MERRY CHRISTMAS and A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :D

HEY EVERYBODY!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I hope that y'all had a wonderful Christmas!!! I know that I did! Talking/skyping with the family was WONDERFUL!!! And the Clouses (who were kind enough to let us skype over at their home) are SO much fun! I just love them!!! :) Anyways, I don't have much time now, so I'll quickly go over my week! Monday was wonderful! We talked with the Kemps briefly, then we went over and visited Sister K. and helped her put her Christmas decorations up! I love her! :) Tuesday was Christmas Eve, of course! And we had a wonderful District Meeting, and I was able to see my beautiful MTC companion, Sister Lochridge, for a minute at the beginning of zone portion right before District Meeting (cause she's in my ZONE now!!! WOO HOO!!!)! I love her SO much and I am SO grateful that I am going to get to see her every week now!!! :) After District Meeting, we stopped by the apartment and had a quick lunch, then we went and visited Pokuwah, which was really good! I love her SO much! People from Ghana are WONDERFUL!!! :D After that, we stopped by the Grigg's to pick up a present that their 17-year old daughter bought for us, which was a mini Christmas tree and mini ornaments! It's adorable!!! :) I love the Griggs SO much! They are wonderful!!! After that, we went to the church and did some online proselyting (AKA: facebook time), which was really good!!! After that, we went over and had a really good visit with Amber!!! I love her SO much! She is adorable!!! :) After Amber, we stopped by the Sheng's and had a quick visit with them, and sweet Sister Sheng started tearing up and crying a little bit when I was telling her that they're one of my favorite families, and she was telling me how much she loves us - especially me, cause they're moving at the end of this week to go back to California. :( I'm SUUUPER sad, but it's ok. They're definitely ones who I'll be sure to keep in contact with forever!!! :) After the Shengs, we went over to the Kacher's and had dinner with them, and spent pretty much the rest of the night over there, since we weren't allowed to go out and proselyte on Christmas Eve. It was SO much fun! After dinner we acted out the Nativity and me and Brother Kacher took turns reading it from the scriptures - and we even put on some costumes! It was SO much fun!!! :) It brought me back to my good old theater days for a minute! :) Wednesday was CHRISTMAS!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Christmas was WONDERFUL!!! I got SO many packages and letters and cards from SO many people - I was really overwhelmed with gratitude and love from everything! We opened up our presents as our companionship study (after we sang a Christmas hymn as our opening hymn, of course)! Then we went over to the Grigg's and had brunch with them, which was SO good!!! They made a delicious gluten-free french toast thing in a pan, and it had eggs and homemade berry jam! It was AMAZING!!! :) Then after we were done eating and before we left, they gave us their own Christmas present! It's a cute popcorn bucket with a coloring book and crayons and chocolate and a toothbrush and toothpaste and some other essentials like that in there! SO sweet!!! :) After that, we went back to the apartment and relaxed and enjoyed our gifts until it was time to go over to the Clouse's for skyping the family! :) Then we spent the rest of the day over at the Clouse's! They really are wonderful! They are easily one of my favorites here as well!!! :) Thursday was SO good! We did more online proselyting, which was really good! Then later that afternoon, Sister Clouse called us and told us that they enjoyed having us over so much yesterday that they wanted to have us over for dinner again - that night! So we went over and had dinner with them that night, and it was SO good and SO much fun! :) After the Clouse's, we had a quick visit with Sister Ho, and it was really good! :) Friday we weekly planned most of the day and did some more online proselyting. Then we had dinner that night with the Bartons - I LOVE them!!! And one of their little girls who's about four years old LOVES Elder Stone! It was SO cute!!! Appartently Elder Stone and Elder Harper had dinner over there the week before and Elder Stone played his banjo, and their litter girl became his biggest fan! It was adorable! :) Later that night, we had a lesson with Carol and she said that she wants to be baptized!!! So that's awesome!!! :) Saturday we briefly saw Pokuwah, which was really good! Then later that day we met a cute member in the ward named Sister White, who I LOVE! She reminds me so much of one of my BFF's, Heather Lindsay!!! :) And she told us about a woman who just moved into the ward recently who she's become friends with, then asked us if we wanted to visit her that night! We said yes! So we went over there and got to know her friend, named Renee, who is amazing! She's African-American, and I LOVE her!!! :) Sunday - church was really amazing! We got a referral from a member in the ward from Ghana named Patrick, and it's a woman named Nana, and just moved here from Ghana a month ago, met with missionaries there, and she wants to be baptized! No big deal, but MERRY BELATED CHRISTMAS TO US!!! :D Then we finished the night off by having a lesson with Opoku, which was... interesting... Haha. All in all, we had a wonderful week! :) I LOVE YOU ALL!!! THANK YOU ALL SOOOOOOOO MUCH for anyone who spoke on the recorder and made/sent the cards and everything! You all are the best!!! :D THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :D LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock

Missionary Christmas Choir Performance

Try this link for a Missionary Choir that performed with Sister Aubrie Orrock in it! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1xbeiSS8069VndJSm43bXJBVWs/edit?usp=sharing

MERRY CHRISTMAS... almost!!! And Mexican Avocados are THE BEST!!! :D

HEY EVERYBODY!!! Oh my goodness!!! WHAT A WEEK!!! This past week has been crazy - but I guess what week out in the mission field ISN'T?? Haha. Anyways... Monday, as I think I mentioned in my e-mail last week, Sister McKenna and I played the board game Life with Elder Stone, Elder Harper, and Elder Richards - while Elder Smith watched. Haha. It was SO much fun!!! :) I really am blessed with the Elders who I serve with! They are all really remarkable and I've become such good friends with all of them, too - especially Elder Stone. ...Speaking of Elder Stone, he got a few packages before he left the area on Thursday, and they've still been comin' for him even after he left! Haha! But it's ok. Elder Harper's going to bring them to District Meeting tomorrow and give them to the Zone Leaders to take to the Mission Office and get them to Elder Stone. :) Monday night, we went over and visited Sister Stolpe. I really do love her! She's such a sweetheart! Seriously! She was afraid that one of us might get transfered, so she bought each of us a going away/remember her present! She got us make-up (lip gloss - mine's a barbie pink, mascara, eye liner, and a whole eye shadow color palet!) and then each of us a bracelet! She is really too kind! I love it! :) Don't worry - I took pictures of everything she gave us, so I'll send the pictures so y'all can see! Also, besides the wonderful gifts, she practically fed us dinner cause she asked us if we had had dinner - we told her not really (I never leave enough time on P-days to actually have a meal for dinner, so I usually just end up eating a granola bar, or something like that... Oooopsies), so she took all of this food out of her fridge and insisted that we eat it! I was like, "OK!!!" I'm not gonna complain if someone wants to feed me! Haha. :) But in all seriousness, that really was such a HUGE tender mercy from the Lord that she fed us, cause we were really scrambling to get everything done for the week. God truly IS our loving Heavenly Father, and He is SO mindful of us and knows EXACTLY what we need and when we need it! It's truly amazing to me sometimes, but at the same time it's like, "DUH! OF COURSE He knows all of that! He's God!" I really am SO grateful to know that I am a daughter of a King - the creator of the universe - and He loves ME. :) Tuesday we had Zone Training, and it was SO good!!! We talked a LOT about gratitude and being more grateful in our everyday lives! Then our Zone Leader told us to write down 10 things a week that we're grateful for, and we're going to share them at Zone Portion of District Meetings every week! I'm SO excited! And I thought, "Well, this is gonna be easy! Only 10 things a week?? I write in my gratitude journal every day! This is nothing!" And I don't say this to boast at all, I want you all to truly know how much it has helped me to diligently write in my gratitude journal each and every day! And if I miss a day or two, I always make sure that I go back and catch up! It really helps me to keep my mindset on Christ and all that He did for me, and Heavenly Father and all of the blessings and tender mercies that He gives to me each and every day! I am SO grateful for this wonderful Holiday season and the spirit of Christmas!!! It is truly a magical time of year! I LOVE it! :) That afternoon after lunch, we went over to a part-member family's home, the Roze's, and I cute Sister Roze's and her little three year old daughter's hair! It was SO much fun! We also shared a nice Christmas message with them, and she made gluten-free mushroom soup in return for me doing her hair - which, of course, was totally unnecessary, but she wanted to do it and she already had it basically done when we got there, so it was sweet of her! :) This really was such a wonderful visit for many reasons - one of which being that Sister Schramm and I had tried scheduling a time with her MULTIPLE times to go and visit her before, but she didn't seem too thrilled about it. And then this time she actually invited US over - granted it was for a haircut, but still. Baby steps. :) And when we saw her at church on Sunday, she was really excited to see us, and even more excited to see that I didn't get transfered! :) After that, we did some facebook time, which was really good! I was able to chat with some really amazing people! :) That night, we went by Sister Davis' and gave her a Christmas card from the Relief Society, and she gave us each a Christmas card and a candy cane! She really is such a sweetheart! I love her! :) I love Kingstowne! After that, we went to our Gospel Principles class at the church... that didnt' really happen... Haha. We sat around and waited for anyone to show up for about half an hour, but everyone who might've come ended up being no-shows. It's ok, though. We had a good time chattin' with the Elders, and Elder Smith and I talked about hair and what our favorite hair products are - true story. This boy knows more about hair than anyone I know who's not a cosmetologist. He's a really cool Elder! He told me how to get to a Sally's Beauty Supply. True story. Haha! We finished the night off by visiting Bobbi and her sweet mom. I really do love Bobbi SO much! :) Wednesday we had our very last Launching Leaders, which was sad cause it was the last one, but it was an amazing class, as always! :) After that, we had lunch, then we did some online proselyting on facebook, which was really great, as always! Speaking of which - y'all could help me (and God) out by spreading the good word via facebook by simply "liking" and/or "sharing" my posts! So THANK YOU SO MUCH to those of y'all who have already been doing that! It means a lot - as silly as that may sound! :) And I strongly encourage each and every one of y'all to do what you can individually - ESPECIALLY this Christmas season when people in general are SO much more apt to listen to people talk about Christ - to share your testimony and/or simply share the gospel with others! :) We are now in a very electronic world, so as sad as it is sometimes, one of the best ways to share the gospel now is really through facebook - which is why you may have noticed that SO many missionaries are now online, it's CRAZY!!! After that, we visited the Clouse's for a bit! I LOVE them!!! And they had their adorable little dog perform for us by barking along and sorta dancing to a disney song! It was absolutely PRICELESS! Don't worry - I got it all on video, and I'll send that home. I just can't e-mail that, so I save all of those to a jump drive that I'm going to mail home very soon! :) After that, we went over to the Carver's and I cut Sister Carver's hair (and Sister Carver is also a hair stylist, so we were able to talk hair, which was really fun, because none of my companions understand my crazy neurotic-ness with hair! But she DOES! It was WONDERFUL!!!). After I was done with her hair, we had dinner with them, and it was SO good!!! Sister Carver made a wonderful home-made gluten-free vegetarian lasagna where she used cut up squash as the noodles, and then layered it with various types of cheeses. SO good!!! :) I love the Carvers, I really do! :) After the Carvers, we went over to the Kemp's and visited with them! I love them SO much! They are seriously such a sweet elderly couple! They ALWAYS give us cream soda, gatorade, and/or water every single time we go over there! I'm tellin' ya - for some reason, there are SO many people out here in this mission who just want to spoil me in various different ways! I'm definitely not complaining by any means, but I'm just sayin', your prayers are sure workin', Mom, Dad, and Cory! Haha! :) After our wonderful visit with the Kemps, we went and saw Desmond and had a wonderful lesson! I am SO grateful for Desmond and for his interest in learning about the gospel! It sure is refreshing to teach a man who actually wants to learn about the gospel more than just talk to a cute girl! Seriously! The latter gets WAY too old! We finished the night off by stopping by Elder Stone and Elder Harper's apartment to say goodbye to Elder Stone (and give him his jump drive back that I borrowed from him earlier to get a video off of it, but mostly to say goodbye. Haha). I really am sad to see him go because we really developed such a strong friendship, but it's just like how it was when Sister Schramm and my other companions left - it's the nature of the beast. But it's all good. I'm sure I'll see him around some other time, just as I see my past companions once in a while. :) Thursday we did our weekly service at Koinonia - the local food bank. I really do love everyone there! They are all SUCH wonderful people! And they always give us food, or at least some sort of treat to take home at the end of our two hours, or however long we're there for! I love them! :) After lunch we did some online proselyting, and I was able to chat with some other amazing people! :) Then that night was a MIRACLE!!! We were delivering Christmas cards from the Relief Society to less-active women in the ward, and we went to an elderly woman named Sister Asher's home to give her her Christmas card. We knocked on the door, and she just yelled, "Come in!" Not wanting to intrude, I shyly opened the door a crack, and said, "Is it really ok for us to come in?" and she said, "Yes! I said 'come in!'" so we went inside, and she had us take a seat and we ended up talking with her for about an hour and a half! She even introduced us to three of her children, and we shared a Christmas message with her - pretty much every Christmas message that we share with people lately has been using Elder Holland's talk "Maybe Christmas Doesn't Come from a Store". Thank you SO much, Steve Gordon, for being so kind and e-mailing me as often as you do with all of your uplifting stories and talks, including this very one! I don't know if I ever would've come across it if it weren't for you, so THANK YOU!!! :) Anyways, Sister Asher really enjoyed what we shared with her and she said that she would read the rest of the talk on her own time! Truly remarkable! The Lord's timing is AMAZING!!! Seriously! I don't know if we would've ever met Sister Asher if it weren't for us delivering those Christmas cards, so I'm so grateful that we did deliver those! :) After that, we finished the night off by popping in and visiting sweet Sister Owens! And she ended up telling us in Relief Society yesterday that that was EXACTLY what she needed right when she needed it! I LOVE those moments!!! :D Friday morning we were surprised to receive a wonderful call from none other than PRESIDENT RIGGS!!! And he ended up paying us a visit to our apartment with PRESENTS!!! He told us that there are some sweet temple workers at the DC temple who donated several (possibly dozen) gift bags and told him to give them to missionaries who he felt like needed them! So he said that he loves us so much, so he wanted US to have them (one each)!!! It really made me almost cry, because that was EXACTLY what I needed right then! I just needed to see President, and seeing him playing Santa for me was that much better! He told us that he doesn't have one for everyone, so to keep it on the down low! :) Later that morning, we went over to Sister Davis' and helped her wrap Christmas presents, then shared a Christmas message with her! It was really fun! :) Then we spent the rest of the afternoon weekly planning. However, that night was a MIRACLE!!! We spent most of the night in Fairchild, but first we visited Carol. Then we went and saw Mama Paulina; after Mama, we visited Pokuwa, but she wasn't home, so we visited her twin sister, Pokuwa, who isn't a member, but has met with missionaries before. ...Well... we ended up teaching her the Restoration and scheduled a return appointment for Christmas Eve! And she said that we can continue teaching her! Yep! New investigator! I LOVE this work! It's amazing!!! Saturday we spent several hours at the Clouse's helping them clean and organize their apartment. After we were done working, they had us stay over for dinner and we had a delicious home-made gluten-free and vegetarian meal! I LOVE them! And they're who we're going over to their place to call home on Christmas! :) Sunday was wonderful, too! We had another lesson with Carol, which was really great! :) And she even came to church, which was amazing! :) And she kept on making all of these hilarious comments all through church, and once even in Relief Society as an announcement to EVERYONE, saying, "This is the most fertile church I have ever been in!" She was referring to all of the children and the pregnant woman in the ward. Yep. It was great. Haha! Anyways, I gotta run! But have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :D I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Remember to keep Christ in this beautiful wonderful Holiday! :) LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock

SNOW DAYS and CHRISTMAS PACKAGES!!! :D

HEY EVERYBODY!!! So... ya know when I say things like, "I'm really sorry about how short this e-mail is going to be this week cause I really don't have much time", and then my e-mails still end up being pretty long?? Ya... well, let's just say that this is NOT going to be one of those weeks... SORRY MOM!!! P-day was CRAZY busy today (we played some games with the Elders in our ward - Elder Stone, Elder Harper, Elder Smith, and Elder Richards - and that was SO much fun! However, we spent longer on that than we planned, and we didn't calculate much time for e-mailing... So anyways! This past week has been SO good! I'm for realsies just gonna give you the bullet point high-lights for the week this week, even though I HATE doing that. Hopefully I can really fill you in next week! Monday: I cut Sister McKenna's hair and it's SUPER cute! She gets compliments on it every day! :) We went grocery shopping at Aldis - a Greek store that sells everything for SUUUPER cheap! Seriously - I get about $75 worth of groceries for under $40. It's AMAZING!!! LOVE it!!! :) A nice woman at Rite Aid said that my hat was cute! That was nice! Haha. Seriously though, it made my day! :) Had a really great lesson with Derek! :) Tuesday: SNOW DAY!!! I REALLY wish that I had more time to tell you about this day because it was SOOOO much fun!!! We weren't allowed to drive for basically the entire day, and pretty much all of our investigators live WAAAY too far away to walk there in the freezing cold, so we went out to lunch at Chipotle with the Elders in our ward, then we went to the church and did some online proselyting via facebook. After that we had choir practice at the church, which is always SO much fun! :) After choir practice, Sister Clouse taught me and Sister McKenna some amazing vocal exercises that made me realize that I can still really sing! :) (She's an incredibly well-known opera singer, by the way. No big deal.) Wednesday: Got our oil changed in our car. Visited the Orlands and Sister Orland offered to make me some gluten-free banana bread! I LOVE HER!!! Saw Katy for a minute right as she pulled in her driveway and talked to her really quick and invited her to the Christmas Fireside on Sunday night and she said that she might come with her family! :) Finished off the night by visiting Sister Stolpe! She made us hot chocolate and showed us some Christmas lights around their neighborhood! SO fun! :) Thursday: Helped out with the toy distribution with Koinonia and helped give gifts to families who are less fortunate so that they can have a Christmas! It was SO speacial! :) Choir practice with the Clouses! SO fun! :) Found out I officially have bed bugs, so we spent some time that night de-bugging everything. SO fun. NOT. It's ok. At least on the bright side, I was able to get all of my laundry done a couple of days before P-day! :) Then we went to the Relief Society activity, and Sister Clouse came, too! It was SO much fun! There was a white elephant gift exchange, and I kept on getting baby things... weird... Haha. It's ok. People finally stole from me and I ended up with some little spice organizers. Fun. Haha. Then sweet Sister Sheng felt sorry for me and gave me her gift - which was a mug that says "Be Merry - and stay that way!" I LOVE it! :) Friday: We had a full mission Christmas conference! So I got to see all of my past companions! SUCH a blessing! I got to see Sister Akin and Sister Schramm - the two that I wanted to see the most! :) Sister Akin gave me a gift that Keren (investigator from Crystal City) gave to her to give to me that she got for me when she went to Israel! It's a really pretty necklace that's the symbol for "God". I LOVE it! :) Had dinner with the Shengs and made pizza (mine with a gluten-free crust). SO good! I LOVE THE SHENGS!!! :) They also gave us gluten-free oreos to take with us! :) Saturday: we went to a baptism for a couple in our ward that Elder Smith and Elder Richards taught. Then we spent most of the rest of the day helping Brother Clouse sew scarves for all the Sisters for the Christmas fireside on Sunday! SO much fun! :) Sunday: Christmas fireside was AMAZING!!! We were definitely the hit of the night! I LOVE it! I'll tell you more next week! :) I love you all!!! Thank y'all SOOOO much for your continual love and support!!! Mom: I got the package on FRIDAY!!! WHAT?!?! Haha! THANK YOU!!! And thank you SOOOOOOO much to everyone who spoke into my recorder and sent me a message!!! I've listened to those over and over again! But don't worry, Mom! That's all that I've gotten into in my package! I'm saving the rest for Christmas! :) Oh! And Elder Stone loves his package and he says thank you SO much!!! :) The church is true!!! Please everyone follow me on facebook and "like" and "share" my posts to help share the gospel! Thank you! I love you all!!! :) Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock

ATTENTION!!! CHURCH IS CANCELLED!!! TOO MUCH SNOW!!! ...seriously...

HEY EVERYBODY!!! How was y'all's week?? Well, mine was pretty good! It had its ups and downs due to me being sick... AGAIN... I know, right?? I keep on downing all of my vitamins like there's no tomorrow, but I guess my body just doesn't like the climate here in VA very much or something, cause whenever the slightest illness goes around, I ALWAYS get it. But that's fine... Sort of... Haha. Anyways, so as I told you last week, I woke up last Sunday with the flu and threw up. EW. Then I thought I was getting better on Monday, but I guess that it was the beginning of my flu turning into a terrible chest and sinus cold. FUN! Haha. NOT! But it's ok! Cause despite me being sick all week, we still did some good work and the Lord truly blessed us each and every day! In fact, even though I'm not that great at writing in my regular journal, I've written in my gratitude journal that you gave me, Mom, every day since the day that I got it last Saturday! :) And let me tell y'all - I know this is nothing new, but really, writing down all of the things that I'm grateful for and all of the ways that the Lord blesses me each and every day truly makes me SO much more aware of how blessed I really am, despite my trials of health or whatever else. Life is still a beautiful, WONDERFUL thing that is meant to be ENJOYED, not endured. So go out today and live it the way that God intended you to! Life is a GIFT - don't waste it! :) With that said, I'll get on to tell you about my week last week! It really was a wonderful week, despite all things considered! Monday we had a wonderful member-present lesson with our investigator, Derek, at his home. The Lord's timing is really quite perfect, however, because we would not have had a member-present lesson if it weren't for the fact that Derek was in the middle of eating dinner when we showed up for our lesson that he knew we were coming for. He asked us to come back in 15 minutes, but we couldn't get another visit in in fifteen minutes... so what did we do?? We called a member who lives just a few buildings down from Derek in the same apartment complex and asked if she would be willing to come with us to a lesson at the last minute. She said yes! She had nothing going on and her husband was working late that night, so it worked out perfectly!!! HALLELUJAH!!! By the end of the lesson, Derek agreed to read the Book of Mormon everyday and pray about it! WOO HOO! Then at the very end of the lesson, Derek's brother, Desmond - who Sister Schramm and I had sort of taught a lesson to once or twice (he sat in on one or two lessons of us reading from the Book of Mormon with Derek) - got home, and we set up a time to have a lesson with both him and Derek a week from then! So tonight we're going back at 8:00 and having a lesson with both of them! I am SO excited!!! After that, we were able to have a quick visit with a sweet less-active woman in our ward who also lives close to Derek, named Pokuwa, and then schedule a return appointment. She is such a funny and sweet lady! I LOVE Gahnaians! :) Tuesday we visited the Kemp's (an elderly less-active couple in the ward who are working on coming back to church), and sweet Brother Kemp feels the need to stalk us up with drinks every time we go over there! So we left with a whole six-pack of cream soda! SUCH a sweet man! I love him! :) After that, we went to the church and had our Gospel Principles class, which was really great! After the class, we talked with the Clouse's, and since Sister Clouse is pregnant right now, we gave them two of our cream sodas and she really appreciated that. Then Elder Stone mentioned that he really liked cream soda, so we gave him and Elder Harper one, too. Wednesday was when my cold really started to hit me HARD. I woke up that morning with my voice practically gone. Mal and Lance - remember the Christmas several years ago when I lost my voice shortly after I woke up - as soon as Mom took out the video camera?? Yep. This was just like that. Only there was no grace period when I actually HAD a voice when I woke up. Nope. I tried saying "Good morning" to Sister McKenna, and I could barley squeak out a whisper. Sister McKenna thought it was pretty funny, though. However, after Sister McKenna said a prayer that I would get my voice back, slowly but surely, it started to come back to me! The church is true! :) Anyways, that night we went and bought some soup for Sister Davis cause she was sick, and I was grateful that we were able to do that, because then I was able to get me soup, too! :) Anyways, on Thursday we did our service at Koinonia and they gave us some food to take home! SO sweet! We got served for doing service! LOVE it! :) We also visited the Sheng's that night and they gave me two loaves of gluten-free bread and some home-made gluten-free chocolate chip cookies! SO sweet! I LOVE the Sheng's! They are wonderful! Friday we had zone conference and I was able to see wonderful President and Sister Riggs! I love them both! :) Saturday we had a really great visit with the Clouse's! I LOVE them!!! They are truly remarkable people! :) Sunday was... interesting... Apparently people in DC are TERRIFIED of snow, so when there's only about an inch of snow outside, and it's not even blizzarding, they cancelled church. ...Yep. True story. And on top of all that, the AP's sent out a mass text warning everyone to stay inside because the roads were too icy and it was too dangerous... Well, after a couple of hours of feeling like a caged animal, we finally got permission to go out and visit a member who lives just a few minutes up the road from us. Then we ended up staying there for a few hours and visiting with them cause, well, we couldn't really go anywhere else. Then they let us stay over, and invited the Elders over, too, and watch the General Christmas Devotional since they cancelled showing it at the church due to weather. Anyways, I gotta run, but I LOVE YOU ALL!!! The church is true!!! Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and WELCOME WINTER!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! This past week was REALLY good! ...not so great as far as the work goes - seeing as most of the people who we're teaching were busy during the week for the Holiday, as well as most other people around. So needless to say, tracting and street contacting didn't do us much good this past week. But that's ok! The work moves forward! So anyways, Monday was pretty good! We called Carol that night, but didn't quite have a lesson with her. She was upset about some stuff, so we mostly just talked with her and did our best to calm her down and help her to feel the spirit through the Book of Mormon. It seemed to help a bit. :) After Carol, we visited one of our recent converts, Jenny! I LOVE Jenny! She is SUCH a sweetheart! Tuesday was a big and REALLY good day! We had District Meeting (as always), and Elder Stone announced that he is stepping down as District Leader, and Elder Lyman has been called as the new DL. ...kinda weird, but whatevs. Elder Stone's still WAY awesome, so no worries there! After District Meeting, we went out to lunch at Chipotle with Sister Russell in the ward, which was fun AND delicious!!! :) Then after lunch, we went over to our less-active friend, Lauren's home and visited with her for a bit. It went really well! By the end of the time of us visiting, Sister Russell and Lauren were already friends, and they were already planning times to hang out! I love them both SO much! :) After we were done visiting with Lauren, we had a lesson with Wondifraw... more of a DTR (determine the relationship) chat, if you ask me... Haha. We basically asked him what he wants out of meeting with us now, since we've taught him all the lessons, but he's not really progressing - aside from coming to church; however, he's told us multiple times that he doesn't plan on getting baptized. So anyways, he pretty much told us that he enjoyed meeting with us for the social aspect and he enjoys talking about Jesus with us - which is great, but we told him that we enjoy meeting with him, too, however, we won't be meeting with him regularly anymore. But we invited him to continue to come to church, and he came yesterday, so that's good! And he even wasn't feeling well and left after Sacrament Meeting, but he still made that effort to at least come to that! That's dedication! :) After our meeting with Wondifraw, we got on facebook for a bit (I'm still getting used to actually scheduling fb time in my missionary planner. WEIRD. Haha). After that we had dinner, then we went to Fairchild/Lockheed (AKA: the ghetto part of town) for a bit to check on a less-active who lives down there, but she wasn't home. However, it wasn't a loss going there because we ended up meeting and talking with her neighbor named Rita, who told us that she would love to meet with us after the Holidays! :) After that, we went to the church for our weekly Gospel Principles class. However, this week was a little bit different because we didn't really have class; instead, we listened to a semi-less-active couple in our ward named the Clouse's play the piano and sing. Apparently Brother Clouse is a convert to the church of about five years, and he used to be a big deal and play the piano and sing for the Pope. That's cool. Anyways, we talked with Sister Clouse and we really hit it off with her! She's an adorable sweet lady! I love her! :) And both her and Brother Clouse asked us to come over to their apartment sometime and visit with them! Sweet! :) After that, we had a quick visit with Sister Taylor. I love her! She's a sweet heart! :) Wednesday wasn't too eventful. We had our last ARP meeting cause the Riggs are gonna be working in the mission office now. :( Oh well. At least I got to have them in my District/Zone for most of my mission so far! I sure do love them! They're a sweet Elderly couple! :) After that, we did our time on FB. Then we went to stop by the Carver's to pop them a visit, and they ended up inviting us to come back later for dinner! OK!!! SURE!!! Haha! So we had dinner with them, and it was SO nice! And delicious! Brother Carver made a traditional-style dinner that he used to eat frequently on his mission in Mexico - consisting of beans and tortillas - no, NOT burritos. Haha. But it was still really good! :) Then we topped the night off by visiting Bobbi. I sure do love that woman! :) Thursday, or should I say - THANKSGIVING - was SOOOOOOOOOO good!!! We weren't allowed to go out and proselyte, so we spent the entire morning inside and had some extra study time, plus some nap time (ALWAYS appreciated and MUCH needed), then around 12:30ish we went out and did some FB time. After that, we went over to the Grigg's and had our Thanksgiving meal with them! And it was almost a completely gluten-free Thanksgiving meal, too! And it was DELICIOUS!!! Best gluten-free (and only, so far - haha) Thanksgiving I've ever had! I'll have to steal some of their recipes for when I'm home! :) After we were done eating and hanging out at the Grigg's, we went over to the Fitzgerald's and hung out there for a bit and played "Picturades" (Pictionary/Sharrades put together). It was really fun! :) Bobbi and her son, James, were there for a while, too! It was really great! After we were done there, it was shortly after 8:00, but we just went home cause we didn't have anywhere else we could go. Friday we weekly planned... as usual... But what WASN'T usual about this weekly planning was that Sis. McKenna felt like we should finish our weekly planning at the church, so we did. Well, shortly before we were done, a couple from the Spanish ward came into the Relief Society room where we were, and gave us left-over donuts and hot chocolate from Dunkin' Donuts! SO sweet! - literally! Haha. So, Sister McKenna enjoyed the Donuts, and I enjoyed the hot chocolate, and then we gave what was left to a couple of Elders who were there. Needless to say, they were grateful for it. :) After that, we did some FB time, then we had dinner. After dinner, we visited Lorene. I LOVE her!!! She is SUCH a sweet heart! :) After Lorene, we visited the Orme's. I love them, too! :) Saturday we visited Sister Davis, then shortly after that, we visited Sister K. They're both doing alright. Then after dinner we visited Sister Schroeder, which was really good! It had been too long since we'd seen her! After that, we visited Bobbi - we got a LOT of visits in with Bobbi this week! It was AWESOME!!! And when we visited her this time, we met her mom, who's not a member. She's a very sweet lady. :) Sunday... we REALLY didn't do much. I kept on waking up early in the morning between 12:30 AM and 2:30 AM cause I felt nauseous, and I finally got up shortly after 2:30ish in the morning and threw up. Yep. I got the 24-hour flu. There's something going around with sickness lately. But it's all good. The really funny and ironic part is that I had already started my fast for fast Sunday, and we fasted as a mission for a couple of different things - one of which being the health of all of the missionaries in the mission. Now, if that's not irony, I don't know what is. I fast for the health of all the missionaries and I get the flu. FUNNY. Haha. So, anyways, we didn't go out and work at all yesterday, due to my illness. But we did call the Elders and they came over and gave me a blessing, and I was able to make it through church without feeling too sick, so that was good. :) Anyways, I gotta run! But I love you all SOOOOOOO much!!! Thank you all SOOOOOO much for your continual love and support! :) THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :D Love Always, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. I've been reading a lot of conference talks from this past General Conference over the past week, and I LOVE THEM ALL!!! I HIGHLY encourage you all to pick a talk this week and READ it! And even share it with a friend! :) Then please feel free to share your missionary experiences with me! I always love to hear! :) And Mom - THANK YOU SOOOOO much for your package!!! I LOVE it!!! It means THE WORLD to me!!! And it came at EXACTLY the time that I needed it! :)