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