BEDBUGS and THE SPOKEN WORD

HEY EVERYBODY!!! WOW!!! WHAT A WEEK!!! I know that I say that about basically every week, but in all seriousness, THIS WEEK was CRAZY!!! Like, WAAAY more crazy than normal!!! But it's ok! Life is still WONDERFUL!!! :) It's the life of a missionary! LOVE it! :) To start things off, last Monday we had a WONDERFUL Sister's hang-out day at the Sister Training Leader's apartment, and we played card games (Apples to Apples), and watched cheesey Mormon movies from like the '80's and ate pancakes and chips and salsa and CHOCOLATE!!! It was WONDERFUL!!! :D Tuesday we had District Meeting, as usual. After District Meeting, we went and grabbed some lunch at Subway, then we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders! It was SO wonderful! First off, it was SUUUPER funny cause the three of us (me and my companieras) decided to play an April Fool's joke on the STL's and since it was only Sister Osmond who was leaving us and going with Sister Billman, and then Sister Ellis and I were staying, and Sister Richards came to us, Sister Ellis packed a couple of bags and acted like she was also going with the STL's, and that I was the only one staying with Sister Richards. They were actually SUUUPER confused at first until we finally told them "APRIL FOOLS!!!" Haha! It was SO funny! :) The exchange itself was WONDERFUL!!! It was DEFINITELY SOOOO needed for Sister Ellis and my companionship! I mean, we had been getting along, but it's just difficult being in a trio and making sure that everyone feels included ALL the time. So, it was just really good to strengthen OUR relationship with each other on more of a one-on-one kind of basis. :) We saw some INCREDIBLE miracles while we were on the exchange! We went street contacting in Crystal City (I STILL cannot begin to describe how joyful it makes me to be back there!!!), and I street contacted into a less-active lady! It was SUUUPER cool! She was really nice, and she told me that she actually isn't interested in coming back to church (whatevs. We totally hear the same kind of things every single day from less-actives and non-members alike. It's fine); however, she gave me her address and phone number and told me that we could stop by anytime and just chat, and she'd give us some hot chocolate or herbal tea, or something like that if we wanted. :) Um... OK! It's fine. She's totally gonna come back, she just doesn't know it yet. :) I LOVE finding lost less-actives! And just working with less-actives in general is MY FAVORITE!!! :) We had some other amazing miracles while street contacting at that time, and we even met an incredible couple from... I don't remember where they're from... I think Bosnia?? Yep. That sounds right. Anyways, the husband is actually an ambassador for Bosnia, so that was cool. He was really nice, and his wife was really interested in what we had to say! :) I don't know what's up with me just meeting Ambassadors from other countries while street contacting in Crystal City, but that would be the second one now! No big deal. Haha. Oh man! That's one of the many things that I LOVE about this area! It's just FULL of a million different people and thousands of different cultures and ethnicities! I LOVE it!!! :) Anyways, after we were done chattin' it up with the Ambassador and his wife, we went to dinner at Chipotle with a member in our ward named Carlos. It was SO wonderful! :) We did some more street contacting and a bit of tracting later, which was great, and we ended the night with talking with a really nice couple from some part of Africa that I can't remember the exact name of right now, but anyways, they're really cool! :) That night, before we went to bed, Sister Ellis found it. The proof of what we had been suspecting for the past week or two. JORGE!!! Well, at least that's what we named our little bed-bug friend that Sister Ellis found in the garbage in our bathroom... YUM! Haha! So, Sister Ellis took some tape and taped him on up so that we could preserve him to have proof to show to anyone who we may need to show him to. Wednesday when we exchanged back, it was SUUUPER funny cause I accidentally spilled the beans to Sister Osmond in front of Sister Billman that we have bedbugs (oh, and just as a little side-note, this particular bedroom of this particular apartment has already previously been exterminated for bedbugs FOUR different times. Yep. That's right. So as soon as we found our little friend, Jorge, we KNEW we were in trouble!!!), and Sister Billman FREAKED OUT!!! It was SOOOO funny! So then We had to start playing it off that it was an extended April Fool's joke so that she would calm down. Then, shortly after Sister Ellis, Sister Osmond, and I had all gotten back in the car and we had broken the news to Sister Osmond about the truth and reality of our real bedbug predicament, Sister Ellis rolled down her window and told the truth to Sister Billman! It was all SO beautifully played out, I REALLY wish that it all could've gotten on camera! It was definitely a moment to remember! :) After that, we went over to the home of an investigator named Donna, and had lunch with her! She is SOOOO cute! She's probably about in her 60's, so we're going to have to pass her to a family ward eventually, but I just LOVE her! She is SO sweet! She reminds me a lot of my cute, sweet Jan from Crystal City! I LOVE it! :) After lunch, we spent the next several hours de-buggifying our apartment. Seriously, it was great. LOADS of fun. And literally LOADS (8 total) of laundry. And since we don't have a washer or dryer in our apartment and we have to use the ones in our apartment building, we ended up spending $36 in laundry with washing most of all of our clothes, and all of our bedding and towels, etc. It was a PAR-TAY!!! Haha! We also vacuumed our apartment and deep cleaned the bathroom (where Jorge was found), and just cleaned a LOT! It was REALLY good, and VERY much needed! Plus, it was a REALLY good bonding experience for all of us! :) We're definitely all MUCH closer now! :) That night, we went to the church to help teach our weekly English class, but we had to leave pretty quickly after it started so that we could have a meeting with our ward mission leader, which was really good. :) Thursday was my YEAR MARK (at least from the MTC)!!! It's serioulsy SOOOO crazy how quickly time flies! I PROMISE I'm NOT counting down the days that are left of my mission because I really genuinely LOVE EVERY SECOND of it! I just had to say that because I just cannot believe how quickly time flies! So remember that, all y'all who are getting ready to serve a mission! It really IS THE BEST THING EVER, and it also really does FLY BY!!! I'm realizing that more and more lately, and it's hitting me like a ton of bricks just how much more I need to really hone in and focus on my mission even more than I already have, because I realize that I don't have very much time left, and I want to get as much out of my mission in these last 6 months as I possibly can! :) Anyways, that afternoon, we went and had a REALLY AMAZING visit with one of our recent converts named Yelli! She's from the Ivory Coast in Africa, and she is AMAZING!!! I LOVE her! :) That night, we went on splits, and I went with a member in our ward named Amy (who is also a return missionary and is AMAZING), while Sister Osmond and Sister Ellis had a lesson with one of our investigators. It was supposed to be a pass lesson with the Elders in a family ward, but that didn't end up working out, so they just taught her, and Amy and I went street contacting together around the apartment complex where we were at! It was truly AMAZING!!! (Don't worry, I talked more about it in my audio recorder that I'm now using as more of my journal. I might send it home in a bit so you can hear it!) Another amazing part was how we ended our night! We topped off our night by visiting a less-active member in our ward named Anshirly, and it was WONDERFUL! She actually lives in the ghetto part of Kingstowne, so I got to go back to another part of one of my old areas! LOVE it! :) Friday was pretty chill. We did our weekly planning, and ended up taking it easy and resting for a good portion of the day cause Sister Ellis had a TERRIBLE migraine. That night, we had dinner with a couple of members in our ward, and it was WONDERFUL!!! :) They even made gluten-free peanutbutter cookies FROM SCRATCH!!! Can you say AMAZING?? Yep!!! LOVE it! LOVE THEM! :) After dinner, we went and checked on a referral from a member who had told us about this townhome with five attractive (those were her words) black guys from Africa in it, and she told us that we should go check on them and try to teach them. So we did. And WOW!!! She was NOT kidding! Haha! But it's ok. I'm a missionary, so whatevs. Obviously I didn't care at all. Haha. Anyways, long story short, we had a brief lesson about the Book of Mormon, and a little bit of the Restoration with one of them (the one who answered the door), and now he's a new investigator, and we have a return appointment with him TOMORROW, and our member who referred him to us (Tali) is coming to the lesson with us! Oh, and by the way, his name is Baba, and he is AMAZING!!! I am SO excited to teach him! :) After that, we finished our night off by visiting one of our AMAZING ward missionaries named Bobbi! I LOVE Bobbi! She is SUCH a sweetheart! She even gave us a bag of food (which included a HUGE jar of Nutella!!!)! LOVE her!!! :D Saturday was WONDERFUL cause of CONFERENCE (hence, "the spoken word)! However, it was also kinda crazy cause I ended up waking up not feeling well, so we didn't end up doing much that day besides watch Conference. Other that that, we basically just chilled at the apartment and relaxed. But it's ok. You know what? Something that I've come to realize on my mission and somewhat accept is that just because I'm a missionary, doesn't mean that I'm not still human. Seriously though. I still get sick, just like everybody else. I still have physical needs like everybody else. The only main difference is that a lot of people don't realize that or see that, and they expect all missionaries to be like "Superman" or "Superwoman", but unfortuantely, I've found out time and time again on my mission, that that's not the case. We cannot force our bodies to go beyond what they are physically capable of before they eventually just give out on us. Once in a while we just have to listen to our bodies and take a sick day, and that's completely ok. The point is that God knows what's truly in our hearts, and He knows our pure desires to serve Him, and just because our physical bodies get in the way of us fully serving in the ways that we would like to serve sometimes, doesn't make us bad missionaries. It makes us HUMAN. :) Anyways, So, that was mostly what Saturday - and Sunday were both for me. HUMAN days. Haha. But it's ok! Hopefully I'll be over this sooner than later, and be able to be back to my normal hard-working, Hell-shaking self! :) However, despite my "human" weekend, I must say that I had a VERY spiritual weekend as well with Conference! :) I honestly loved ALL of Conference, so I do not even know where to begin as far as my favorite talk! Maybe my top favorite talks! :) I LOVED Elder Holland's SUUUPER bold talk! That was INCREDIBLE!!! I cannot wait to read it and really STUDY it! :) I also loved President Uchtdorf's talk! He ALWAYS speaks to me and knows JUST what I need to hear! And then the one who spoke on family history was really good, too! It got me STOKED to start working on my family history as soon as I get off my mission! :) I know that aunt Gaylynne's got the Heiner side down, but maybe there's some work that needs to be done on the Orrock side?? :) Well, it's time for me to go now, but I love you all SOOOOOOOO much!!! Thank you SO much for all of your constant love and support! And always remember that the Lord truly LOVES us! And He IS there with us in the midst of our trials and infirmities! :) I know that this church is true with everything in me and I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a missionary!!! :) LOVE ALWAYS, Sister Aubrie Orrock