

I LOVE YOU!!!

LOVE ALWAYS,

Sister Aubrie Orrock

Mom: I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! I love how you tell me about Sophie dog in every single e-mail and letter you send me! :) Please continue to keep me updated. I'm sorry that Sophie has allergies. That's no fun. A little funny, but not fun. Haha.

Malarie: I LOVED your letter and graduation announcement! SUPER cute!!! Your letter made me cry a lil bit with happiness and cause I miss you! I'm SOOOO proud of you and all that you're doing! You go, High School Grad!!! I LOVE YOU!!! :) Anyways, please give my Lola-kins lots of loves from me! :)

Ang: I LOVED your letter and graduation announcement, too! SO cute! I also got a lil teary-eyed reading your letter! I LOVE YOU!!! Give my Row-Row loves from me! :) I'm working on a letter for you!

Lance: I LOVE YOU!!! I'm working on a letter for you, but it's just taking a year and a half to write. SO sorry! I guess you'll get it when I get home. SORRY! Haha. I'll try to finish it and send it soon!

Cory: Thank you SO much for your weekly e-mail updates on how everyone's doing! I LOVE YOU!!!

Daddy: I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!!! I am SOOOOOOO happy that I was able to talk with you for a lil bit on Mother's Day!!! That was SOOOOOOO good! And I got your letter last week! THANK YOU!!! I'll always be your perfect princess daughter. :)

Some Photos to Share

Picture of Sister Butts, Sister Lochridge, and I in front of the Lincoln Memorial!!!

Picture of our Athiest friend and her pet boa constrictor.

LOVIN' LIFE IN ARLINGTON!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!!

This e-mail won't be able to be as long this week cause today's Sister Woodbury's birthday and we're going to DC to celebrate! :D WOO HOO!!! I can't wait!!! Since my mission is just outside DC, but closest to the border, I only get to go to DC once every other transfer (unless I'm going to the temple visitor's center with an investigator, then we can go as often as we like!). We're actually planning on bringing our investigator "Jewlery" Jan to the Visitor's Center this week, so I'm SUUUPER excited!!! I can't wait for her to go there and feel the spirit! I just want her to get baptized SOOOOOOO badly!!!

...Speaking of Jewlery Jan, I realized after I sent my e-mail last week that I didn't really say much about her besides sending the picture of all of the real jewlery that she's spoiled me with! Haha! But the story with that is that she's an older lady (mid-sixties) who has a TON of jewlery (or, I should say HAD, since she's given most of it away by now), but she just doesn't wear it anymore, so she wanted to give it away to younger girls who would take care of it and appreciate it. Oh man... I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a missionary!!! ...and NO. Don't worry. It is NOT because investigators spoil me with jewlery and members feed me and I'm just spoiled all around right now. I promise. I mean, that is definitely a perk, I'm not gonna lie, but that is NOT why I love being a missionary so much. Haha. ...Seriously though. But anyways, Jan is this amazing older woman who has had SOOOOOO many personal spiritual experiences and COMPLETELY believes in God and Jesus Christ, but for some reason she's still not sure about the church. She's been reading the Book of Mormon a little bit here and there and she's about one hundred pages into it, but she's still not sure about it. We just keep on praying that one day her eyes will be open and she'll be baptized cause she's SO SO close to it!

We also just started visiting a less active lady in our ward named Lorenda a couple of days ago. We went to check on her for the first time about a week and a half ago or so, but she was busy giving her son a bath, so she asked us to come back some other time. The next time we came back, there had been a miscommunication on the time, so she was also busy. However, the next time we went back, we made sure to visit her THAT DAY (this was also on Saturday), and she and her son were eating dinner, so she asked us to come back in about half an hour. We came back and we were FINALLY able to visit with her! We mostly talked with her and got to know her a bit, then shortly before we left, we gave a spiritual thought. After the spiritual thought, her son (who's about five years old) came over to Sister Woodbury and pointed to a little tab and asked her to read it. She flipped to it and read the first verse that she saw on that page, (and although I'm not so sure that Lorenda realized it) which just so happened to fit in perfectly with what they needed to hear! I know that I could definitely feel the spirit, and I sure hope that they could!

Anyways, this last week has been really good as far as finding a lot of new people; however, I'm not so sure how many of them we'll actually be able to keep because I'm pretty sure that most of them will be attending a single's ward. But still, we've been working on the AR's (Accepts and Rejects) and we've been averaging at least ten a day! Even though all of our key indicator numbers on Saturday were 0's because our lessons fell through, we met A LOT of new people and got about fifteen Accepts!!! The accept and reject thing reffers to how many people we street contact and/or tract into who either "Accept" our message and tell us to come back or to call us, or "Reject" and... well... no need explaining that one... Hahah. We tracted a cul-de-sac that we had been going nearby to to check on a former investigator, but had never actually tracted there. IT. WAS. AWESOME!!! Every single person who answered their door said that they were busy right then (it was after 8:00 pm), but that we could come back some other time! We also got several other accepts earlier that day through street contacting and tracting during our power hour! Power hour is when we either street contact or tract (or a lil bit of both) for an hour straight and see how many new potential investigators we can find during that time! I LOVE IT!!! I am SO happy that our zone decided to do a power hour every single day! It really is wonderful and I've already seen SO many miracles come just from that with people listening to us and inviting us to come back! This work is really wonderful! I am SO happy to be out here and doing the work that I'm doing!

Anyways, the work is SOOOOOOOO wonderful!!! I hope y'all are doing great back home!!! You're all in my constant thoughts and prayers!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

A quote that I LOVE that my mission president, President Riggs said is:

"Put your wants secondary to the needs of others, commit to that, covenant with God as you partake of the sacrament to do that."

I challenge each of you to focus more on serving others not just this week, but throughout your lives!

Also I studied Alma chapter 32 recently and LOVE it!!! I invite you all to study it as well!!!

THE CHURCH IS SOOOOOOOOOOO TRUE!!!

LOVE ALWAYS,

Sister Aubrie Orrock

P.S. Kat! Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOO much for the letter this week!!! It was ADORABLE!!! I'm working on writing a letter to you, but it might take a while cause I don't have much time. But I LOVE YOU SOOOOOO MUCH, GIRL!!! Also, my mom told me that you sent me a package, but I haven't gotten it yet cause I guess you sent it UPS. Haha. It's ok. I'll probably get it in a couple of weeks. It'll be a fun surprise when it comes! :)

HAPPY (soon-to-be) MOTHER'S DAY!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!!

Another week has quickly come and gone! Man! Time is just FLYING!!! It really is SO true how missionary time works - the longest days and the shortest weeks! That is for dang sure! ...However, I must say that this past month has felt like the longest month of my life - SOOOOOO much has happened! But it's all wonderful and life-changing and I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else in the world right now! :)

I'll catch you up on what's been happening over the past week! Something that I forgot to mention in my e-mail last week is something funny that happened (more like something that I did/said). Last Sunday, Sister Woodbury and I were going to visit a girl who we had visited the week before who had said we could come back, but she wasn't there. So, anyways, while we were in the elevator, there was this delivery guy who came into the elevator with us and he was wearing a shirt and hat that said "Wing Stop". So, me being, well, ME, I was just trying to make friendly elevator conversation, but apparently things are just ten times more awkward in elevators. I turned to him and smiled and said, "Wing Stop, huh? Do they have, like... (I was trying to think of something OTHER than wings to say, but my mind went blank, so I just finished the question with -) WINGS there??" He just awkwardly starred at me and then said, "Yep." and then just looked straight ahead. Man. Why do elevators have to be so awkward? I feel like if we had been ANYWHERE else besides in an elevator at that time that that would have been WAAAY less awkward. Still maybe somewhat awkward, yes. But sufficiently less for sure. Sister Woodbury was SO embarrassed.

Another funny thing was yesterday when we went to another apartment building to check on a referral of a potential investigator (who also wasn't home), and the name of the building is Buchanan, and so of course I just kept on saying it out loud and pronouncing it in any other way than the correct way. I kept on trying to say it with a Spanish accent, putting the accent on different parts of the word. I started out saying it like "Boo-chA-nan", then I tried "Boo-cha-NAn", then I tried, "BOO-cha-nan". I tried everything I could think of - being as creative as I possibly could with the pronunciations, until finally Sister Woodbury looked at me and said, "Buchanan." I guess it's just very American (who knew? Haha) and it's pronounced "Bue-cannon". Yep. That was a struggle. I KNEW I was meant to go Spanish-speaking! Heck, I already try to pronounce everything in a spanish accent, no matter how American it really is. It's pretty funny. Sister Woodbury doesn't think so.

Last Wednesday our phone died. That was exciting. We had actually kinda been praying for a new phone anyways since ours wouldn't let us receive calls half the time and then half the time wouldn't tell us when we had a voicemail. It was a gem of a phone. So, because it was so wonderful, we were feeling guilty for having such a nice phone and prayed that God would give us something more humble... Hahah... So since we all know God has a sense of humor, on Wednesday, the screen of the phone went completely black and we could no longer read texts or see who was calling us. But on the bright side, we could still make and receive calls - without knowing for sure who we were calling and not knowing at all who was calling us, of course. It was a fun guessing game! Anyways, on Thursday we went most of the day without a phone - again, this makes missionary work VERY interesting - and the AP's brought us a "new" (meaning slightly less-crappy) phone after dinner. At least we have a phone that actually works more often than not now! That's a blessing! And when they brought us our phone, they also brought me... MY LONG-LOST PACKAGE!!! :D That's right, Mom! It FINALLY came! I have never been SO excited to see the AP's in my entire life!!! Haha. But seriously, it was a really good day! :) How did you know I was running low on Oreos, Mom? ;) Also - thank you SO much for all the cute cards that you sent with that as well! My family's AMAZING!!! And speaking of packages - I got the other package you sent me this morning! YAY!!! It was pretty funny, when Sis. Woodbury saw the package at first she thought it was for her cause she's been expecting a package from her Mom, and then she laughed and was like, "My mom WOULD send a package like that." And then I noticed the handwriting and realized it was from MY MOM and I laughed and said, "MY mom would send a package like that, too! I liked the shoe box with the tape around it! it was definitely VERY secure! I had to use a sharp knife to open it! Good job, Mom! Haha. I LOVE YOU!!! THANKS AGAIN!!! :D

Anyways, now that I got the funny stuff out of the way, I'll tell you about the REAL good stuff! On Saturday it was Sister Kuang's BAPTISM!!! WOO HOO!!! She is SOOOOOO amazing!!! She was the GOLDEN investigator!!! Here's her story of how she found the gospel: Her and her husband and six-year old son came her from China last August and their son (who was five years old at the time, but almost six) was interested in the Bible and had been reading the bible, so he wanted to go to church while they were here. So they went in search of a church and they found our church and saw that it has Jesus Christ's name right in the title, so they walked right in off the street and then started investigating. They were quickly sent in the direction of the missionaries who started teaching her, and the rest is history! She is truly an incredible person and her family is phenomenal! Her son Shun-Fan gave the talk on baptism and it was SOOOOOOO cute!!! Also - Sister Olson and Sister Menchen (they used to teach Sister Kuang as well), and Sister Woodbury, and I sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" at her baptism. We actually sounded pretty good for not having practiced together much. You could definitely feel the spirit through the whole thing! I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a missionary!!! :D

The next day - Sunday, our district did a "Power Hour" where we all went out and street-contacted at the same time in our own areas for one hour. It was SOOOOOO powerful!!! People were actually NICE to us and talked and listened to us! That NEVER happens!!! ...well... it's rare. Anyways, we found four potential investigators, and one of them in particular was REALLY interested! He actually told us that he's been looking for our church and he's met with missionaries before, but then he somehow lost contact with them and he wasn't able to find them again. He said that everytime he'd see them again, either him or them would be in a car and he couldn't contact them, or they couldn't get to his apartment, or whatever. Basically Satan's been a jerk and hasn't wanted us to find him - BUT WE DID FIND HIM!!! :D His name's Daniel and he's amazing! Honestly, if I wasn't a missionary right now, I would've just given him a hug right then and there! :) And then just shortly after our power hour when we were on our way home from our dinner appointment at the Fishers (yep. That's right. It made me feel right at home! I love you, Fishers!!!), we met another guy named Francis from Gana who is also SUPER interested and even thanked us for telling him about Jesus! YOU ARE WELCOME! :D We had little miracles and tender mercies like that all day yesterday! Like being fed dinner by the Fishers at the last minute! We hadn't passed around a dinner calendar yet for people to sign up to feed us, so we've only been fed three times in the past nearly three weeks since I've been here, so we were hoping and praying that someone would be merciful to us and feed us on fast Sunday! And it happened! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :D

Anyways, I hope y'all are doing well back home! I pray for you all each and every day! :)

Thank you all SOOOOOOOOOO much for the letters!!! Aubs, Grandma, Katie, Brooklyn - THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOO much for your letters last week! You have NOOOO idea how much they mean to me! Y'all are THE BEST!!! I love you all! :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Love Always,

Sis. Aubrie Orrock

Aubs: I literally was laughing out loud while I was reading your letter on the couch in my apartment. Sis. Woodbury kept on looking at me like I was crazy. Haha! Keep writing me! :) I LOVE YOU!

Grandma: I was SO excited to see that I had a letter from you after we checked our mail that I fell up the stairs! I saw the letter as I was flipping through them and said, as I was falling, "GrAndma!" I LOVE YOU!!!

Katie: SO happy to hear from you and hear you're doing well! :) Love you!

Brooklyn: I was SO happy to hear from you and hear you're doing well! :)