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