HELLOOO... KINGSTOWNE!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! Soooo... This past week has been... CRAZY - to say the least! I just left Crystal City on Thursday, and that was seriously one of the hardest things that I've had to do since entering the MTC... and... well, of course, actually coming out here to Northern Virginia. Crystal City had become my home away from home. I knew most everybody there in my little area. There was Mary (you talked to her on the phone, Mom! She's a receptionist at the club house of my apartment complex in Crystal City!), and Ron and his dog Nelson! And, of course, SO many other people! I literally cried for days when I was saying goodbye to people! ESPECIALLY when I had to say goodbye to my sweet Keren! She's our Jewish investigator from Israel. I LOVE LOVE LOVE her! She is SOOOO much more than an investigator to me! She is literally one of my best friends! Some of y'all may have even noticed that she added me as a friend on facebook, so y'all can see what she looks like! She is WONDERFUL!!! Anyways, it has been a SUUUPER hard adjustment leaving Crystal City and coming to Kingstowne, to say the least; even though Kingstowne is only in Alexandria, which is right next to Arlington, which is where Crystal City is. So I'm literally just about fifteen minutes south of where I just was. But it's still been an adjustment. But it's ok. Change is good. Change is necessary. Change makes you grow. And I know that I had grown SOOOO comfortable in Crystal City that I knew that it was getting time for me to head somewhere else pretty quickly because I needed to get out of my comfort zone again. It's funny how that's necessary for you to grow. Anyways, today has been a CRAZY P-day, so I REALLY don't have much time to tell you about my week, so I'll quickly tell you the main highlights! Last Monday I said goodbye to sweet Negeset and sweet Alma. That was hard. I started crying pretty hard when I was saying goodbye to Alma. I LOVE her! Then we visited Melissa (a new potential) and kinda had a lesson with her. Tuesday we had our last District Meeting and it was sad, but good. Sister Akin and I gave the spiritual thought and it was really nice. After that, we went on a mini exchange while Sister Akin went to a trainers meeting (oh ya, did I mention that my little baby is TRAINING now??) and I went with Sister Steadman. We visited Sister Palkki in the ward and it was really great to say goodbye to her! Later, we went to dinner with the sweet Chambers! That was great, but really hard to say goodbye to them! Later, we stopped by and saw Rick and the Behnke's and said goodbye to all of them. Wednesday was a CRAZY day! Sister Akin and I started the morning off by running up 23rd St! That was CRAZY!!! We had made this goal to run up this street - which consists of two major hills - because we had always seen people running up it, and they NEVER looked happy. They always look like they hate their lives a little bit. So, Sister Akin and I decided that we were going to change that! We were going to run up 23rd and smile all the way! Well, I don't know if I smiled the WHOLE way, but I did do my best to smile more than frown! Haha! It was HARD, though! Right after that, we stopped by the clubhouse and said goodbye to Mary, Ron and Nelson, and the shuttle bus driver, and got pictures with all of them! Later we went to the Temple Visitors Center with Keren, which was AMAZING!!! We watched the Joseph Smith movie and it was AMAZING!!! After that, we went out to lunch with her, then got ice-cream. After that, Keren was even asking us if she could come to a lesson with us sometime! Then she even said that she wanted to go street contacting with us! It was AMAZING! So we did a tiny bit of street contacting with her on our way to her apartment afterwards. It was SO fun! She didn't say anything, she just stood back and watched us work; however, she would clear her throat and make sure that we talked to everyone! I LOVE HER!!! Later, we said goodbye to Jacob, which was hard and sad for me, but it was good. He's wonderful! After that, we had dinner with the Lopez's, then right after that, we had ANOTHER dinner with Sandra and Ignacio! I was SOOOO full that I thought I was going to throw up ALL over! It was bad, but the food was good! I just felt bad that I barley ate anything! Anyways, after that, I visited the Stouders and said goodbye to them, then visited and said goodbye to the Babitz! Annnd... I am out of time now, so I will give you a quick update on the rest of my week next week! I love you all! I hope that you watched conference! It was amazing! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! If you haven't already seen it, watch Elder Holland's talk on depression! He's amazing! Also - I LOVE my new companion! Her name's Sister Schramm, and we are SOOOO much alike! I'll tell you more about her next week when I have more time! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Thank you SO much for all of your love and support! :) LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock