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! :)