Are you guys Mormon?" :-)

HEY EVERYBODY!!! SO SO sorry that I was so rushed last week so I wasn't able to finish updating y'all on the rest of my week! It was CRAZY!!! So here it is: (Here's the rest of the week from 10/03/13 - 10/06/13: Thursday (October 3rd) was transfer day, and I was SOOOO nervous the entire night and day (and even DAYS) before because I just didn't know what to expect! This was my very first time not either being trained or training, so I just didn't know how it was gonna go! Well, after days and days of being terrified and nervous and feelings of nausea, my fears were gone as soon as President announced who my new companion is! Sister Schramm is WONDERFUL! I love her SOOOO much!!! She was in the MTC and in the same District with my dear, sweet, Sister Akin! So it's been quite the adjustment here in Kingstowne, but it's been great at the same time! I'm senior companion - which is kinda crazy to me since I just came to a brand new area where I don't know ANYONE or ANYTHING, and Sister Schramm was "born" here (she's been here from the beginning). I mean, I know that I have been out for two transfers longer than her, so I guess it makes sense that I'm senior companion; however, I have been struggling MAJORLY with feelings of inadequacy as far as not knowing the area and the people. But it's ok. Little by little, I'm learning the ropes of Kingstowne, and it's really great! And I'm sure that soon enough, I'll grow to love it here in Kingstowne just as much as I loved Crystal City! :) Friday (Oct. 4th) was insanely wonderful! We started the day out by going to Launching Leaders and being spiritually and intellectually fed! Then that night, we were on our way to visit a less-active woman in our ward named Sister Trinh; we were walking through the parking lot when all of a sudden a woman who was pulling out of a parking space nearby yelled over to us, "Hey! Are you guys Mormon??" We reluctantly walked over to her, as we were sure that she wanted to bash, and we said, "Yes." What happened next surprised us SO much, I'm still not over it! She smiled and said, "Do you want to come over to my place for dinner tonight in about an hour? I used to feed the Mormons all the time - they were usually the guys on bikes, but you'll do." We were absolutely SHOCKED and smiled and said that we would LOVE to come over for dinner! So, long story short, we went over for dinner and talked a little bit with her (and her name's Danielle, but she goes by Dani), but mostly with her seven-year-old daughter, Kaitlin, about Church, and specifically Sunday School. Kaitlin is currently attending a Bible Study Sunday School class, but she was very excited to hear about ours and is planning on coming to church with her mom this Sunday! They both also came to almost half of a session of conference on Sunday! They would've stayed for the whole thing, but they had to leave early so that Dani could pick up her husband from work. It was AWESOME! Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 5th and 6th) was mainly General Conference, which was AMAZING, as I'm sure you all know! And SOOOO many talks were geared towards missionary work! I LOVE it! :) Also, we had an investigator at every single session of General Conference! It was AWESOME!!! :) So that finally finishes summing up the rest of that last week! Now onto this actual past week! 10/07/13 - 10/13/13: Monday was CRAZY!!! - as I'm sure y'all already figured from my quick e-mail last week! So, to start out the day, my dear, sweet companion, Sister Schramm, took off her jacket and threw it in the dirty laundry pile after we got back from the gym at our apartment complex. Well, what she didn't realize when she loaded all of her clothes in the washing machine - INCLUDING her jacket - was that our cell phone was in her jacket pocket... Yes. It's true. She accidentally washed our cell phone. However, I feel somewhat accountable for this as well because I had been having a prompting to ask her where our phone was so that I could call Sister Akin and coordinate when we could stop by and pick up some things that I left over there. However, I kept ignoring that because I was finishing getting ready for the day. Well, if I had listened the that prompting, our cell phone would've just missed being thrown in the wash. But on the other side, we wouldn't have gotten a new cell phone, so I guess we both learned our lessons, and it ended up better that way! :) Later that day, we stopped by and visited sweet Sister Akin and her new companion, Sister McBride. It was SO fun and great to see my dear Sister Akin again (even though it had only been a few days since we'd seen each other, I still missed her!). That night, we visited a less-active in the ward named Sister K. She's a sweet older woman, and I just love her already! :) Tuesday we went to District Meeting, which was great, as always! And guess what I've been forgetting to mention for the past several months! Do any of you know Elder Travis Ker?? I know for a fact that Makani Fisher and at least one or two others of y'all know him from back home in Orem/Provo! Well, anyways, we're in the same District now! We had been in the same zone for the past three transfers before this, and now we're in the same District! It's SO fun! I love Elder Ker! He's great! I have a picture of us together at a bowling activity for zone sports a couple of months ago! Although we had been in the same zone for all those months before that, neither of us had put two and two together until then and realized that it turns out we knew each other before our missions! He went to my 18th birthday party at Lagoon, and I've hung out at his house! SMALL WORLD!!! Anyways, I'll attach the picture of us to this e-mail! :) After District Meeting, we went out for lunch at Cafe Rio (it turns out that Cafe Rio is not very well-known out East. It's one of those West-coast things that I so desperately miss! However, thankfully I've been fortunate enough to be in areas close enough to a Cafe Rio, so it hasn't been an issue), which was of course amazing! Then that night, we taught a Gospel Principles class for recent converts and less-active members, and we taught it on the Creation. It was SOOOO fun! I was kinda nervous at first, but it ended up being great! :) Wednesday was crazy! We started out the morning right after studies with going over to the Saas home and assembling a grill for Sister Saas! Yep! You read that right! Me. Aubrie Anne Orrock, assembled a grill with my companion. Yes. I know. Maybe that's what it meant on that aptitude test in High School when it said that I'd be a good lumberjack or fire-fighter! I figure grill assembler is close enough, right?? Haha! It was actually really fun! And we learned a new word! Fascia! Apparently it's a part of the grill. Anyways, after that, later that afternoon, we stopped by and visited a potential investigator named Amy and had a lesson with her! It was awesome! Then we stopped by to say hi (...and use their bathroom...) to a member named Sister Romrell, who is AWESOME! She ended up inviting us to stay over for dinner, so we did! I think I'm gonna like it here in Kingstowne! :) After that, we stopped by and visited an investigator named Fasaad and scheduled a time to meet with him since he was busy right then. Then we stopped by to visit Patience and Ielee (a couple of investigators who are related to each other), and ended up seeing and having a quick lesson with their nephew Derek. It was a really good day! :) Thursday we went and did service at the local food bank (it's called Koinonia), which was really rewarding! :) The rest of the day wasn't too eventful, so I honestly don't remember much else about it (mostly cause I need to improve at writing in my journal, but it's ok. Haha). Friday was CRAZY!!! We spent a good portion of the morning/early afternoon weekly planning, then we stopped by and visited a WONDERFUL less-active woman named Lauren! I LOVE her! From the moment I met her, I felt like she's one of the people who I was supposed to meet out here! She's great! :) After visiting with Lauren, we had dinner. Then after dinner, we had a pass-off lesson to us (meaning we gained two new investigators cause they were in our area and not the other Sisters who met them), and it was AWESOME!!! It was seriously like the Pharisees and the Sadducees from the Bible! Honestly! At first I was SUUUPER intimidated cause they (it's a couple, and the husband's sister is a member) kept on asking all of these questions, just trying to catch us in something and prove us wrong; this, of course made things very difficult and stressful when it came to answering questions at times. We had to REALLY think before we spoke. What made things even more stressful was that out of the three of us (one of the other Sisters who actually met them came with us), I was the oldest (as far as being out in the field time goes), and then Sister Schramm, and then the other Sister is just barley into her second transfer! But it was ok. It all went well and they seemed to like us! They fed us dinner (which we had no idea of ahead of time), and they even had flower-less chocolate cake because they knew somehow that a gluten-free Sister would be coming over! It was amazing! I love them! :) We even got a return appointment for this Friday night that THEY initiated! :) The church is true! Saturday... wasn't so great... It was hard. We got dropped by our GOLDEN investigator, Diana! She's SO sweet and wonderful, and she agrees with pretty much everything in the church, it's just her parents... She's 18 years old, but she really doesn't want to step on her parent's toes at all, and so since she talked with her parents and they told her to stop meeting with us, she's going by what they said. So, needless to say, we were sad and needed a little pick-me-up. So, since we were already planning on going to get frozen yogurt with Diana, we went and got some ourselves really quick. It was a very much needed pick-me-up for both of us! That night, we had dinner with a family in the ward named the Grigg's, and then right after dinner, we had a lesson with our cute, sweet, 14-year-old investigator named Kayla (she's friends with the Grigg's). It was a really great lesson! Kayla's already on date for baptism for November 16th - she's just still waiting for the official stamp of approval from her parents. I love Kayla! She really reminds me A LOT of my wonderful (basically) little sister, Andrea Allen! :) Sunday (yesterday) was pretty good - minus the fact that over the past couple of days, I've accumulated a horrible cold. But it's ok. I know that there's something that God wants me to learn from this, so I'm just sleeping as much as I can (which isn't enough as a missionary), and taking naps during lunch and dinner breaks, and just praying that I'll learn whatever God wants me to learn from this experience sooner than later! :) Anyways, Last night was really great cause we found a completely inactive member from what we call the "Bishop's List" (a list that the Bishop has given us of people who he wants us to check on), who, despite telling us that she is in no way interested in the church at all anymore, was very kind and welcomed us to come back some other time! :) Anyways, That's it for now! I love you all! The church is true! And although the work and the life of a missionary isn't always easy (HA. FAR from easy), it's ALWAYS WELL-worth it! I am SO grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary and serving our Father in Heaven and our Brother and Savior, Jesus Christ. I wouldn't want to do anything else in my life right now! :) I love you all SOOOOOOO much! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep writing me! I am well-aware that I am terrible at responding in a timely manner, but I PROMISE I always love and appreciate hearing from all of you! :) THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :D LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. I am SO sorry that I have neglected to mention Sofi and Ashley in my shout-outs for quite some time now! I guess that I mentioned y'all in my mind, and so I thought that I had in the actual e-mail! I am SO sorry again! I did get the letters and the adorable, sweet package with the picture and the sweet letter from Ashey! Thank you both SO SO much! I PROMISE that I have cherished every single e-mail, letter and package that y'all have sent to me! I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! Y'all are the best! :) Also - Thank you SOOOO much to everyone else who has written me/e-mailed me/sent me a package recently! I promise I love and appreciate every single one of you and y'all are in my constant thoughts and prayers! :)