HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! ...almost!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! SO sorry I didn't finish telling y'all about my previous week in my e-mail last week! So I'll tell you all about it right now! Thursday, November 14 - Sunday, November 17, 2013: Thursday was transfers, so we spent the morning going around and Sister Schramm said her final goodbyes to people. Then transfer meeting happened, and I got my new companion, Sister McKenna, and she's great! After transfer meeting, I got kinda lost on our way home, PLUS there was crazy VA traffic, so it ended up taking us about 1 1/2 hours to get to our dinner appointment instead of 30-45 minutes... It's fine... It was making a memory. Haha! Anyways, we had dinner that night with a SUPER cute new family in the ward named the Barton's, who are just SO sweet and they have the cutest kids! I LOVE them! :) After that, we visited the Carver's, and that was really good! :) Friday we weekly planned... not much new there... Haha. Then later that day we got on FACEBOOK!!! *GASP* APOSTATE!!! Haha! Nope! SURPRISE!!! Actually, as of that Wednesday, so almost two weeks ago now, my mission has officially been on facebook! CRAZY, huh?? So y'all have probably already seen a friend request from a "Sister-Aubrie Orrock" recently; well, THAT'S ME!!! Haha. So ACCEPT IT! It's NOT a prank, I promise!!! :) That night we stopped by and visited our less-active friend, Bobbi, who I LOVE! :) Then after that, we went over to the Grigg's and did some service for them and helped them clean up their home a bit. It was fun. I LOVE the Griggs! We're going to their house for Thanksgiving! And they're also gluten-free! So this is going to be SUCH a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! SO much wonderful food that I can actually eat that won't make me sick! YAY!!! :D Saturday we had a lesson with the wonderful potential investigators who Sister Schramm and her last companion, Sister Hills met and had just been doing service for! Their names are Katy (the mom) and Abby (her daughter). I LOVE THEM!!! After Katy and Abby, we had a quick drop-by visit with the Fitzgeralds (they were about to leave somewhere, so we couldn't visit with them long). I LOVE THEM! They are SO sweet and SO cute! :) After the Fitzgeralds, we had dinner with the Shengs! They are WONDERFUL!!! They are BY FAR one of my most favorite families in the ward!!! :) And Brother Sheng just found out that he's gluten-intolerant, too, so now they REALLY know how to cook for me! :) Sunday we visited with Amber, and it was SO good! I really DO love her SOOOO much! And every time I see her and talk with her, I just have that feeling reaffirmed that she is one of the people who I was supposed to meet out here, and it just helps remind me that I'm EXACTLY where the Lords wants and NEEDS me to be at this time! :) After Amber, we had meetings for forever and a day (well, from like 12:45 - 3:00) until church at 3:00. Then church was SO good! :) After church, we had dinner with Sister Chipman, and it was really good. Sister Chipman's really sweet, but has a tough exterior that you just have to get past, then you see how sweet she really is. I love her! :) After dinner, we visited Sister K., and it was a really good visit! I really am coming to love Sister K. more and more! :) Ok! Now onto this past week! Monday, November 18 - Sunday, November 24th! Last Monday was crazy, but good, as P-days usually are! Haha! But what was really funny was right after we were done grocery shopping and I was in the car, driving and backing the car out of the parking stall, and Sister McKenna was backing me, a woman started talking to us. She appeared to be laughing, so at first I just ignored her since I've just gotten used to people giving me weird looks when my companion is backing me, or when I'm backing my companion. Haha. But then I thought I heard her say something like, "Are you learning how to drive?" Surely I had heard her wrong, so I rolled down my window and asked her what she said, and she laughed and said, "It's ok. My daughter's learning how to drive, too." Realizing that I had, indeed heard her correctly, I quickly corrected her and laughed and said, "Oh, no. I'm not learning how to drive. We have to do this as missionaries to be extra safe and cautious." She then was obviously somewhat embarrassed about the mix-up, and tried correcting herself by saying, "Oh, don't worry. I think that's great. In fact, I think that more people around here should do that." ...So apparently I look like I'm 15 or 16 with my bangs cut straight across and my hair high-lighted again... Yep... Kinda forgot about just how young that really makes me look sometimes... AWESOME... Sister McKenna thought that it was THE FUNNIEST thing in the world and wouldn't stop laughing about it... Me, on the other hand... not so much. Haha. Tuesday we had District Meeting, as usual. I LOVE LOVE LOVE District Meeting!!! :) After District Meeting, we visited our good less-active friend, Lauren! :) I LOVE Lauren! Later that day, we had dinner with Sister Blake! She's wonderful! And she has the cutest baby girl! :) After that, we went to the church for the Gospel Principles class; but shortly before the class, we talked with our investigator, Carol, on the phone and just checked to see how she's doing. Well, apparently she wants to come back to VA cause she HATES Ohio, so we might just end up teaching her in person again! Anyways, Elder Smith and Elder Richards taught the Gospel Principles class this week, and it was SUCH a wonderful class! They taught all about Christ's life and drew a timeline and everything! It was SUCH a great lesson! They're wonderful Elders! Wednesday we had Launching Leaders! I LOVE Launching Leaders! The Ritchies are WONDERFUL!!! I always learn SO much from their classes! :) After that, we went on exchanges! Sister McKenna went with Sister Stones and I stayed in Kingstowne and Sister Borland came to me! :) It was SUCH a wonderful exchange! I was able to learn SO much about myself and I felt like it helped me to grow SO much and to truly see my potential! I LOVE Sister Borland! And I LOVE exchanges! They're so great! :) And what made our exchange even sweeter (literally) was the Carvers! Sweet Sister Carver texted us earlier that night during dinner and invited us over to have some gluten-free cookies that she made! Um... YES! Ok! THANK YOU!!! So yes. The cookies were DELICIOUS!!! So we got a really great member visit in, and ate some DELICIOUS (and supposedly healthy) cookies! :) LOVE IT! Anyways, unfortunately I am out of time once again, so I am so sorry that I will not be able to tell you all about the rest of my week last week! But I will tell you quick bullet points and then fill you in the rest next week! :) Thursday we exchanged back and then had a phone lesson with Carol again! Then we visited Sister K. again that night. Friday we had this INCREDIBLE conference by a member of the seventy named Elder Teh (he's from the Philipeans)! I LOVED it! I'll tell you more next week! After that, we got on facebook for a bit. Saturday we visited with the Kemp's (a less-active elderly couple we just started working with), and they told us that they want to start coming back to church! The church is SO true!!! That night, we did some service at a retirement home called Manchester Lakes and helped organize musical performances for the night (we did that throughout the week), and it turned out pretty good! Sunday was... interesting... and kinda sad... It was announced in Sacrament Meeting that an older less-active woman named Sister Sausville (who Sister Schramm and I would visit pretty regularly) had passed away last week... Sad! Anyways, we finished the week off with a good member visit with the McCunes! I LOVE them! :) Well, I REALLY gotta go now! But I love you all SO much! :) Have a Happy Thanksgiving! :) Love Always, Sister Aubrie Orrock