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! :)