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