Conference

October 5th

Wow! Can I just say I love conference!! I had the awesome opportunity to watch the Saturday sessions in English (Gringo Power whoow!!!) and the Sunday sessions in Spanish, both of them were beautiful =) 

Before I watched conference I wrote a bunch of questions in my notebook (about the mission, life, etc) and the conference answered every single one of them! I love how the conference was talking a lot about the Plan of Salvation and how we can apply this Gospel in our lives. I loved the talk by Elder Uchtdorf that spoke about simplifying the way we apply the Gospel in our lives and why some people benefit from the Gospel more then others. 

We will receive blessings and benefit from the Gospel when we have come to truly love it. And I mean LOVE IT! When we come to love every commandment, principal, doctrine and ordinance that is in this Gospel. When we strive to live it 110%. When we look at the commandments and apply them in our everyday lives (for example commandment 1 and 2, is to put nothing else above God, maybe you can ask yourself the question are you using your iPhone or electronics more then your scriptures?). When we truly absolutely love it, we are promised to receive blessings! We are promised to benefit from this Gospel more then we could ever imagine, in this life and for eternity! I am so happy and excited that I have the opportunity to have this Gospel in my life, and that we have Prophets and Apostles today to give us the guidance that we need, to help, improve and grow. They really are a gift from God =)

I love you all!!! Please study the conference talks and look for ways to apply every talk in your life. Every talk has at least one commitment, I invite you to looks for the commitments and apply them into your lives =) 

Love Hermana Orison =)

P.s. I want to hear everyone's experiences from conference, tell me what you got out of it and how you will apply it =)

We went running to the Lagoon this morning! Whoow! (haha I think my companion is going to kill me, she hates running! =P) and we found some exercise machines by the Lagoon!! =D

Dear Jane,

September 28th

Buenas Tardes!

Wow, this week went by so fast! I cant believe it is P-day today, it is so crazy! This week was hard but good. We have had the opportunity to work with a lot members this week and Family History, can I just say that family history is awesome? We have been helping a lot of members find there ancestors to take to the temple this month, and they are all so excited! 

We have all been preparing for conference this upcoming Saturday and Sunday. This conference is going to be awesome! It's going to be a big change because for the first time in history we are going to receive 3 new apostles, WOW! I am so excited for this conference!!! AHHH I CANT WAIT FOR IT TO GET HERE!!!!!!!

Funny Moment of the week:

We finally found one of our investigators that went missing for about 3 weeks, and we set an appointment to meet with him Friday in the evening at a members house.

We arrived at the members house a little early to tell her about the appointment and the member opened the door and held a letter in her hand. "He came by and dropped this off with me to give to you" She said handing us the letter.

The first thought that came to my mind was : "OH NO! our investigator just dear Janed us! una Querida Juanita!!" 

I slowly opened the letter, hesitant to read it, but reading it I was soon filled with awesome happiness. It read " Dear Hermanas, I am praying for you everyday, and I wanted to tell you that I won't make it to our appointment because I need to visit my mom, but I will be back Monday and I want to be Baptized..." Ha ha best letter ever! Why our investigator wrote us a letter to change our appointment instead of sending a message, I don't know, but I am super excited for him =) Please put him in your prayers! =)

I love you all!!! Thank you all for you support!!! You are all amazing!!! =D

LOVE HERMANA ORISON

I finally found the discus statue!!!! My mission is complete haha!!!! Awww I miss my discuses!!! =P

and we got to walk around the Lagoon today, so pretty!! =)

This is my Beloved daughter hear her...

September 21st

Hola!! Whoow! This week was definitely different. I didn't know being a trainer/Mom could be so hard and so awesome. The first two days of this week were really hard, it seemed like we couldn't find anyone to teach and when we got back to apartment, I said a really long prayer to help us have success this week. I knew if we were obedient in everything God would bless us with success and the best thing about training is that your companion follows your lead in everything and they don't have any bad habits like missionaries who have time in the mission, so teaching them to be obedient is easy and I love it =) The next DAY we ended up teaching 9 lessons and found 3 new people to teach! It was awesome!!! It's not something that happens everyday. =) Yeah me and Hermana Puc are ROCKING THIS AREA!!!! this is going to be an awesome transfer =)

This week I officially completed 11 months in my mission, 2 years in the church and 1 week as a trainer, WHOOOOOOOWWW!!!!!! Time is flying by so fast! I don't know where its going, but it needs to slow down a little bit haha. Thank you to everyone who has supported me in my mission I feel your prayers everyday. I am sorry if I have not responded to some of your emails, I promise I read them! I just don't always have time to answer them =P But I love you!!! Thank you for everything!!! Have an amazing week!!!

Love,

Hermana Orison =)

Went through the Temple and found out I was expecting...

September 14th

This past week was the last week of transfers, and we ended the week watching the re-dedication of the Temple of Mexico. It was amazing!!! There is not a temple in our mission boundaries (its so sad...) so I thought I wouldn't be able to go through the temple for 18 months, but we had the opportunity to watch the Temple of Mexico city be dedicated. Meaning the chapel turned into a part of a temple for a few hours (closest I will ever get to enter a temple while I am here.) Haha, Elder Holland and President Eyring were there and well...their Spanish isn't very great haha...but they had translators and it was so cool to hear their words in both Spanish and English. Elder Holland ended up bearing his Testimony in Spanish when he ended his talk, it was so awesome!! 

Before we entered the dedication no one in my district knew if they would be transferred or not. When we entered the dedication and we were all sitting, my district leader came over to me and whispered

"Hermana Orison do you know your transfers?"

"No"

"well, your going to be a Trainer tomorrow"

"Seriously!?" haha It took a lot not to scream with happiness in that moment, I am so excited I have the opportunity to train!!! I picked up my daughter (the trainee) this morning and we are ready to ROCK OBREGON!!!!! I love you all!!! And I just want you to know that this is the best work in the world!!! XD

Photo: My Hija Hermana Puc =)

photos with my District =) (Fotos con mi distrito)

Plan "Z"

September 7th

Whoow! So This week has been hard but good! I have had quite an experience that I want to share with all of you.

Friday morning, all of our appointments fell through as well as all of our back'up plans. When we have moments like this, I have realized that God has someone planned for us to visit, someone that we did not plan for. Me and my companion felt we had to visit a member named Elbia, a member we had just reactivated.

We knocked on her door and she let us in and she looked really tense. She quickly blurted out, ¨hermanas I don't want to go to church anymore¨ we were silent at first, wondering what made her say that, she then continued ¨I don't feel like I am progressing in the church, my family is fighting and does not want to hear the gospel, my daughter told me she would never be baptized in this church and I am old and divorced. How can I have an eternal family? How can I progress?¨

This was a difficult situation and question, but I have definitely thought about this question before. I am happy to say that I have gained a testimony that God sent us to this world to prepare us for a future greater than anything we can comprehend. The way we prepare for this amazing future is by simply obeying His commandments and enduring to the end.

As Isaiahs (55.9) Uchtdorf puts it

I think God knows something we don’t—things that are beyond our capacity to comprehend! Our Father in Heaven is an eternal being whose experience, wisdom, and intelligence are infinitely greater than ours.4 Not only that, but He is also eternally loving, compassionate, and focused on one blessed goal: to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life.5

In other words, He not only knows what is best for you; He also anxiously wants you to choose what is best for you.

The commandments are our guide to living a better life that is full of blessings, God gave them to us to help us prosper and be happy. When we look at the commandments as blessings instead of restrictions, we can reach our full potential in this life. 

I explained all of this to Elbia, and tears weld up in her eyes and she told me that she wanted to serve a mission, that she was going to do everything she could to enter the temple and then serve a mission. I am so excited for her!!!! Right now I cant even describe how happy I am, this week I have learned to be grateful for all of the challenges I am having because I know they are preparing me for something better, Ah! THE MISSION IS THE BEST!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! 

CON MUCHO AMOR,

Hermana Orison 

(Getting ready for Stake Conference)

El Hospital

August 31st

HHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! MIS AMIGOS!!!!

Ah, Well I dont know how to describe this week, it was really hard XP We had an investigator with A baptism date for the 29th but he ended up going to the Hospital the day of his Baptism because he had heart problems (Sometimes I really just want to punch Satan in the face XP) So, he didn't have his baptism =( But he is doing okay, and accepted a blessing from the Bishop (I was so excited when he got a blessing, it was an awesome experience for him =D) And he is preparing for his baptism again, whooooooow!!!!!!!!

Love you all!!! HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK!!!!!

Con mucho Amor, 

Hermana Orison

That Awkward moment when you are in the middle of a lesson and your whole book of Mormon falls apart infront of your investigator, haha Yeah I think I use it a little to much XP

El Momento incomodo cuando estas en medio de una leccion y su Libro de Mormon se desmorno enfrente de su investigador, jaja creo que lo uso mucho XP

El Libro De Mormon

August 24

This week has been a real testimony builder (There are no such things as bad days in the mission, there are good days and then there are amazing days!) These past few weeks our leaders have been really drilling us to use the Book of Mormon in every moment possible in our missions, especially in our lessons with our investigators (Which at times can be really hard here in Mexico because about 90 percent of the people here are catholic and only believe in the Bible). Wave been studying a toooooooon to apply the book of Mormon in every situation.

We have been teaching one investigator named Philpe, and he talks a TON, and I mean a TON! He just keeps talking, and talking. My companion and I were having a really hard time teaching him because we couldn't say anything. So One day I got the idea to teach our next lesson only with the scriptures (because he does not talk while we read a scripture) So the next lesson we pretty much read the plan of salvation to him from the book of Mormon (worked amazingly!) We were going to assign him a part of the book of Mormon to read for the next lesson but he told us he lost his glasses, and could not get another pair of glasses until the next week, so he couldn't read it. So we told him we would read it with him the next appointment.

Haha at the following appointment, we started reading the chapter with him and every time we read off a name he would say "Oh Nephi was the prophet that built a boat and had two bad older brothers..." we looked at him in shock wondering how he knew all of that and he told us that after we read the book of Mormon with him he felt that it was really important that he read it, so he searched for the audio version on YouTube and listened to it until 3:00 in the morning. Haha!! I could not believe it!! Me and my companion left his house with big grins on our faces =D ¡ESCOGIDO!!!!!!

I Know that the book of Mormon is true and that it has a answer for every question we will ever have in our lives, this week we had a meeting and Hermana Munive told us about an experience her daughter had with the book of Mormon. Her daughter wanted to play a sport in high school and she couldn't decided if she wanted to play tennis or Volley Ball, and a Sister Missionary told her that she should ask God which one she should play and then look in the Book of Mormon for the answer. The first verse she will read will have the answer to her question. 

So her daughter prayed and opened the Book of Mormon to a random page and put her finger on a verse that was about a war between the Lamanites and Nephites. She ponder the verse for a few minutes and said, that she had to play volley ball. 

Her mom asked her how this verse had the answer for the question, and her daughter simply said "The Nephites and Lamanites are like teams, fighting against each other, they are not just two people. And volley ball is in teams and with tennis we are alone, so the answer is volley ball" 

we got a laugh out of the story, but we were told to apply it, and I have applied this method a ton this week and have got a answer for every question. This Book just became more amazing for me! I know if we pray, read and ponder the scriptures we will have an answer for everything and we will receive guidance for every trial we will have in our lives. I invite you all to pray and read the Book of Mormon with questions in mind and I promise you will receive an answer =)

Love you all!!! Have an amazing week!!!!

Love Hermana Orison =)

Baptism Photo with my District (Foto de un Baptismo con mi distrito)

Divisions

August 17

HOLA!!!!!

Well this week was interesting, we had divisions with our sister training leaders Friday and Saturday. And Hermana Rojas was with me in my area. Haha oh what a fun time. 

I usually wake up at 5:30 in the morning to give me a little more extra time to study, haha and when my alarm went off and I started exercising, Hermana Rojas came out of the bedroom asking what time it was, I told her it was 5:30, she told me I was crazy and went back to bed haha.

One reason I love divisions is that it shows you what your strengths and weaknesses are and it helps you learn what you can improve. Hermana Rojas is really quiet, so I pretty much did all the talking for two days. I am so happy to say that I finally know Spanish! WHOOW!!! its a miracle!!! Haha no one is going to understand me when I get back home! YES!!!

Haha, Love you all!! Please have an amazing week!! Write you all later.

Love Hermana Orison

I want to see the Temple!

August 10th

Wow, I don't even know where to begin with this week. For one, I am sooooooooo Tired! But this week has been awesome!!!

Our Stake had youth conference this week and they called all the missionaries of the stake to help them out. Haha, we had to help set up a dance and blow up a ton of Balloons! I don't think I have blown up that many balloons in my entire life!! I was definitely a little light headed afterwards ha.

Saturday all the youth went proselyting with the missionaries. They divided us with our wards, and I am in the biggest ward here so we have a ton of youth! They divided me and hermana Ake up and gave us each three Young Women to accompany us. We were given a list of names to visit...mine happened to be in a area that wasn't mine X( so I stole my zone Leaders map and left with the Young Women to teach people! 

First it was stressful because it wasn't my area and I thought the girls were going to pass out from heat stroke, it is about a 110-115 degrees here right now (Its weird I didn't realize it was hot until I looked over and saw them sweating up a storm!) Our first lesson no one wanted to testify, but lesson by lesson it got easier and easier =) and I had the opportunity to teach them how to contact people in the street like a boss! (I love contacting! XD) 

One of the names on the list of members we needed to visit happened to be the mom of one of the girls that was with me. (Yeah a little awkward) we didn't exactly know why her name was on the list and I didn't know if it would be a good Idea to visit her with her daughter but I kept getting the prompting to visit this mom. So we went and I had the daughter pick out the theme for the lesson (she knows the necessities of her family more then I do) and as I was helping her teach the lesson and when I testified about the families, the house filled with the spirit. Her mom started to cry and her dad said this is the message that they needed. I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that until the next day (Sunday) when I walked into the church and the daughter of this family came running up to me holding up a temple recommend in her hand telling me that they were going to get sealed together this month. One of the happiest moments of my mission! I just wanted to cry! I LOVE THIS MISSION SO MUCH!!!!! HELPING PEOPLE FIND THE GOSPEL IS THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

If you feel like something is missing in your life, I invite you to look for the gospel of Jesus Christ and apply it! Read the Book of Mormon, Pray in your families, Go to church and have a Family Home evening every week, if you do these things I PROMISE your life will be better, you will be happier, your relation with God will be stronger and you will have the spirit by your side to guide you and comfort you 24/7.

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!! HAVE AN AMAZING WEEK!!! GET SOME MISSIONARY WORK DONE!!!!! =D

LOVE Hermana Orison =)

Triste Cambios!!

August 3rd

Wow, So this week was really happy and really sad.

First we had the Baptism of Natalie!! Whoow!!! It was a really happy day for all of us. We have worked a lot with her and her family, we reactivated them and prepared her for her baptism (Her brother got to baptize her!! =D) and now we are trying to help them enter the temple!! I love this family so much!!! I know they are one of the reasons that I was sent to this area =D

The sad part of this week,... we got transfer calls...I am happy to say that me and Hermana Ake are here in this area again (whoot!! She is my Favorite Companion =) But pretty much every Companionship in my District transferred =( In the mission you will have some transfers that you just don't feel anything at all and others that make you feel like your best friend just died. X( My mom Hermana Alfaro ended her mission and our district Leader (who only had 1 transfer here!) got transferred, everyone is really sad that he got transferred because he is the Best Leader and missionary ever!! We don't know how our district will Live without him =( But Good news Elder Yoo and Me are going to be in the same District again!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!!!! It is going to be awesome to have Hermana Jackson, Elder Yoo and Me in the same district again, I am excited to work here for another Transfer, We have so much work to get done! We are drowning in work right now, it is awesome!! Thank you to everyone that are praying for me, I feel your prayers everyday =)

I love you all!!! Have an amazing week! =D

It's Raining!

July 27

Hola!!!!

Wow! So much has happened this week! It is crazy! First I just want to testify that prayer works! Haha, I have 10 months in my mission and I can finally testify that it works.

Wednesday we were contacting all the references that we had and NO ONE would open there doors, at this point we had not found one new investigator the whole week and we were feeling a little depressed, because we had received 40 references last week to contact this week. When we got to our last reference, and were about to knock on the door I said a small prayer asking God to give us one new person to help and to teach, just one.

We knocked on the door and...no one answered...we just stood there for 2 minutes wondering what to do next. We left the house and right across the street we found a woman crying in front of her house using a little kids t shirt to wipe away her tears. We walked up to her and started talking to her. We talked to her for about an hour, she told us a really sad story about how her husband died and that she was having problems with her 3 little kids and how she had just found this house to live in (which had NOTHING in it!) and a ton of other problems. We shared a message with her and we got a few members to help her out (I just have to say the Ward I am in is AMAZING!!! I LOVE THEM!!!) and she ended up attending church with us this Sunday! And she loved it!!! She is one of our miracles this week =)

In other news, it decided to pour in Obregon this week, and let me tell yah, in our area when it rains it floods! I was really tempted to go swimming. Ill send some pictures for proof ;)

I just want you all to know that the mission is the best!!! And I miss you all! Have an awesome week!!

Love,

Hermana Orison

Awkward day =P

July 20th

HOOOOOOOOLA!!! MIS AMIGOS!!!!!!! Wow I cant believe it is P-day already! Time goes by so fast here =O

This week has been a little weird, first I will talk about the most funny/awkward day I have had in my entire mission:

1. We were eating lunch with family, and it was dead silence at the table. I tried asking questions to get them to talk and the family would just say "yes" or "no" or "grunt" and we sat there in silence the whole lunch XP and when we left my companion said "That has been our most awkward moment for today"

2.We went to visit a family of members (Part of our mission is to take care of the members too) and we went to teach them a lesson and me and my companion were not sure what to teach because we had not planned on visiting them. We settled in and started asking a few questions to figure out what we needed to teach, it went like this:

us:"How are your prayers going? Do you pray as a family?"

family:"yep, we pray every morning and night together."

us:"Oh wow! Felicidades! Are you reading the scriptures too?"

Family: "Yep! We read a chapter of the book of Mormon every morning together and a chapter individually in the night"

us:"Seriously? Wow! well, how are you family home evenings?"

Family: "We have them every Monday at 6:00"

us:"wow...well..." We could not think of anything to teach them! They were perfect and we were in a awkward silence for about 1 minute and I finally just yelled "Ah! You guys are perfect! We don't need to teach you anything!" they laughed and started being humble telling they had stuff to work on and yah.

and when we went to leave the house, I asked if they knew anyone we could visit and the dad pulled out his phone and gave me a name, address and phone number right there! Yep, I thought I was dreaming. The family was perfect, I am pretty sure if every family was like them we would not need missionaries haha.

We left the house and my companion said "nope, that was more awkward then lunch"

3. We were contacting people in the street and we contacted a woman and her husband in front of their house. We asked if we could share a message with her, and she said "of course! Come sit with us!" so we happily sat down at the table with them, excited to share a message with them. The lady told us that her husband had Alzheimer's, so don't be worried if he yells or something like that. 

So we explain to her about our purpose as missionaries and we pulled out our himnarios to sing a hymn when her husband lets one rip right there. Yes, he farted.

The lady elbows him and says "shhh, they are trying to share a message about Jesus to us!" me and my companion were trying so hard not to laugh. We began singing, and got about half way through and just bursted out laughing. We could not hold it in anymore, and then the lady starts laughing with us not knowing why we a laughing.

Yeah leaving the lesson my companion said "Okay! This is the most awkward moment for the day! Yah! No more!" hahahah

What else happened this week? 

I had to teach the district meeting Tuesday, And I accidentally went Elder Holland on my district and went 20 minutes over time,(time flies by when your receiving revelation) and when I finally ended and went to apologize to my district leader for going over time he said "That was awesome! I wanted you to keep talking! Im going to ask you to teach in the district meetings more often!" yay! 

Perla is now teaching lessons with us!!! Whoow!!! The best part about helping people be baptized is watching them grow after the Baptism =D I love working with converts they are the best!!! 

We have had so much fun teaching and learning about families this week. Honestly, if you put your family first and everything else after it, life is so much easier! I know as we think about eternal goals and what decisions will benefit us for the future instead of what we want "now", we will be more happy and have more peace in this life and for eternity. =) 

 I just got an email from my other companion in Mochis, Two of the families I was working with before just got Baptized!!!!! =D Whoow!!! I LOVE THE MISSION!!!! =D