HOLY DOG POOP!!! And Happy Father's Day!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO MY DADDY AND CORY AND ALL OF THE DAD'S IN MY LIFE!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! :D

Another week has quickly come and gone! It's sure crazy to think how quickly time flies! I've been out here for two and a half months now! (Even though sometimes it feels like I've been out for almost FOUR months, that's not quite the case. Sorry Mom. Haha!)

Monday was a rough day - (I was feeling a bit homesick (the homesickness has gotten better - meaning MUCH less often, but I'm still working on it not being there at all anymore. Any suggestions from RM's??) but Heavenly Father ALWAYS ALWAYS blesses us with tender mercies - ESPECIALLY when we're doing our best to serve him despite our challenges in life. Sister Woodbury and I BOTH got mail on Monday night after we got home that night! As silly as that sounds, getting mail as a missionary really IS like a five year old on Christmas day! And we really should never get mail on Mondays - we never have, either. That was the very first time that we had gotten mail on a Monday since I've been out here. The reason for that is because they have to forward all our mail to us, and the office Elders take their P-day on Saturday, so any mail that they would've forwarded on Friday should get to us by Saturday. Anyways, I don't know what happened on Monday with getting mail, but we didn't even get any junk mail - just mail from our family and friends! THANK YOU, DADDY!!! That really helped out A LOT!!! :D

Tuesday we had to have a little DTR (determine the relationship) talk with Reacha because she's been standing us up every single time we'd schedule an appointment and then go over there. So we told her that we love her and we want to be here for here, but she can call us when she's ready to see us for reals. It really felt like a break up. It was HARD. But I know that that's what we needed to do, otherwise she'll keep on taking us for granted and never learn. But on the bright side, that night we had dinner with a part-member couple in our ward (the wife's a member), and we talked with her husband a lot and he seems to really like us! He even kept on saying things like "the next time you come over" all night long! And he even wants to talk about the guidance of the spirit in our lives and other gospel topics! We hope to get him baptized some day! :D

Wednesday we went to Launching Leaders (a seminar class that they have about once a month that an adorable elderly couple in our mission teaches), which we always absolutely LOVE!!! Elder and Sister Richie are HILARIOUS!!! And, of course, we always learn lots of great things from them!!! Later that day, we street contacted and EVERY SINGLE PERSON we met was SUUUPER mean to us... I experienced being a missionary... Haha - Until we met this WONDERFUL man named Dan who talked to us for about fifteen minutes or so and he seemed REALLY interested in talking with us! We're going to hopefully meet with him SOON!

On Thursday we went to check on a Chinese guy named Chang who we met street contacting about two and a half weeks before that and he happened to be home with his wife and invited us in! We sat there and talked with his wife (Jody) while he finished cooking dinner, then he INSISTED that we join them for dinner, so we did! :) We weren't able to stay long cause we got there around 8:30, but we made a return appointment for this week when we'll get to have an actual lesson with them! The church is SOOOO true!!!

Friday we visited with a funny guy named Al (I think I've mentioned him before - "Alligator Al"), and saw his alligators that he made out of pipes and such. He's a hilarious old guy! I love him! After we were done visiting with Al, we got back to the car and right before I opened to car door, I felt myself step in something squishy... Yep. You guessed it. DOG POOP. And not just a little bit - it was HUGE!!! A great big pile of it and it didn't just get on the bottom of my shoe, but it got on the side of it, too! :( So Sister Woodbury and I walked over to a nearby member's house and went in their backyard and used their hose to wash all of the poop off of my shoe. YUM. Haha! It's ok. As disgusting and smelly as it was, I must admit it was pretty darn hilarious, too, and I'm not sorry it happened because it made for a great mission story! HAHAHA! And don't worry - Sister Woodbury took pictures of that exciting poopy moment and took some video of me washing off my shoe, which I will send to you! :) Anyways, later that day

we had a couple of investigators (Bobby and Keren - Bobby's Christian and Keren's Jewish and they're married) come over to a member's house with us and we had tacos for dinner and listened to a talk called "17 Steps" - or something like that. It's about 17 things that the true church has, and of course most other Christian churches have some of them, cause they all have a piece of truth, but none of them have all of them! It was really interesting and nice to listen to, and our investigators seemed to enjoy it! :)

Saturday was also really good cause we started the day out by going to the church and helping make pizzas for a fundraiser for the young men and young women in the ward to go to scout camp and girl's camp this summer! It was REALLY fun! After that and our studies, we street contacted for most of the day at the park and most everyone was SUUUPER nice to us and talked to us! We got 20 AR's in that one day! :) We talked to A TON of hispanic and latino people and they ALL listened to us and said that they'd come to church on Sunday and that they wanna learn more! ...unfortunately none of them ended up coming to church, and I think that they all just liked the fact that I'm a blue-eyed blonde white girl more than the gospel, which is a bummer. But that's why I wasn't called spanish speaking! Haha! Seriously though!

Anyways, Bobby and Keren came to church yesterday seemed to enjoy church, but Bobby has a lot of deep questions of the soul that Sister Woodbury and I have a hard time answering sometimes. Keren said they'll come back to church - if not next week, then for sure sometime in the next week or two after that! Sunday night we saw the Chambers and wished them a Happy Father's Day (they're former investigators, but they're SO sweet and we love them SO much and they still feed us every month)! They always give us a big paper bag filled with food every time we go over there! I LOVE THEM!!! :D Then last night we finished the night off by visiting a less-active member of our ward named Rick and he just so happened to be on the phone with the Elder's in our ward right as we knocked on his door; so what did he do? He told them he had to go, and hung up on them and talked with us! He even asked us to come by another time with another female so that we could come in his house and visit more! He definitely like us WAY more than he likes the Elders! But who can really blame him? Haha. Just kidding. :)
I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!! THE CHURCH IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO TRUE!!! :D
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

P.S. I forgot to tell you something awesome!!!

While I was writing my last e-mail (the big main one), Sister Woodbury was on the phone for a few minutes with a guy named Michael who we met street contacting in the park about three weeks ago. Anyways, he's having a really hard time in life right now and has been reading the Book of Mormon that we gave him and is having a hard time understanding it and wants to meet with us! So we're going to meet with him TOMORROW!!! I am SOOOOOOO excited!!! He's a hispanic guy and his english isn't very good, (but my spanish has improved significantly since I've been out here and talking to so many spanish speakers - I LOVE IT!!!), so hopefully between my broken spanish and his broken english, we'll be able to communicate efficiently enough to have a good lesson! I'll be praying A LOT and hopefully the spirit will take over and put spanish words in my mouth that I didn't even know - since I don't really know any gospel terms in spanish right now. But once in a while I study some spanish during my personal study! One time I studied a whole chapter in the Book of Mormon in spanish! I LOVE IT!!! I'm secretly hoping that President will be inspired to have me speak english AND spanish one day! The spanish people (particularly the guys) LOVE me and listen to me WAY better than they listen to most of the Elders! So we'll see! Fingers crossed! ;)

Love, Sister Aubrie Anne Orrock

P.S. ALWAYS REMEMBER TO LOOK OUT FOR POOP!!!

I ALMOST FORGOT!!! Ashley and Shawn had their beautiful baby Mason!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Sophie sent me the picture! I am SOOOO happy for you two!!! :D I can't wait to see him when I get home!!! I love you both! Especially you, Ashey!!!