Sometimes I meet the Ambassador of Iraq... nbd...

HEY EVERYBODY!!! First things first! So - about the shooting that occurred and the Naval Yard a week ago, it turns out that it WASN'T in my area - THANK HEAVENS! But it was pretty close to my area, as far as miles go. I'm only about 4.5 - 5 miles away from DC where it happened. But no worries. It was over the Potomac River - therefore out of the boundaries of my mission. Anyways, this week has been quite interesting! On Monday I cut a couple of Sister's hair, which was SUPER fun! I'm actually scheduled today to cut at least THREE more Sister's hair! I LOVE it! :) Monday night we had Family Home Evening with the Babitz and our investigators Bobby and Keren! It was SO fun! We started out by meeting at Sweet Frog and got fro-yo, then we went on over the the Babitz home and played games! We played a game called "Cold Turkey", which apparently isn't manufactured anymore, which is SUPER sad cause it was SUUUPER fun, and a frog game (I don't know what it's called). We all had a blast playing games and getting to know each other better! And now Keren had a couple of new friends in the ward, which is exactly what we wanted out of this! :) Tuesday we had our usual routine - District Meeting, lunch and comp. study. After that, we visited Keren and went with her to run some errands. It was fun! I love Keren SOOOO much!!! She really IS MUCH MUCH more than an investigator to me! She's truly become one of my best friends! :) She's definitely someone who I will come back and visit and hang out with after my mission! :) After that, we had dinner, then we had a POWER HOUR! After our power hour, we visited a sweet member in our ward, Sister White. I LOVE her! She's wonderful! She's the one I told y'all about who has the sugar gliders! :) Right after we were done visiting with Sis. White, we went straight over to Keren's and walked over to another fro-yo place and got fro-yo with her cause there was a miscommunication on our part to her about getting fro-yo, so she didn't get it then. Anyways, after we were done with our fro-yo at Tuti Fruti, we walked over to institute, and only made it for the last half of it, but it was still really good! Keren really enjoyed it! :) Wednesday was really good! We met street contacted for an hour or so and met a Taiwanese guy named Burd who was walking a dog (the irony of that is just SO hilarious to me!). We talked with him and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and had about half a lesson with him, but unfortunately we had to cut things short with him a little bit cause we had to book it back to our apartment for cleaning checks. Don't worry, Mom and Dad and Cory - we were rated Celestial! :) After our cleaning checks, we visited sweet Alma at the Potomac Nursing Center; right before we visited Alma, we visited another sweet resident there named Titi. She's a sweet Ethiopian woman who we've known for a little while. She told Sister Akin and I over and over again that we need to get boyfriends so that they can give us money (...so THAT'S why people get boyfriends! Haha!), also so that we can make our parents happy by getting married. We tried to explain to her that we're not allowed to have boyfriends out here on the mission, let alone get married. She told us that we need to hurry and get married within TWO months of getting home!!! HAHAHAHA!!! Sister Akin and I both laughed at that and thought that might be a little soon, but assured her that it's in the plans to get married EVENTUALLY, but we're in NO rush! Haha. She's so cute and sweet! I LOVE Titi! :) After we were done visiting with people there, we street contacted until dinner and met a man at a bus stop named Elliott who's from Gana! He's met with missionaries before and was really nice to us, so we got his contact information and we're gonna do all we can to see him again this week! :) After dinner, we visited a couple of members - Rebecca and Tati. I love them both! Especially Tati! She's wonderful! I really LOVE Crystal City! :) Thursday we went on exchanges and I went with my dear Sister Woodbury! It was really good to see her again! She's really wonderful! :) And speaking of Sister Woodbury, I realized that I never really told y'all anything about her! She's from Murrietta, CA; was the goaly for BYU's girl's soccer team '04 - '07, so she's kinda a big deal. Haha. We're really different in a lot of ways - she's not bubbly AT ALL, and she's more of a tom-boy, but she's sweet. I love her! :) Funny thing about our exchange - I may or may not have gotten a tick in my hair that she picked off of me. ...we're not exactly sure what it was, but it was definitely a questionable-looking insect. Friday was SO good! We exchanged back and started our day off with ARP; after that, we went home and did weekly planning! SO fun... Haha! That night, we went street contacting for the next couple of hours or so and met the Ambassador of Iraq... No big deal. Yes, I'm dead serious. He was sitting at a park bench and his wife and daughter were nearby. We had NO idea who he was or anything, and then Sister Akin and I approached him and started talking with him about God and Jesus Christ and he invited us to sit down at the picnic table where he was sitting. Turns out he's very spiritual, so that's good! :) It was interesting cause when he called his wife and daughter over to meet us, his wife was hesitant at first and asked him, "Is it safe?" He assured them that we were friendly, good, God-loving people and it was indeed safe. We noticed a couple of big met standing off in the distance, watching us as we talked with him, so we think that they were probably his body guards or something... Kinda neat! Anyways, after we were done chattin it up with the Ambassador (...he's probably not getting baptized anytime soon cause he seemed pretty set in his religious ways - being Muslum and all - but we gave him a pass-along card with our names and phone number and got his phone number as well. So that's kinda cool), we met another man named Jim - a cool, nice, black guy walking on the sidewalk by the park. We gave him a Book of Mormon, too. We hope to see him again soon! :) After that, we met a nice member (not in our ward) named Sister Bell and we talked with her for about fifteen minutes with her non-member boyfriend. They were both really nice people! After that, we went into Nordstrom at the Pentagon City Mall and went into the bathroom there and ended up meeting two other really great women there and talked about the gospel and gave them a pass-along card! Then after that, we booked it over to Keren's and had a late dinner with her at Panera! Sister Akin and I just got smoothies, but it was really good! :) Saturday we helped out with a weeding service project with our ward, which was fun! We got there late and we were talking to people a lot, so we really probably only cleared about a square foot of forest with what we did together, but it was still really good! :) Later that day, while we were in the business center in the club house of our apartment complex, we were almost done with our progress record on the computer, when the computer just shut down out of nowhere, and our work was nowhere to be saved or found... So were stuck there for a bit longer, which ended up being a really big blessing because if we hadn't lost our whole progress record right when we did, we never would've met Shalom (a sweet African-American army woman who lives in our apartment complex). She just started talking to us and asked us, "Are y'all from the church on 23rd street?" and then we just started talking with her from there. We ended up talking with her for about an hour or so and exchanged phone numbers and she even welcomed us to stop by her apartment anytime to talk about Jesus and God and what we believe! SUCH a blessing! :) Later that night, we visited our Chinese investigator, Pei and had a lesson with him, and his roommate, Nan, ended up joining in on our lesson! :) Pei is SO great! He even gave us each a little gift from China! I love him! :) Sunday was SO good! Church was AMAZING! Sister Akin and I subbed our Gospel Principles class, which ended up being SO fun! :) After church, we had a lesson and then lunch with Pei and Nan over at the Larsen's home! I love them - ALL of them! :) We even gained a new investigator from that because Pei's friend, Nan, said that he would start reading the Book of Mormon and said that he's curious to learn more! The church is SOOOO true!!! :) Then only about two hours after lunch, we had dinner with a bunch of other members in our ward at the home of the Kaneyuki's! It was SO good and so fun to get to know some of the wonderful members in our ward better! :) After dinner, we visited Wu Biao and had a short lesson with him. He's doing wonderful with his new baby girl! He's the cutest and sweetest little Mr. Mom! I love him! :) After that, we street contacted for most of the rest of the night and met a wonderful man from Honduras named Elvin and his sweet little 2-year old boy at the Park by Giant! We taught him the Restoration and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and a pass-along card and got a return appointment with him for this Wednesday! I'm SOOOO excited!!! :) I just LOVE spanish people! Why couldn't I have gone spanish-speaking?? Haha. It's all good! I really DO love my mission and everything about it! Plus, I get to use what little spanish I do know quite frequently - at least every other, if not every day! :) I LOVE IT!!! THE CHURCH IS SOOOOOOOO TRUE!!! :D Thank you all to everyone who wrote me and/or sent me an e-mail in the past week! It really DOES mean THE WORLD to me!!! :) Thank you Kat, Aubree, Heather, Kaylee Wood, and Daddy (and Mom for your e-mails! Don't worry - that counts, too!)! Y'all are the greatest! Remember who you are and what you stand for! I love you all! :) LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. I strongly encourage y'all to really study Alma chapter 7! It's amazing! :)