Miracles Happen in McLean! :)

HEY EVERYBODY!!! This past week has been packed full of ups and downs - but overall, it's been really great! :) To start off, on Monday we visited and did some service for an adorable member in our ward named Coralee, who I ADORE! She is SO sweet and cute and I just LOVE her! I really feel like she's another one of those people who I was supposed to meet out here! :) Tuesday we had District Meeting (and now I'm in the McLean zone, by the way, in case you were a little confused about the title of this e-mail), which was wonderful, as always! :) Probably one of the best parts of District Meeting was when our DL (District Leader) was taking us on a church tour to show us how to do that, but since I'm still on one crutch and it would've been kinda uncomfortable for me to hobble around the whole time, I sat in a spinny chair with wheels on it while my companion, Sister Christensen, pushed me through the whole church! Haha! It was wonderful! And the best part is, it really wasn't even MY idea! In fact, I felt kinda funny about it at first, but the DL, and everyone else in our district were all telling me to do it, so I did! Haha. I felt like a little kid again! It was wonderful! Oh, the joys of finding joys and happiness and having fun, even when you are injured! It's wonderful! Life is beautiful! :) After that, we went home and had lunch, then we did our companionship study, cause we didn't have time to do that before District Meeting. That night, we had dinner with a wonderful family in the ward, and it was so fun! :) After dinner, we had a lesson with our investigator, Jason, which went really well. Sister Sallisbury came with us again, and it was so good! :) Jason is slowly progressing like a very slow sunrise, but he's progressing none-the-less! I am SO happy to see the steady progress that he continues to make each and every time that we see him! Oh, how I LOVE being a missionary! There really is no greater joy in this life than that of bringing others to the gospel! :) Wednesday we went to the Alternative House that we vollunteer at and helped out there for about an hour and a half or so, and that was really good! :) After that, we tried checking on some people, but weren't too successful cause nobody was home or they just wouldn't let us in... Haha. But it's ok! The work continues! :) That night, we had dinner with Sister Parker, and that was WONDERFUL! I seriously LOVE this woman SOOOO much!!! She is SOOOOOOOOOO wonderful, and so ready and willing to help us anytime we need! :) NOTE TO SELF: I want to be like Sister Parker when I get home from my mission!!! :) That night, we went and checked on another investigator of ours named Ann, and that was... interesting... Haha. I'm not so sure how ready she is to really move forward in the gospel right now, but who knows?? Who am I to say?? She very easily could make a turn around and all of a sudden be way hyped to learn more about the gospel - who knows?? But for now, we're kinda at a stand-still with her, but that's ok. Some people are quick in their converstions - like turning on a light bulb; while others are MUCH slower, like a sunrise. Both are good. Both are right. It just completely depends on the person and how quickly they learn and accept things. Sometimes I just want EVERYBODY to accept the gospel and Jesus RIGHT NOW!!! But I know that realistically, that's probably not gonna happen. Haha. But it's all good. Everybody's learning and going at their own pace, but the important thing is that I am doing all that I can as a disciple of Jesus Christ to teach everyone around me about Him and our Father and the love that they both have for us! :) Thursday we did online proselyting, and then we went to Great Falls Manor and did some service there (it's a home where three elderly women and an older couple live, and we go and entertain the elderly women). I (kind of) played the piano - like I literally just played the right hand and sight read - the best I could - a bunch of songs, some of which I knew, most of which I didn't, and they LOVED it! They told me to come back every week and play the piano for them... Haha! Oh boy! Now I'm REALLY starting to regret quitting those piano lessons as a kid! Is there enough time to repent for that now and become a half-way decent piano player by this Thursday?? Haha! Well, it at least definitely made me feel good to know that these cute elderly women were at least mostly enjoying my half-way piano playing skills! :) After we were done doing our service there, we had dinner there with all of the women and the older couple. It was a delicious dinner! We had a REALLY good veggie (for me) stir-fry, which I LOVED! :) Friday we did our weekly planning, then we had dinner that night with another wonderful family in our ward named the Halls! :) It turns out that Brother Hall is the former Bishop of our ward, and he is now the stake president. I love their family! They are adorable and wonderful! :) After dinner, we visited another family in the ward - the Paynes, and I LOVE Sister Payne! She is absolutely adorable and SO fun and funny! I just love her! :) Saturday was our MIRACLE DAY!!! Seriously! Just about EVERYTHING that we planned went perfectly according to plan! That NEVER happens to me! ...well, I can only think of a very small handful of times on my mission when that has actually happened, so it's very rare! But on Saturday we started the day out by visiting Brother Murray - a less-active man in our ward. Then we had lunch, and after lunch, we visited our wonderful investigators, Renette and Ashley and had a wonderful lesson on the Plan of Salvation with them! They are SO wonderful! I LOVE them! :) Right after them, we booked it over to the church and met with another sweet less-active woman in our ward named Sister Williams. I LOVE her! She is absolutely wonderful and adorable! :) After her, we went over to another member's home and had a skype lesson with Sister Christensen's cousin, which went really well! I love her! (Sis. Christensen's cousin - I love Sis. Christensen, too!) That night, we had dinner with an elderly single man in our ward named Brother Larsen, and we went out to eat at Noodles and Company! SOOOO good! And Brother Larsen is HILARIOUS! I LOVE him! :) After dinner, we stopped by to check on a referral that a member had given us, but we didn't have an exact address, so we're still not sure if it was the right house... but the house that we tried to go to was just SUUUPER creepy-looking, and mostly creepy FEELING. Thankfully God was watching out for us and nobody answered the door, but next time we'll definitely take those signs into consideration - especially when we're both feeling hesitant to knock on the door, that's probably not a good sign... Haha. But it's ok. Cause we're fine, and now we've both learned our lesson to listen much more closely to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost in our lives. :) After that, we stopped by and had a quick lesson with our investigator Jean Pierre. I LOVE him! He's an elderly man from Switzerland, or something like that, and he has an accent, and he's just funny and cute! :) We finished the night off by visiting another wonderful member in the ward named Sister Davidson, which went really well! I love her, too! :) All in all, Saturday was definitely the best day! :) Sunday was... CRAZY!!! Haha. We had meetings from 6:30 - about 10:40 in the morning! Yep! You read that right! 6:30 AM meeting... meaning we had to be up by 5:20 so that we could leave the house by 6:00! Ya... let's just say that we definitely took advantage of nap time during our lunch break when it finally rolled around by about 3:00 in the afternoon! :) Church was WONDERFUL! Our investigators Renette and Ashley both came to Sacrament meeting, and then Renette had to leave early cause she had to go to work, but she let Ashley stay! And Ashley LOVED it! :) I am SO happy! Also, I taught the Gospel Principles class, and it went REALLY well! ESPECIALLY considering I didn't end up having any time besides a little bit during Personal Study the day before, and then during Sacrament Meeting that day to prepare it! But I taught on Faith in Jesus Christ, and I feel like I learned more out of teaching it than I actually taught! Haha. But I feel like that's usually the case. But that's ok. It was really great, though! :) That night, we had dinner with the Hubner's, and that was wonderful! They all love Les Mis, so we listened to a Les Mis song (don't worry - it was totally a missionary appropriate one!), and it was WONDERFUL!!! I LOVE them! :) Anyways, all in all, this week was pretty wonderful - a little bit crazy at times, but mostly because we haven't been able to do much tracting as our main source of finding new investigators due to my injured ankle, but it's been good! I love it our here and I wouldn't wanna be doing anything else in the world right now! :) I love you all SOOOO much! Thank you SO much for your constant thoughts and prayers! I definitely can feel them! And know that I constantly think about and pray for each of you! :) THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. Grandma Orrock: THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH FOR ALL THAT YOU GAVE ME FOR CHRISTMAS!!! SO sorry that it's taken me so long to give you that shout-out that your deserve so much! I love you! :) BRITTNEY: MI HERMANA!!! It's su cumpleanos en una semana!!! FELIZ CUMPLEANOS A TI!!! I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!!! :D Spencer Duncan: SOOOO sorry that this is over six months late, but I just wanted to say THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH for your wonderful letter that you sent me!!! You are wonderful! Please write me again! I hope that you got the post card I sent you! :) MOM: Thank you SO much for your sweet letter! I love you SOOOO much!!! DADDY: Thank YOU so much for your sweet letter, too! I love you SOOOO much!!! :) MAL: Thank you SO much for the letter that you sent with Mom's letter! Your last part about the oreos made me cry a little bit - but in a good way! I love you! :)

Sometimes Satan likes to throw you curve balls, and sometimes you miss and fall and seriously sprain your ankle...

HEY EVERYBODY!!! So... as I'm sure that y'all have probably already guessed, this past week has been... well... interesting, to say the least. Haha. So, first things first - Preparation day was really good last week! We had a pretty chill day - until that night when we went out and worked our little tails off tracting, then THAT'S when the real party started! ...if you wanna call it that... Haha. Since I've had a lot of people ask me what happened to me and how I hurt my ankle so badly that I am now on crutches (although, by Wednesday of last week, I graduated to/I was too sore and stubborn to use two crutches anymore, so I've been on one crutch ever since), here's the low-down on what happened: It was a dark and stormy night, and we were out doing the Lord's work and spreading the good word through the action of tracting, when all of a sudden we got to a house and a man answered the door. Now, this was not a happy man, or anyone who was pleased or happy to hear of God's word, and let's just say that he was not using his inside voice, and therefore chased us off of his porch; while we were in the midst of running away and trudging through this terrible storm, there was a tree root that was sticking up, but it was really low, and I couldn't see it in time, until my foot got caught on it and my face was level with the ground. I didn't really think that it was that bad until I tried to quickly stand up and continue to run away because the not-so-happy man was still yelling at us, and my companion was further ahead of me because she is six feet tall, so she has MUCH longer legs, therefore she is able to run much faster than I am... And this was when the sad and somewhat scary reality hit me like a ton of bricks that I could not run, let alone hardly stand on my own. So I yelled after my companion until she finally turned around and saw me and my leg nearly mangled on the ground, and quickly picked me up and gave me a piggy-back ride (while I was wearing a pencil skirt, no less) the last few feet to the car. Once we were safely back in the vehicle, we called Brother Davis and asked if they had an ace bandage and other medical things that I might need for my ankle, and he replied with, "Yes, we have an ace bandage. Come home." JUUUST KIDDING!!! Well... kind of. Haha. That was slightly exaggerated/I added some extra details to it for dramatic effect. However, the story that I just told is what I WISH had actually happened, becaue with how badly I injured my ankle, this is what the experience actually FELT like. Haha. So, I guess that now I'll tell you the REAL story. Here it is: It was a dark night (about 7:15), and we had just finished an hour of doing the Lord's work and spreading the good word through the action of tracting, and we were literally a few feet from the car, when all of a sudden - BAM!!! Down I went. Now, what was the REAL cause of this, you may ask?? Well, I was walking on the side of the road and the pavement was uneven and dipped down, what seemed like quite a bit, and my foot must've been teetering just enough between the two parts of the road, and then my ankle just gave out (or something happened), and the next thing I knew I was on the ground. I really didn't think it was that bad until I tried standing up immediately and realized that I couldn't, and Sister Christensen (who really literally IS six feet tall, by the way) didn't give me a piggy-back ride YET, but she helped me hop over on my other foot to get into the car. Once we were inside the car, we really did call Brother Davis and asked him about the ace bandage, to which he really did reply, after talking with Sister Davis, "Yes, we have an ace bandage. Come home." It was once we were home that she had to give me the piggy-back ride to the front porch, and then I hopped up the stairs and into the house - all of which really DID happen while I was wearing a pencil skirt. I found out that I really need to invest in some more free-flowing skirts - cause in these kinds of situations, pencil skirts just aren't the best. Anyways, once we got inside, after sitting down in the recliner in the living room for a minute, I quickly hopped into our bedroom, where I then layed on my bed and Sister Christensen got me a home-made ice pack for my ankle. What a wonderful companion! :) And THAT'S the real story. Turns out tracting's a dangerous sport! Haha! Seriously though! I've hardly tracted in my entire mission, and just a few days into me being in an area where we have to tract a whole bunch, I get injured. Tracting - who knew, right?? Anyways, the rest of our week was pretty interesting, as a result of what I just described above... Tuesday we went to District Meeting, and that was pretty funny cause we ended up being late cause I had to hobble on two crutches, so most everyone in our zone noticed that I was on crutches - except for the zone leaders. Yep. They were totally clueless, and then they FINALLY noticed after it was all over, and we were outside the church in the parking lot, then one of our zone leaders looked at me with a concerned look on his face and asked, "Did I miss something??" So then I proceeded to tell him what I already described above. I'm still a little bit surprised that it took them THAT LONG to notice that I was on crutches, but oh well. Haha. After District Meeting, we did some online proselyting and I chatted with one of my favorite people! :) Then that night we had dinner with a cute family in the ward. After that, we had a lesson with one of our investigators named Jason, then we tried to see a couple more people after that, but by the end of the night, my arms felt like they had literally run a marathon (probably cause they kinda did), so we ended up calling it a night and coming home a little bit early due to the circumstances. Wednesday we went and visited a sweet member in our ward and had a really great time with her! Then we had a really... interesting... and... GREAT... visit with a less-active man in our ward... he really just wanted to argue to whole time and didn't really wanna listen to anything we had to say, but that's fine. He's still a child of God - whether or not he really wants to believe that anymore is entirely up to him. The fact of the matter is that no matter what he believes, the truth is still the same - he, just like all of us - is, and always will be, a child of God. :) After that, we had a quick lunch break, then we went and did some service at a place for troubled teens and work in their sort of food pantry there and sort food and such. It's pretty cool. After that, we did some online proselyting, and I was able to chat with my same favorite person again! :) That night, we had dinner with another wonderful family in the ward! They are SO sweet! And they made me actual spaghetti-sqaush with spaghetti sauce for a replacement gluten-free spaghetti. I'm not gonna lie, I thought it might be kinda gross with the spaghetti sauce on it at first, but it was actually pretty good. :) After that, we had a skype lesson with Sister Christensen's cousin, which was wonderful! :) Then we finished the night off by visiting one of our investigators named Bruce. He's a funny Chinese man, and he wouldn't let us sit, or even talk with him long because he was worried about us getting home before the big snow storm started. So we had a fairly quick visit with him, then we were on our way home - once again, we got home before 9:00, due to the circumstances. Thursday was a SNOW DAY!!! And with my badly sprained ankle, and the FIFTEEN INCHES of snow that we got, we weren't able to go anywhere, so we were technically snowed in our house for the day. It was probably a tender mercy from the Lord so that I would actually give my ankle and body the rest that I so desperately needed, cause Heaven knows, I'm one to push myself until I can't push anymore. Friday we had Zone Conference, which took a good portion of the day, and it was WONDERFUL!!! We learned a wonderful formula to truly find the answers that you're searching for in the Book of Mormon, which is found in Moroni 10:3-5. They broke it down for us, which looks like: READ(2) + REMEMBER God's Mercy + RECEIVE + PONDER IN YOUR HEART + ASK(in the name of Christ + if not true + Sincere Heart + Real Intent + Faith in Christ) = Witness from Holy Ghost So, all of you mathemeticians out there - this formula is for YOU! Haha. Just kidding! The wonderful thing about this is that EVERYONE can use this - it's not just for non-members! In fact, you should be using this formular periodically to keep that testimony strong for yourself! :) After we were spiritually fed at zone conference, we were physically fed at dinner with some members! After that, we did some tracting for about an hour (I know, my ankle didn't really like it, but oh well), and we met a wonderful potential investigator named Jane! She was at the first house we went to, and a total sweet heart! I love her! Anyways, I gotta run now, but not too much has happened in the past few days after that. But if I forgot anything big, I'll let you know in my next e-mail next week! I love you all! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :D LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock

HELLO, GREAT FALLS!!! :D

This past week has been packed full of all sorts of adventures, with transfers and such! As sad as I was to leave Kingstowne and everyone in it, I am SOOOOO happy in Great Falls with my wonderful new companion, Sister Christensen!!! It's really hilarious because now I've officially been companions with all of the Sisters from Sister Akin's (my cute lil' trainee) MTC district! Cause first I trained Sister Akin, then I was companions with Sister Schramm, then I was companions with Sister Schramm's MTC companion, Sister McKenna, and now I'm finally companions with Sister Akin's wonderful MTC companion, Sister Christensen! The best part is that Sister Akin and I laughed and joked about how funny it would be if I was companions with all of the sisters in her MTC District, but I don't think that either of us actually seriously thought at the time that that would actually happen! Haha. Crazy small world! :) Anyways, my last few days in Kingstowne were CRAZY (in the sense that I pretty much knew that I was leaving, even before we officially got transfer calls on Tuesday night), and so I was spending most of my time those last few days just saying goodbye to all of my favorite people - at least as many as I could in that time frame. Unfortunately I forgot my old planner at the house, so I'm going to have to go strictly off of memory with this past week, so this probably won't get to be nearly as detailed as it usually is, so bear with me. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were all just kind of a big blur to me, but here are some things that stand out in my memory from those days: Tuesday we had our Gospel Principles class at the church, and after the class we had a little surprise birthday party for Elder Harper cause it was his birthday that day! It was small, but it was fun! :) Wednesday we spent the entire day visiting tons of members for me to say goodbye to! It was a really bitter-sweet day, but my spirit was ready to move onto other things. :) Thursday was transfers, and it was the most unusual transfer meeting of my life! It turned out that it was a full-mission conference as well as transfer meeting!!! As soon as we were done getting our new companions, we all went into the gym of the church that we were at and watched a movie together!!! There's a new movie that just came out recently about two Elders who got kidnapped in Russia in like 1998, and their story about their experience! It's SUUUPER powerful! I cried, and I don't really cry! It was a very beautiful movie! :) After the movie was over, we were able to visit with a bunch of people in the mission, which was AWESOME!!! I was able to see my "baby" - Sister Akin, as well as all of my other past companions, which was AWESOME!!! And speaking of past companions, guess which two of my past companions are now companions??!! My trainer, Sister Woodbury, and my last companion, Sister McKenna are now companions! CRAZY, huh?? It was SO much fun to see everyone!!! :) I was also able to see Elder Stone and talk with him for a little bit, too! It was so good to see him again! I miss all of the Elders, and just missionaries in general, who I used to serve with! :) Thursday night we had a wonderful lesson with a couple of investigators - a woman named Renette and her daughter, Ashley! They are WONDERFUL!!! I love them SO much! :) Friday we did weekly planning, which took most of the morning and early afternoon, then that night we had dinner with a wonderful couple in the ward! They are SO sweet! They even gave me a bowl of lentil soup and some ready-made quinoa and brown rice to go after dinner because they knew about my food allergy! SO sweet! :) My first full day here and people are already giving me things and taking care of me! I think I'm gonna like it here! :) That night we had a family fun night with a family in the ward, and it was SO much fun! Saturday we helped Renette and Ashley move into a new apartment! And a couple of Elders from a different ward, as well as a couple of men from our ward came and helped, so by the time we were done, Renette was SO overcome with emotion from people being so Christ-like and helping her that she was about to cry and she said, "If this is what this church is all about, then I want to join!" Sister Christensen smiled and said, "Done!" Serving your fellow-man really IS what Christ's church is (at least what it's SUPPOSED to be) about! Just as Christ says in the scriptures, "inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me". This is SO true! So with this, I encourage all of you to go out and find someone to serve! Whether it's helping a neighbor move, or it's something else, just go out and DO it! Do what you know Christ would have you do! :) That night we had a really good member visit with another family in the ward, then we finished the night off by going back home (oh ya! Did I forget to mention that we live with MEMBERS?? Yep. It took me a while to get used to that - I'm STILL not fully used to it!) and played the game "sorry" with the Davis' (the elderly couple who we live with) grandson who isn't a member, and Sister Davis. It was really fun! I was THIRD winner!!! haha! Obviously "Sorry" isn't my game... not YET anyway... haha! Sunday we had church at 11:00, and we had meetings before and after church. Then we went home and had a little snack break, but mostly slept for our lunch break, cause we had dinner two hours later. Then we had dinner that night with another way cute young family in the ward and then right after that stayed there for another hour and had a Skype lesson with Sister Christensen's cousin! It was SO cool and SO touching to be able to do that lesson! :) After that, we went to go and check on a couple of people, but neither of them were home, or they were putting their kids to bed and couldn't talk right then. But it was ok cause I wasn't feeling that great (I've had a bad cold since yesterday, but don't worry! I'm pumpin' my vitamins like CRAZY!!!), so we just went home a little bit early - like half an hour early - and we planned really quick, then we were able to be in bed by about 9:30! It was WONDERFUL!!! I think that's what my body definitely needed! I am SO grateful for the extra hour of sleep that I was able to get! Hopefully I'll be completely on the mend sooner than later! :) Anyways, sorry this week's update is so much shorter than usual, but that's it for now! I love you all and I pray for you each and every day! :) THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :D LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock

Me and Sister McKenna at Nana Yaa's baptism!!! :D

Me and Sister McKenna at Nana Yaa's baptism!!! :D

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! :D

Man! Time just keeps on FLYING by! Seriously! I feel like it was JUST Preparation day! It is CRAZY! I feel like I really am going to be done with my mission in the blink of an eye - which kinda scares me sometimes cause I don't wanna be done too quickly! I really DO love it out here! A mission really is the best thing I could've done in my life! I am SO grateful for every single experience that I've ever had that has brought me to where I am today! I wouldn't trade anything for what I have now for what I had back then! :) This past week has been really good! Monday night we visited the Clouses, which was WONDERFUL! I really do love them SOOOO much! And Mom, Cory, and Mal - and anyone else who may be coming to pick me up at the end of my mission - I may have already arranged for the Clouses to take us around D.C. and give us their own tour when y'all come up! I hope y'all don't mind! :) But don't worry - they really are some of the best and coolest people I know, so it'll be a BLAST!!! :D Tuesday we had District Meeting, which was SO wonderful! I love my zone SO much! I'm SO sad that tomorrow is my last District Meeting of the transfer - and most likely my last one here in Kingstowne! :( Transfers are on Thursday, and I'm most likely gettin' the boot. I'm sad to leave behind all of the wonderful people here who I have completely fallen in love with, but I feel like it's time for a change. My spirit has begun to get a little stir-crazy here - I don't know how else to explain it. But that's when I know that it's time for me to move on to another area. I just feel like there are people elsewhere who need me just as much as I need them, so I'm excited to see what my next area has in store for me! :) After District Meeting, we had lunch, then we did some online proselyting, which was really good! :) Then that night we had dinner with the Clouses, which was really good! :) After dinner, we taught the Gospel Principles class, and that went... ok. It would've gone a lot better if we had taken a little bit more time to better prepare, but that's ok! At least we learned our own lessons, and that's always important! :) After the class, we finished the night off by visiting our very own recent convert, Carol! :) She really is SO wonderful! I love her SO much! I am SO grateful for the opportunity that I've had to teach her and to get to know her! I really feel SO blessed! :) Wednesday morning we visited Carol again, then that afternoon after lunch, we visited Sister Davis, which went remarkably well! Sister Davis happened to have someone over who wasn't a member, so we were able to teach her a little bit! We taught her the Book of Mormon lesson, and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited her to be baptized! What was even more remarkable was that she actually accepted the baptism invitation, but she just is out of our boundaries, so we weren't able to continue teaching her. ...that seems to have been happening a lot lately, but oh well. Haha. The important thing is that they're children of God and as long as they're coming unto Christ and someone else is teaching them and bringing them closer to Christ, then that's all that matters! :) I'm just grateful that I've been able to be the stepping stone for a few people recently! :) Later that day, after dinner, we visited the Clouses again, which once again was wonderful! :) After the Clouses, we stopped by Elder and Sister Riggs' apartment and visited with them for a little bit! I love them SOOOOOO much!!! They really are SOOOOO wonderful!!! :) After the Riggs, we went to the church and had a meeting with the Bishop with both sets of Elders as well - just to go over people in the ward who he wanted us to check on and to see how the work's progressing in the area. It was a really good meeting! I love Bishop! He's awesome! :) Thursday we did our usual service at Koinonia, which was wonderful! And once again they gave me some of their gluten-free food that nobody has used in a while, but hey! It's perfect for me now! :) After that, we went back to the apartment and had lunch. During, as well as after lunch, I took a nap cause I wasn't feeling very well. But don't worry - although everyone (including missionaries) has been getting sick lately, I've somehow managed to relatively steer clear of getting too sick! So THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!! I promise you that they are WORKING!!! :) I know this because I know that if it weren't for so many people praying for me, as well as me fervently praying for myself, that there is NO WAY that I would be able to dodge the sicknesses that have been going around like I have been! It really is quite the miracle! :) After I woke up from my third nap for the day (morning, lunch, and after lunch), we went and did online proselyting, which was really wonderful! I chatted with some really wonderful people - as always! *You know who you are!* That night we had dinner at Chipotle with Carol! She even told us that she's gonna sign up to feed us every Thursday night! :D She really is SO wonderful! :) After Carol, we finished the night off by visited the Clouses once again! You can never get too much of the Clouses! I love them SOOOOOOOO much!!! :D Friday we had brunch with Sister Roze in the ward, which was WONDERFUL! She made gluten-free pancakes, which actually tasted really good! :) That afternoon we visited Lauren, which was WONDERFUL! We had such a powerful visit with her! I am SO grateful for it! We watched a talk by Elder Holland with her, and it was exactly what both of us needed to hear right at that moment! It's funny how God works that way! Haha. :) After Lauren, we went over and visited the Clouses yet again! LOVE THEM! :D Then that night we stopped by and visited Sister Chudzick. It was an interesting visit. She was a little bit tired from working all day, so we kept the visit somewhat short and rescheduled to see her another time. Saturday we finished weekly planning, then we did some online proselyting (and I made another blog post, by the way! So y'all need to check it out, if you haven't already!). After that, we attempted to go to Nana's baptism, but were confused about the location, and ended up getting there right as they were finishing the closing prayer... I was sad cause we missed seeing someone get baptized who we had started teaching (we taught the first two lessons to her, but she moved and we had to pass her off to the Fort Belvoir Elders). But it all turned out alright cause we at least were able to get a picture with her and tell her congratulations, which is really what matters. :) After that, we had a really good lesson with the sister of a member in the ward named Pokuwah P., and that went really well! We weren't sure if she was going to be home when we stopped by, but we stopped by, and she happened to be home, and we had a short, but pretty powerful lesson with her! She straight-up told us that she knows that the church is true!!! However, when we invited her to be baptized, she went into the whole "I've already been baptized" schpeel... so we invited her to pray about baptism and ask God what He would have her do, and she said that she would! The spirit was SO strong, it was AMAZING!!! :) The church really is SOOOO true, I cannot even express to you just how true it is!!! :) After that, we went to Sister Ho's home and had dinner over there with both sets of Elders in the ward, and several members, for a Chinese New Year celebration!!! It was SOOOOOOOOO much fun!!! The food was wonderful, and best of all, I was able to chat with a woman who is in the Crystal City ward who happened to be there, and she recognized me! It made me feel SO good to know that I haven't been completely forgotten in the wonderful City of Crystals! :) After that wonderful dinner, we finished the night off by visiting the Brinkerhoffs, which was WONDERFUL! It was the perfect way to end the night! :) Sunday was really good, too! We had meetings before church, then studies after church, so we finally got out to work by 4:00! :) We visited the Richard family and Sister Grizmala (they're related and live in the same house), which was WONDERFUL!!! They are a wonderful African family and I love them SOOOOOOOO much!!! In fact, the last time that we had visited them, I had shared with them my deep love for oreos, and even shared my sad story about how I can't eat regular oreos anymore because of my gluten allergy, and Sister Richards went out to Traders Joe's and bought me a box of Joe-Joe's (gluten-free oreos)!!! She also got Sister McKenna some other cookies. She is SOOOOOOOO sweet! They ALL are! I love them! I want to go to Africa and visit some day! And China! I have met SO many people from ALL OVER THE WORLD, that now I just wanna travel and visit all of the places where they're all from! :) I LOVE it! :) After our wonderful visit with them, we had dinner with the Schroeders, which was WONDERFUL! I love them! :) Then we finished off the night by going over and visiting the Clouses once again! :) The perfect ending the a wonderful day! :) This past week - well, I guess these past couple of weeks, really, have been really healing weeks for myself - as far as coming to know what God truly expects of me vs. what I expect of myself. Quite often, they're COMPLETELY different things. I expect myself to be perfect in every possible way (turns out you can't do that in this life. Haha. Funny how that works out like that...), while God merely expects me to do my best to follow Him and obey and live His teachings and commandments. That's it. He doesn't expect me to be perfect any more than He expects you to be perfect. Well, this may not be a new concept or phenomenon to many of you, and although it shouldn't be a new thing to me, apparently it's taken me 21 and a half years to really begin to realize it. But it's ok! Cause we're all on our own pace going through life and learning our own lessons, and that's perfectly fine! :) Anyways, this is basically what I talk about in my blog, particularly my newest post, so y'all can feel free to check it out! :) I love you all SOOOOOOOO much!!! Thank you SOOOOOOOOO much again for your continual love and support! :D LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. There have been a few of y'all who have mentioned that you want to send me a letter or package this week, which is WONDERFUL! I cannot tell you how much I LOVE hearing from all of you!!! :) However, this week is transfers, and I'm probably gettin' the boot... so if you have something you wanna send me, if you could hold onto it for a few more days until I can tell you where I get transfered to, then that would be wonderful! I should be able to send my mom a message on Friday and give her my new address if I do get transfered, so you can get it from her. :) Besides the good old-fashioned snail-mail (which, by the way, is MUCHO APPRECIATED!!!), you can always e-mail me! My e-mail is: aubrie.orrock@myldsmail.net. I hope to hear from y'all soon!!! :D