ATTENTION!!! CHURCH IS CANCELLED!!! TOO MUCH SNOW!!! ...seriously...

HEY EVERYBODY!!! How was y'all's week?? Well, mine was pretty good! It had its ups and downs due to me being sick... AGAIN... I know, right?? I keep on downing all of my vitamins like there's no tomorrow, but I guess my body just doesn't like the climate here in VA very much or something, cause whenever the slightest illness goes around, I ALWAYS get it. But that's fine... Sort of... Haha. Anyways, so as I told you last week, I woke up last Sunday with the flu and threw up. EW. Then I thought I was getting better on Monday, but I guess that it was the beginning of my flu turning into a terrible chest and sinus cold. FUN! Haha. NOT! But it's ok! Cause despite me being sick all week, we still did some good work and the Lord truly blessed us each and every day! In fact, even though I'm not that great at writing in my regular journal, I've written in my gratitude journal that you gave me, Mom, every day since the day that I got it last Saturday! :) And let me tell y'all - I know this is nothing new, but really, writing down all of the things that I'm grateful for and all of the ways that the Lord blesses me each and every day truly makes me SO much more aware of how blessed I really am, despite my trials of health or whatever else. Life is still a beautiful, WONDERFUL thing that is meant to be ENJOYED, not endured. So go out today and live it the way that God intended you to! Life is a GIFT - don't waste it! :) With that said, I'll get on to tell you about my week last week! It really was a wonderful week, despite all things considered! Monday we had a wonderful member-present lesson with our investigator, Derek, at his home. The Lord's timing is really quite perfect, however, because we would not have had a member-present lesson if it weren't for the fact that Derek was in the middle of eating dinner when we showed up for our lesson that he knew we were coming for. He asked us to come back in 15 minutes, but we couldn't get another visit in in fifteen minutes... so what did we do?? We called a member who lives just a few buildings down from Derek in the same apartment complex and asked if she would be willing to come with us to a lesson at the last minute. She said yes! She had nothing going on and her husband was working late that night, so it worked out perfectly!!! HALLELUJAH!!! By the end of the lesson, Derek agreed to read the Book of Mormon everyday and pray about it! WOO HOO! Then at the very end of the lesson, Derek's brother, Desmond - who Sister Schramm and I had sort of taught a lesson to once or twice (he sat in on one or two lessons of us reading from the Book of Mormon with Derek) - got home, and we set up a time to have a lesson with both him and Derek a week from then! So tonight we're going back at 8:00 and having a lesson with both of them! I am SO excited!!! After that, we were able to have a quick visit with a sweet less-active woman in our ward who also lives close to Derek, named Pokuwa, and then schedule a return appointment. She is such a funny and sweet lady! I LOVE Gahnaians! :) Tuesday we visited the Kemp's (an elderly less-active couple in the ward who are working on coming back to church), and sweet Brother Kemp feels the need to stalk us up with drinks every time we go over there! So we left with a whole six-pack of cream soda! SUCH a sweet man! I love him! :) After that, we went to the church and had our Gospel Principles class, which was really great! After the class, we talked with the Clouse's, and since Sister Clouse is pregnant right now, we gave them two of our cream sodas and she really appreciated that. Then Elder Stone mentioned that he really liked cream soda, so we gave him and Elder Harper one, too. Wednesday was when my cold really started to hit me HARD. I woke up that morning with my voice practically gone. Mal and Lance - remember the Christmas several years ago when I lost my voice shortly after I woke up - as soon as Mom took out the video camera?? Yep. This was just like that. Only there was no grace period when I actually HAD a voice when I woke up. Nope. I tried saying "Good morning" to Sister McKenna, and I could barley squeak out a whisper. Sister McKenna thought it was pretty funny, though. However, after Sister McKenna said a prayer that I would get my voice back, slowly but surely, it started to come back to me! The church is true! :) Anyways, that night we went and bought some soup for Sister Davis cause she was sick, and I was grateful that we were able to do that, because then I was able to get me soup, too! :) Anyways, on Thursday we did our service at Koinonia and they gave us some food to take home! SO sweet! We got served for doing service! LOVE it! :) We also visited the Sheng's that night and they gave me two loaves of gluten-free bread and some home-made gluten-free chocolate chip cookies! SO sweet! I LOVE the Sheng's! They are wonderful! Friday we had zone conference and I was able to see wonderful President and Sister Riggs! I love them both! :) Saturday we had a really great visit with the Clouse's! I LOVE them!!! They are truly remarkable people! :) Sunday was... interesting... Apparently people in DC are TERRIFIED of snow, so when there's only about an inch of snow outside, and it's not even blizzarding, they cancelled church. ...Yep. True story. And on top of all that, the AP's sent out a mass text warning everyone to stay inside because the roads were too icy and it was too dangerous... Well, after a couple of hours of feeling like a caged animal, we finally got permission to go out and visit a member who lives just a few minutes up the road from us. Then we ended up staying there for a few hours and visiting with them cause, well, we couldn't really go anywhere else. Then they let us stay over, and invited the Elders over, too, and watch the General Christmas Devotional since they cancelled showing it at the church due to weather. Anyways, I gotta run, but I LOVE YOU ALL!!! The church is true!!! Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and WELCOME WINTER!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! This past week was REALLY good! ...not so great as far as the work goes - seeing as most of the people who we're teaching were busy during the week for the Holiday, as well as most other people around. So needless to say, tracting and street contacting didn't do us much good this past week. But that's ok! The work moves forward! So anyways, Monday was pretty good! We called Carol that night, but didn't quite have a lesson with her. She was upset about some stuff, so we mostly just talked with her and did our best to calm her down and help her to feel the spirit through the Book of Mormon. It seemed to help a bit. :) After Carol, we visited one of our recent converts, Jenny! I LOVE Jenny! She is SUCH a sweetheart! Tuesday was a big and REALLY good day! We had District Meeting (as always), and Elder Stone announced that he is stepping down as District Leader, and Elder Lyman has been called as the new DL. ...kinda weird, but whatevs. Elder Stone's still WAY awesome, so no worries there! After District Meeting, we went out to lunch at Chipotle with Sister Russell in the ward, which was fun AND delicious!!! :) Then after lunch, we went over to our less-active friend, Lauren's home and visited with her for a bit. It went really well! By the end of the time of us visiting, Sister Russell and Lauren were already friends, and they were already planning times to hang out! I love them both SO much! :) After we were done visiting with Lauren, we had a lesson with Wondifraw... more of a DTR (determine the relationship) chat, if you ask me... Haha. We basically asked him what he wants out of meeting with us now, since we've taught him all the lessons, but he's not really progressing - aside from coming to church; however, he's told us multiple times that he doesn't plan on getting baptized. So anyways, he pretty much told us that he enjoyed meeting with us for the social aspect and he enjoys talking about Jesus with us - which is great, but we told him that we enjoy meeting with him, too, however, we won't be meeting with him regularly anymore. But we invited him to continue to come to church, and he came yesterday, so that's good! And he even wasn't feeling well and left after Sacrament Meeting, but he still made that effort to at least come to that! That's dedication! :) After our meeting with Wondifraw, we got on facebook for a bit (I'm still getting used to actually scheduling fb time in my missionary planner. WEIRD. Haha). After that we had dinner, then we went to Fairchild/Lockheed (AKA: the ghetto part of town) for a bit to check on a less-active who lives down there, but she wasn't home. However, it wasn't a loss going there because we ended up meeting and talking with her neighbor named Rita, who told us that she would love to meet with us after the Holidays! :) After that, we went to the church for our weekly Gospel Principles class. However, this week was a little bit different because we didn't really have class; instead, we listened to a semi-less-active couple in our ward named the Clouse's play the piano and sing. Apparently Brother Clouse is a convert to the church of about five years, and he used to be a big deal and play the piano and sing for the Pope. That's cool. Anyways, we talked with Sister Clouse and we really hit it off with her! She's an adorable sweet lady! I love her! :) And both her and Brother Clouse asked us to come over to their apartment sometime and visit with them! Sweet! :) After that, we had a quick visit with Sister Taylor. I love her! She's a sweet heart! :) Wednesday wasn't too eventful. We had our last ARP meeting cause the Riggs are gonna be working in the mission office now. :( Oh well. At least I got to have them in my District/Zone for most of my mission so far! I sure do love them! They're a sweet Elderly couple! :) After that, we did our time on FB. Then we went to stop by the Carver's to pop them a visit, and they ended up inviting us to come back later for dinner! OK!!! SURE!!! Haha! So we had dinner with them, and it was SO nice! And delicious! Brother Carver made a traditional-style dinner that he used to eat frequently on his mission in Mexico - consisting of beans and tortillas - no, NOT burritos. Haha. But it was still really good! :) Then we topped the night off by visiting Bobbi. I sure do love that woman! :) Thursday, or should I say - THANKSGIVING - was SOOOOOOOOOO good!!! We weren't allowed to go out and proselyte, so we spent the entire morning inside and had some extra study time, plus some nap time (ALWAYS appreciated and MUCH needed), then around 12:30ish we went out and did some FB time. After that, we went over to the Grigg's and had our Thanksgiving meal with them! And it was almost a completely gluten-free Thanksgiving meal, too! And it was DELICIOUS!!! Best gluten-free (and only, so far - haha) Thanksgiving I've ever had! I'll have to steal some of their recipes for when I'm home! :) After we were done eating and hanging out at the Grigg's, we went over to the Fitzgerald's and hung out there for a bit and played "Picturades" (Pictionary/Sharrades put together). It was really fun! :) Bobbi and her son, James, were there for a while, too! It was really great! After we were done there, it was shortly after 8:00, but we just went home cause we didn't have anywhere else we could go. Friday we weekly planned... as usual... But what WASN'T usual about this weekly planning was that Sis. McKenna felt like we should finish our weekly planning at the church, so we did. Well, shortly before we were done, a couple from the Spanish ward came into the Relief Society room where we were, and gave us left-over donuts and hot chocolate from Dunkin' Donuts! SO sweet! - literally! Haha. So, Sister McKenna enjoyed the Donuts, and I enjoyed the hot chocolate, and then we gave what was left to a couple of Elders who were there. Needless to say, they were grateful for it. :) After that, we did some FB time, then we had dinner. After dinner, we visited Lorene. I LOVE her!!! She is SUCH a sweet heart! :) After Lorene, we visited the Orme's. I love them, too! :) Saturday we visited Sister Davis, then shortly after that, we visited Sister K. They're both doing alright. Then after dinner we visited Sister Schroeder, which was really good! It had been too long since we'd seen her! After that, we visited Bobbi - we got a LOT of visits in with Bobbi this week! It was AWESOME!!! And when we visited her this time, we met her mom, who's not a member. She's a very sweet lady. :) Sunday... we REALLY didn't do much. I kept on waking up early in the morning between 12:30 AM and 2:30 AM cause I felt nauseous, and I finally got up shortly after 2:30ish in the morning and threw up. Yep. I got the 24-hour flu. There's something going around with sickness lately. But it's all good. The really funny and ironic part is that I had already started my fast for fast Sunday, and we fasted as a mission for a couple of different things - one of which being the health of all of the missionaries in the mission. Now, if that's not irony, I don't know what is. I fast for the health of all the missionaries and I get the flu. FUNNY. Haha. So, anyways, we didn't go out and work at all yesterday, due to my illness. But we did call the Elders and they came over and gave me a blessing, and I was able to make it through church without feeling too sick, so that was good. :) Anyways, I gotta run! But I love you all SOOOOOOO much!!! Thank you all SOOOOOO much for your continual love and support! :) THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :D Love Always, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. I've been reading a lot of conference talks from this past General Conference over the past week, and I LOVE THEM ALL!!! I HIGHLY encourage you all to pick a talk this week and READ it! And even share it with a friend! :) Then please feel free to share your missionary experiences with me! I always love to hear! :) And Mom - THANK YOU SOOOOO much for your package!!! I LOVE it!!! It means THE WORLD to me!!! And it came at EXACTLY the time that I needed it! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! ...almost!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! SO sorry I didn't finish telling y'all about my previous week in my e-mail last week! So I'll tell you all about it right now! Thursday, November 14 - Sunday, November 17, 2013: Thursday was transfers, so we spent the morning going around and Sister Schramm said her final goodbyes to people. Then transfer meeting happened, and I got my new companion, Sister McKenna, and she's great! After transfer meeting, I got kinda lost on our way home, PLUS there was crazy VA traffic, so it ended up taking us about 1 1/2 hours to get to our dinner appointment instead of 30-45 minutes... It's fine... It was making a memory. Haha! Anyways, we had dinner that night with a SUPER cute new family in the ward named the Barton's, who are just SO sweet and they have the cutest kids! I LOVE them! :) After that, we visited the Carver's, and that was really good! :) Friday we weekly planned... not much new there... Haha. Then later that day we got on FACEBOOK!!! *GASP* APOSTATE!!! Haha! Nope! SURPRISE!!! Actually, as of that Wednesday, so almost two weeks ago now, my mission has officially been on facebook! CRAZY, huh?? So y'all have probably already seen a friend request from a "Sister-Aubrie Orrock" recently; well, THAT'S ME!!! Haha. So ACCEPT IT! It's NOT a prank, I promise!!! :) That night we stopped by and visited our less-active friend, Bobbi, who I LOVE! :) Then after that, we went over to the Grigg's and did some service for them and helped them clean up their home a bit. It was fun. I LOVE the Griggs! We're going to their house for Thanksgiving! And they're also gluten-free! So this is going to be SUCH a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! SO much wonderful food that I can actually eat that won't make me sick! YAY!!! :D Saturday we had a lesson with the wonderful potential investigators who Sister Schramm and her last companion, Sister Hills met and had just been doing service for! Their names are Katy (the mom) and Abby (her daughter). I LOVE THEM!!! After Katy and Abby, we had a quick drop-by visit with the Fitzgeralds (they were about to leave somewhere, so we couldn't visit with them long). I LOVE THEM! They are SO sweet and SO cute! :) After the Fitzgeralds, we had dinner with the Shengs! They are WONDERFUL!!! They are BY FAR one of my most favorite families in the ward!!! :) And Brother Sheng just found out that he's gluten-intolerant, too, so now they REALLY know how to cook for me! :) Sunday we visited with Amber, and it was SO good! I really DO love her SOOOO much! And every time I see her and talk with her, I just have that feeling reaffirmed that she is one of the people who I was supposed to meet out here, and it just helps remind me that I'm EXACTLY where the Lords wants and NEEDS me to be at this time! :) After Amber, we had meetings for forever and a day (well, from like 12:45 - 3:00) until church at 3:00. Then church was SO good! :) After church, we had dinner with Sister Chipman, and it was really good. Sister Chipman's really sweet, but has a tough exterior that you just have to get past, then you see how sweet she really is. I love her! :) After dinner, we visited Sister K., and it was a really good visit! I really am coming to love Sister K. more and more! :) Ok! Now onto this past week! Monday, November 18 - Sunday, November 24th! Last Monday was crazy, but good, as P-days usually are! Haha! But what was really funny was right after we were done grocery shopping and I was in the car, driving and backing the car out of the parking stall, and Sister McKenna was backing me, a woman started talking to us. She appeared to be laughing, so at first I just ignored her since I've just gotten used to people giving me weird looks when my companion is backing me, or when I'm backing my companion. Haha. But then I thought I heard her say something like, "Are you learning how to drive?" Surely I had heard her wrong, so I rolled down my window and asked her what she said, and she laughed and said, "It's ok. My daughter's learning how to drive, too." Realizing that I had, indeed heard her correctly, I quickly corrected her and laughed and said, "Oh, no. I'm not learning how to drive. We have to do this as missionaries to be extra safe and cautious." She then was obviously somewhat embarrassed about the mix-up, and tried correcting herself by saying, "Oh, don't worry. I think that's great. In fact, I think that more people around here should do that." ...So apparently I look like I'm 15 or 16 with my bangs cut straight across and my hair high-lighted again... Yep... Kinda forgot about just how young that really makes me look sometimes... AWESOME... Sister McKenna thought that it was THE FUNNIEST thing in the world and wouldn't stop laughing about it... Me, on the other hand... not so much. Haha. Tuesday we had District Meeting, as usual. I LOVE LOVE LOVE District Meeting!!! :) After District Meeting, we visited our good less-active friend, Lauren! :) I LOVE Lauren! Later that day, we had dinner with Sister Blake! She's wonderful! And she has the cutest baby girl! :) After that, we went to the church for the Gospel Principles class; but shortly before the class, we talked with our investigator, Carol, on the phone and just checked to see how she's doing. Well, apparently she wants to come back to VA cause she HATES Ohio, so we might just end up teaching her in person again! Anyways, Elder Smith and Elder Richards taught the Gospel Principles class this week, and it was SUCH a wonderful class! They taught all about Christ's life and drew a timeline and everything! It was SUCH a great lesson! They're wonderful Elders! Wednesday we had Launching Leaders! I LOVE Launching Leaders! The Ritchies are WONDERFUL!!! I always learn SO much from their classes! :) After that, we went on exchanges! Sister McKenna went with Sister Stones and I stayed in Kingstowne and Sister Borland came to me! :) It was SUCH a wonderful exchange! I was able to learn SO much about myself and I felt like it helped me to grow SO much and to truly see my potential! I LOVE Sister Borland! And I LOVE exchanges! They're so great! :) And what made our exchange even sweeter (literally) was the Carvers! Sweet Sister Carver texted us earlier that night during dinner and invited us over to have some gluten-free cookies that she made! Um... YES! Ok! THANK YOU!!! So yes. The cookies were DELICIOUS!!! So we got a really great member visit in, and ate some DELICIOUS (and supposedly healthy) cookies! :) LOVE IT! Anyways, unfortunately I am out of time once again, so I am so sorry that I will not be able to tell you all about the rest of my week last week! But I will tell you quick bullet points and then fill you in the rest next week! :) Thursday we exchanged back and then had a phone lesson with Carol again! Then we visited Sister K. again that night. Friday we had this INCREDIBLE conference by a member of the seventy named Elder Teh (he's from the Philipeans)! I LOVED it! I'll tell you more next week! After that, we got on facebook for a bit. Saturday we visited with the Kemp's (a less-active elderly couple we just started working with), and they told us that they want to start coming back to church! The church is SO true!!! That night, we did some service at a retirement home called Manchester Lakes and helped organize musical performances for the night (we did that throughout the week), and it turned out pretty good! Sunday was... interesting... and kinda sad... It was announced in Sacrament Meeting that an older less-active woman named Sister Sausville (who Sister Schramm and I would visit pretty regularly) had passed away last week... Sad! Anyways, we finished the week off with a good member visit with the McCunes! I LOVE them! :) Well, I REALLY gotta go now! But I love you all SO much! :) Have a Happy Thanksgiving! :) Love Always, Sister Aubrie Orrock

SQUIRRELS and NEW HAIR!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! So - first things first! Transfers were on Thursday, and yes, I did get a new companion. Sister Schramm and I were just getting along too well, Heavenly Father knew that he had to split us up! Darn it! :( It's ok, though. Cause even though I miss Sister Schramm, I have Sister McKenna now, and she's wonderful, too! The funny thing is that Sister Akin (my trainee), Sister Schramm, and Sister McKenna were all in the MTC together, and even in the same District - in fact, Sis. Schramm and Sis. McKenna were MTC comp's! Crazy, huh?? So we're predicting that after Sis. McKenna and I get split up that I'll get Sis. Akin's MTC comp. as my next companion, which is Sis. Christainsen. Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see! :) This past week was pretty crazy with transfers, so I'll do my best to tell you all of the highlights that we've had! :) Oh! But first before I do that, I just realized that I've been neglecting to tell y'all about a HUGE event that happened a few weeks ago with our DL, Elder Stone and his comp. Elder Harper! So, I'll do my best to paint the best picture of this for y'all so that you can fully enjoy this moment as much as Sister Schramm and I did! Once upon a time, at the very beginning of this past transfer of me and Sis. Schramm together, we discovered that we both have an abnormal fascination with squirrels. We don't know why, but do we really need a reason?? I mean, come on. They're SQUIRRELS. What's NOT to love and be fascinated in?? 'Nuf said. So - now fast-forward back to about three weeks later. Elder Harper had carved Jesus' face into a pumpkin and put it on their balcony. Well, what Elder Harper DIDN'T know was that squirrels eat pumpkins. In fact, they LOVE pumpkins. So, a few days later, he went back out to the balcony and saw a squirrel chillin' inside his pumpkin. So, remembering the very first words out of Sister Schramm's and my mouth being about how much we LOVE LOVE LOVE squirrels, he thought that it would be a good idea to bring the pumpkin inside and capture the squirrel and then show it to us... Well, what he also didn't realize is that Squirrels don't like being captured by humans in their apartments. They really just wanna eat their pumpkins and be left alone. So, needless to say, the squirrel was MUY (VERY) upset when it realized that it was being captured and then that its capture was also creating a video in the mean time to show his fellow missionaries (specifically certain Sisters) about it being captured. Elders Stone and Harper then had the BRILLIANT idea to take off the plastic or glass see-through container that they had on top of it in the pumpkin for a while and attempt to place a plastic crate on top of it to keep it captured, but allow it to breathe better... As they were in the midst of making the switch of capturing devices, the squirrel darted out of the pumpkin and into what it hoped to be freedom at last! However, to its despair, it was still captured in their apartment... So it then continued to dart to and fro around their apartment for a period of about 45 minutes while Elder Stone (who resembles Cory Ruward quite well in height and stature) proceeded to chase the squirrel around with his bathrobe on backwards over his clothes, and wearing gloves. The squirrel eventually leaped onto their therma-stat and broke it... After having so much fun, both the squirrel and the Elders had finally had enough of their game of capture and tag, so the Elders opened their door and the squirrel ran away. The squirrel still holds a vendetta against these Elders - particularly Elder Stone. Seriously - I'm pretty sure that the squirrel spread the word to all of his friends and family in town, cause whenever there's a squirrel near their apartment and it sees one of the Elders, it will immediately run up a tree and then proceed to make warning calls to those around. Seriously - they make squawking sounds (kinda like Lola does when she's upset); and now they particularly direct these sounds to the Elders. They also throw acorns at the Elders as they ride their bikes or walk. True story. Well, I guess that's what they get for temporarily holding a squirrel hostage. HAHAHA!!! Oh man! Don't worry - I've made a deal with the Elders to get a copy of the videos from them, and I will be sure to put them on a jump-drive and send them home soon so that you all can enjoy! :) Well, anyways, now I REALLY don't have much time to tell you about this past week, but I just HAD to tell you about that because I've been DYING to tell y'all about that for WEEKS now, but I've just been forgetting! So - here are some highlights from this week! Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were pretty much times that Sister Schramm said her goodbyes to people - especially Wednesday cause we got the for sure call on Tuesday night confirming our suspicions. So Monday we had a lesson with Opoku, which was really great! We finished talking about the Restoration, which was really good! :) Tuesday we visited with the Shengs, which was really good! I love them SOOOO much! They are seriously one of the cutest and kindest families I've ever met! After the Shengs, we had dinner with the Kachers, and they're adorable, too! That night, we had our usual Gospel Principles class, which went AMAZINGLY well - especially considering Sis. Schramm and I taught it with only a couple of hours notice! What can I say? The church is true! Wednesday we had a lesson with Wondifraw, and he's pretty much still the same. He comes to church every week, but he's not progressing in the sense that he doesn't wanna get baptized - not anytime soon, anyways. But it's ok, I guess. At least we're doing our part to bring him closer to the gospel. After Wondifraw, we went over and visited with Sister Davis and assembled another bookshelf for her. What can I say?? We're practically carpenters. :) After Sister Davis, we had dinner with the Ormes, and they are WONDERFUL! I love them SO much! :) After the Ormes, we went and visited a few other people, like Sis. K. and Jenny, so that Sis. Schramm could finish saying her goodbyes. Also - that day someone fed us an omlet, and let's just say that it was not American cheese in that, and we both (especially I) felt sick after it. Oh, the things that you do to be nice to people as a missionary, including eating questionable food. At least with me, it's been nice being a vegetarian and having other food allergies, because it usually keeps me from being in those types of situations. ...Not this time... Haha... Not much time left, so I'll just quickly tell you this last quick thing, then I'll tell you about Sis. McKenna and the rest of the week next week! Sister Sheng is a hairstylist, so she actually put highlights in my hair today - and FOR FREE, too! She's WONDERFUL!!! I'll take a picture and send that next week as well! Oh! And Cory! Thank you SO much for the extra cash in my account this week! I was able to get some more warm cloths such as a scarf and hat and gloves - all of the nice winter necessities that I left back home. Haha. But now I won't freeze - and I'll be cute and stylish! Thanks again! :) Anyways, I love you all SO much! Thank you SO much for writing me - those of you who have been! E-mailing counts, too! I just print it off and read it later! PLEASE write me!!! :) I LOVE YOU ALL! Y'all are in my thoughts and prayers! Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock

Transfers this week!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! So sorry again for having to cut things so short last week! Like I said, it was a crazy day! So anyways, I'll finish telling y'all about the week before last week (Friday, November 1st through Sunday, November 3rd), then I'll continue with this past week! Friday was SO good! We had interviews with President! I always love any time that I have the opportunity to see President! He just brightens my day! I cried to him and told him that I was having a hard time understanding why I've been having so many health problems since I've been on my mission - cause I had some before, but not like this, and not this frequent. He responded first by laughing slightly and told me that my health problems may have stemmed from my companions needing to learn things such as patience or compassion, etc. He then went on to apologize that they were having to learn these things at my expense. Haha... Love it. It's ok though. Cause, not to jinx myself or anything, but right at this moment, I'm pretty healthy and my current companion, Sister Schramm and I are getting along GREAT! :) ...We all know what that means... TRANSFERS!!! Haha. It's sad, but true. We all know that as soon as you really click with a companion and you get the brain waves goin', one of you is bound to get the boot. We think it's gonna be Sis. Schramm and that I'm gonna stay (and possibly train again) in Kingstowne, but no promises. This is all just our pure speculation. After interviews with President, we weekly planned. Then that night we had dinner with the Orland's. I love them! They are such a cute family! And all three of their kids have severe food allergies, so they totally understand the gluten-free and vegetarian thing with me! It's AWESOME!!! :) Sister Orland even made some DELICIOUS gluten-free banana bread and gave me a couple of loaves to take home! I love them! :) I really have been getting SO spoiled on my mission, it's ridiculous! And I'll even be the first to admit it; but not saying that anything needs to change... Haha. I really am in such a wonderful area! I love Crystal City and I love Kingstowne now, too! In fact, as far as a place where I would actually live in real life, I would definitely choose Kingstowne over Crystal City cause Crystal City's way too hustle and bustle, where as Kingstowne is a little bit, but it's not so big city-like. It's a lot more similar to Orem - just WAAAY more green and colorful and without the mountains, but I LOVE it! :) After dinner we visited a sweet less-active woman named Lorraine. I love her! We had a wonderful visit with her! :) Saturday was an interesting day. We had dinner with Sister K. that night at Gangus Grill for her birthday. YUM!!! Sunday we visited with the McCunes a bit before church, and that was really nice! :) Then church was really great! I really do love Kingstowne now! I love the ward and everybody and everything! That night after church (that's right. We have dinner from 3:00 to 6:00 pm. CRAZY, huh??), we had dinner; then we went and had a really great lesson with Opoku. This was my very first time meeting him, but he's from Gahna and is awesome! The lesson went great! We taught him most of the Restoration and he loved it! He even accepted the soft baptism invite! YAY!!! :) Now onto this past week! Monday was CRAZY busy, but SO much fun!!! We went to D.C. as a District (technically we're not supposed to hang out in large groups of missionaries, so since there were four sets of us, and Sis. Schramm and I are the only Sisters, the Elders mostly grouped off and we hung out by ourselves and then traveled together to and from on the metro! I love my District SO much! They're SO fun! :) After we were done hanging out in D.C., we came back and quickly did our grocery shopping and all of our other stuff that we needed to get done, then we had dinner and Family Home Evening with the McCune's in our ward and Lorraine and her son. I love them! They're wonderful! :) Tuesday was really good! We had District meeting, which is always wonderful! We even did a really fun practice teach activity where we practice taught blind-folded. I LOVED it! :) That afternoon we had a really great lesson with our investigator, Carol, and before I was even finished giving her the soft baptism invite, she told us that she would pray about baptism! OK! SWEET! LOVE IT! :D That night, we stopped by the Williams' in our ward and picked up our dinner from them, and then went home and ate. After that, we had our Gospel Principles class, which was interesting. Haha. It was good. It was just a funny combination of people who we had there. There was Sister K., Carol, and Sister Davis. I love them all, but they just all have very different personalities, so it was just funny to watch them interact with each other. Wednesday was a MIRACLE DAY!!! We visited a potential investigator family (this was my second time meeting them, and first time really talking with them) who agreed to let us start teaching them! The only reason why we haven't just started teaching them before is because they were kind of a referral through a couple of different people in the ward, but missionaries first met them through helping them move into their new house, and not through talking about the gospel. So it's started out and been a friendship with them for a while now (since long before I got here), but Sister Schramm and I finally basically told them our purpose and asked if we could start teaching them and they said yes! :) The church is so true! I love it! Wednesday we had a wonderful lesson with our investigator Fasaad and the Elder's recent convert, Darci, came with us! :) By the end of the lesson, Darci and Fasaad had a bro handshake goin' on and they were already friends! The power of member-present lessons! I love it! :) Thursday we started the day off at Koinonia (the local food bank that we volunteer at). After that, we went out to lunch with Sister Russell in the ward to Chipotle. I LOVE Chipotle! And I love Sister Russell! She really is wonderful! And she used to be in the Crystal City ward, so she understands my love for Crystal City! We bonded over that. It was great! :) That night we had dinner with the Cheeney's in the ward. They're such a cute, fun family! And the best thing was when we were sharing our spiritual thought and we all sang "The Wise Man" together and they all got REALLY into it! It's such a fun song! Friday we did our (possibly) last weekly planning together. :( We really think that Sister Schramm is getting transferred and we're both really sad about it! We became quick friends and we have SO much fun together! That night we visited Bobbi, which was really great! I love Bobbi! Saturday we did a LOT of service with Koinonia and helped out with their huge food drive! It was really fun! We had all of the Kingstowne missionaries there - Elders Stone and Harper and Elders Smith and Williams. That afternoon, we visited with Carol some more in the computer lab in the clubhouse of our apartment complex while Elder Smith and Elder Williams fixed her laptop and she told them about how she wants to get baptized, too! I love it! :) That night we had dinner with the Fitzgeralds! I love them! After that, we went over to the Grigg's and had cake and ice-cream with them (gluten-free cake) for their daughter, Sarah's birthday. I love the Griggs! They're wonderful! Sunday was really great! We visited with Amber E.! I love her! I know why I'm in Kingstowne now! :) That night we visited Sister Davis and it was really great! It actually ended up being a prompting and she really needed us! I LOVE those times as a missionary! :) THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! I love you all SOOOO much!!! :) Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. Read Mosiah chapters 12-14. They are SO good! :) Thank you all who have e-mailed me/written me! I really appreciate it! (Mom, Dad, and Cory. Y'all are the winners recently! Everyone else - PLEASE WRITE ME!!!) :)

Washington Monument!

Israeli Engagement!!!

HEY EVERYBODY!!! Just so ya know, this has been a CRAZY P-day, so this week's e-mail is gonna be QUICK! SO sorry about that! Anyways, last week was really good! Monday was so great! We visited with Sister K. and it was really good! I'm really starting to love her more and more! After Sister K., we visited a woman named Vanessa who we had met street contacting the week before, and we had a really great lesson with her! It truly amazing how the Lord places people in our path who are truly prepared! I love this work SO much! :) Tuesday we visited Sister Davis and put together a wooden shelf for her (I know, first we're assembling grills, and then book shelves. It's fine. I work better with putting things like that together than I do with putting food together and cooking! Haha. It's sad, but true!), and it was actually really fun! Later that day, we had dinner with the Bylund's in the ward, and that was good. They have the cutest little kids! That night, we had our usual Gospel Principles class that we taught that week for less-actives and recent converts. It went really well! We taught about prayer and why it's so important, etc. Wednesday was really good, too! We had Launching Leaders, which was amazing as always! I LOVE the Ritchies! They're wonderful! After Launching Leaders, we ended up having a mini District lunch with our whole district minus one set of Elders; so it was Elder Stone, Elder Harper, Elder Williams, and Elder Smith. We went to Noodles and Company. YUMMY!!! :) That night we went to our ward Halloween party, which was SUPER fun! They had a chili cook-off, which was delicious! To be honest, I only tried one of the types of chili that was there cause some ward member thought of me and made a vegetarian chili! SO sweet! But what was almost even sweeter was my District Leader, Elder Stone, made chili for the chili cook-off and he made me my own separate vegetarian chili. I love the Elders in my district! They're the best! Thursday (Halloween) was SO much fun! Earlier that day it was ...interesting... we went to go check on a woman on the Bishop's List, and she wasn't home, so we went and talked to some guys who were standing outside of their house across the street from where we were. They were two Israeli men, and... let's just say they REALLY enjoyed talking to Sister Schramm and I NOT about the gospel... They really liked our blonde hair and blue eyes and basically proposed to us. There was an older guy and a younger guy, and the worst part was it was the old guy who was hitting on us the most. Can you say CREEPY?? Ya. Anyways, he went on to tell us that if we just pay for a plane ticket to Israel, we would have free food, free housing, free everything. Cause we'd be married. Yep. That wasn't the first marriage proposal that I've had on my mission, but it was definitely the most forward and interesting one. That night we got together with our whole zone and watched "Monsters University" and "The Crudes". It was really fun! However, it showed me just how much my worst fear is coming to pass! I am going to be an awkward RM. It's official. I was freaking out a bit during the Crudes when they were were holding hands! Anyways, I gotta run! I'll tell you more next week! I love you all! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :) Love always, Sister Aubrie Orrock P.S. CONGRATULATIONS DESI AND JENS!!! Welcome to the family, Jens! And Heather! Guess what?? Sister Kaitlyn Roper is in my mission AND she's my Sister Training Leader! She remembers you from St. George! I love you, my sister! :)