I'm still living I think ;)

January 4th 2016

HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha yes I am still alive!!! I am sorry that I have not had the chance to write any of you guys these past weeks, I seriously have not had a Pday for three weeks. The work here has been crazy, I am going to try and give you all a big up date because I feel bad that I haven't really written anyone for a while. I will try to send a bunch of pictures too.

Okay starting off this transfer, our president made me and my companion sister training leaders of a zone that is not the zone that we are in, so we are trying to run two zones. That means double the work and stress, but double the fun =) We have two sets of zone leaders and we get to know a ton more missionaries, its the best!!! =D I like looking at transfers as if it's another chapter to my story here in the mission and this chapter I feel like has a theme of sacrifice and concentration (I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPELL IN ENGLISH AHHHH!!!) I have really learned what it is to sacrifice my time and all my efforts to the lord in this transfer. We have not had a minute to ourselves in this transfer, we are always teaching investigators, members, or training the other sisters, or calling someone to motivate them (haha I have fallen in love with the word ANIMO this past week, it does not have a direct translation in English but it means something like "you can do it" And I love screaming it into the phone when one of my the missionaries we are helping feels down, haha they get a laugh our of it XP) or we are preparing presentations for a meeting (I am proud to say that I can prepare an 1 hour training meeting in about 10 minutes, haha this week has taught me ton!) 

 I have been the happiest missionary this transfer, I have really gained a testimony. I have learned that when you actually lose yourself in the work of God, helping your brother and sisters, dedicating all of your time to them, you will achieve happiness that is unimaginable. I love this work so much!!! It's the best!!!

I want to thank all of you that have supported me in this year, and thank you so much for all of the cards!! I have loved reading them all!! You guys are the best ward and family members ever!!!!!! I know that I only have four months left (wow it is so scary how time flies by so fast) and the truth is I just want all of you guys to move to here to Mexico, because it is so awesome here!! It is going to be so hard to come back home. Ciudad Obregon is like my home, I love the people here!!! This is the best mission ever! It is going to be really hard to talk to you guys when I get back because I am really forgetting my English (I think it's through the power of the holy ghost that I am writing this write now haha) sorry to my family that I couldn't quite speak English  to correctly, I hope you understood what I was saying haha. I love you all please have an awesome week!!!!!  Happy 2016!!!!!! =D

Love Hermana Orison

Photos: Skype call and Christmas party =)

 District Pictures:

Fasting and Training

December 21, 2015

Whooooooooow!!! This week was crazy, can I just say being a sister training leader is the best and most stressful thing ever hahah. Here is a summary of my week:

We are teaching an investigator named Hector who is getting ready to be Baptized, and he is really excited. But the thing is he works Sundays and is only able to attend church the first hour, then he has to go to work. He asked his boss if he could get work off but he told him no. I then went and asked his boss if he could get the day off those Sundays and he told me no. So Hermana Garcia and I fasted for Hector, asking if God could help him get Sunday off. So last night after our fast, we went to the Boss of Hector and asked again if he could have Sunday off, and guess what? he said YES!!! It was an awesome miracle for us, I can testify that fasting does work! =D

My convert Luis received The Melchizedek Priesthood yesterday!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED =D FOR HIM!!!!! awwwww they grow up so fast!

We had the Dedication of the temple of Tijuana last week, we got to watch through transmission to the church, and Uchtdorf dedicated it! So awesome!! His Spanish is so funny, haha =D

This week I have had the chance to experience what it really means to be a sister training leader. During our studies we did not only plan for our investigators and our area, but we also plan for the sisters we train and their areas, we then work twice as hard in our area to have lots of work so we can be an example for the rest of our zone, and the missionaries we train (as well as do divisions with them and help make their areas better). Then we get back home plan and call all the sisters every night to motivate them and help solve their problems and then we finally go to bed haha, so tiring, but I love it!!! I have the chance to see so many miracles and blessings with this calling, it is the best!!!!!

I am going to try and send pictures later (haha I forgot my cord for my camera...) I hope you are all doing well!!! Please have an amazing Christmas!! Family I am super excited to talk with you guys this week, to this rest of you see you in 4 (wow time goes by so fast!) Love yah!!! =D

Once again with time...

December 14, 2015 

Hey everyone!!! So I had to do some Visa Paperwork again today, so once again I do not have a lot of time to write =( I hope you are all doing amazing!!! I am loving my area and my new calling as Sister Training Leader, and we are seeing a lot of success with the missionaries we are training!! 

I have to say that this mission is the best thing I have ever done, I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve here and be a instrument in God´s hands. This transfer has really opened up my eyes and has helped me see how much I have really changed. I cant really describe how I feel, there are no words for it, all I can say is that I am uncontrollably happy. I love the people here so much! I love my companion, and I love this work more than anything in this world. This Gospel has blessed my life in more ways then I have ever imagined, and watching it change the lives of others is the best feeling EVER!!!!! I invite you to share this gospel with all those around you , help your brothers and sisters receive all the amazing blessings that you are receiving. I promise you will feel a joy you have never felt before, I Love you all!!!! I pray for all of you everyday, please stay safe (especially with the snow) , Have an amazing Week!!!!!! =D

Love,

Hermana Orison

Thanksgiving??

November 30th, 2015

Buenas Tardes!!! How is everyone doing? This past week was pretty good, I did not get the chance to write a lot last week because we has a short amount of time. But all is well in Obregon =) 

Gloria and her boys are doing great! So many amazing missionaries sharing the gospel with everyone =) This week we have started sharing the video A Savior Is Born, a beautiful Christmas video! I love it! In Spanish and English haha Christmas is the best time in the world to share the Gospel =D I invite you all to check the video here: https://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HP_SU_11-29-2015_dMIS_fSPC_xLIDyL1-A_

Everyone has questioned me how they celebrate Thanksgiving here, and I am sad to say they do not celebrate Thanksgiving here =( haha I didn't know it was thanksgiving until we returned to the house in the night and I looked at the date in my planner, ha oh well, there is always next year =P

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

It's getting cold in here!

November 9th 2015

Well, this week was pretty awesome! We had the chance to see a few miracles happen and well, it was just a fun week =)

So we ran out of contacting cards, and I asked my zone leader if he could give us a pack of contacting cards, he laughed and told me I didn't need a whole packet of contacting cards because we didn't contact that much. He told us if we contacted a 100 people this week he would give us a packet of contacting cards. (Usually all of us missionaries contact 60-75 people every week) I accepted his challenge and we ended up contacting 103 people this week! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!!! I want my cards!!!!!!

Luis received the Priesthood yesterday!!!! He went with us to help teach one of our investigators, and he bore his testimony amazingly!!!!! Ahhhh!!! They grow up so fast ;P

We had a zone meeting this week and Hermana Puc and I rocked the practices!!

Its finally getting a little cold here, the mornings and nights actually feel a little like Utah haha YES!!! 

Thank you to all you that wrote me, I always feel more motivated after reading all of your emails =) You guys are the best!!! Love yah all!!! Have a great week!!! =)

Love,

Hermana Orison

Teaching and Sunday Miracles

     Wow, so I just typed a paragraph and realized it was all in Spanish haha Delete! Anyways, this week has been really hard but resulted with amazing blessings too.

 

     For one, I officially had 5 months in the mission on the 15th. (How crazy! This mission is going by way to fast! I don't know how to stop it! AH!) And we had the baptism of little Carmila, who is 8 years old. Her mom was reactivated a few months back and she asked us to help her prepare her daughter for Baptism, so we have been teaching her all the lessons this past month =)

     This week we started teaching English lessons! Whoow! They assigned me and Elder Arnold to teach them, which definitely challenges us because I only have 4 months in Mexico and he only has about a month, so our Spanish is not the best, but I decided to just teach the Class Herr Corry style, and just run around pointing at things and yelling English words, it actually worked pretty well =P 

    Sunday was a big miracle. These past few weeks we have been working reallllllly hard, teaching and finding as many people as we could. But every Sunday no one would really come to church and we were not seeing any results of our efforts. I definitely prayed a lot more this week, asking what more I could do to help this area grow, to help those people we were teaching to receive the Gospel and come to church and feel the Spirit. Behold, we were blessed with 6 investigators this Sunday! We went to pick up a family Sunday morning (who are never usually there...) and they were all waiting by the door with their books of Mormon(s) and pamphlets. I honestly almost cried in the door step because I was so happy just to see them so ready to learn. 

    I cannot tell you how blessed I feel being a missionary. I have the opportunity to visit soooo many families and help them strengthen their relationships with each other. It is just awesome to see them grow in the Gospel and apply these principles in their homes. Its the best! I love it! I have the best mission in the world!! =D

I love you all!!! Have a fantastic week!!! =D 

Love Hermana Orison

 

 

Trial By Spanish

3 months! Ive been in the mission for 3 months! Ah! I cant believe it, time is flying by waaaay too fast! 

This week was a really trialing week for my Spanish. 2 weeks ago we had transfers and I new My mission President was going to do something with this transfer, that would really challenge me, but the transfer came and no one was transferred. The only change was that my Companion became Sister training leader (which is weird because the sister training leaders are supposed to be companions...). But I found out this week that her becoming a sister training leader was the challenge. As a leader she has to have one companion exchange a week, meaning so do I. And this week me and Hermana Jackson were put as companions for a day in my area.

Imagine, two girls from Utah with only 7 weeks in the mission (both of us still have trainers, haha I feel like a Pokemon! =P) and very little Spanish. Yeah, sounds a little scary. But we did it! In fact we did more work then we usually do with our normal companions! And it really surprised us how much Spanish we actually knew! We were able to teach all the lessons clearly, and contact 16 people in the street, And they all understood us, haha Gringa Power!!

And this Sunday I had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting (yay...noooooooo) Definitely a nervous experience, I always thought Talks in English were scary haha wow was I wrong, giving talks in a different language is definitely scarier. But I used my humiliation to my advantage and told all our investigators and some less active members that they could come and laugh at me at church this Sunday. And it worked! we got 4 investigators and 4 less active to come to church, totally worth the humiliation! okay, so it was not too bad, people said they could understand it and they really felt the spirit, so all in all not too bad of a experience. I'm really happy to say, I only needed to use my dictionary twice to translate words while writing my talk =) whoot!

Best part of this week, we have a new District leader and he was asking what I like to do and I Mentioned that I liked running and that I really missed it and couldn't run here because my companion does not like to exercise (as in she got rid of her tennis shoes, because she hates exercising that much). So my district leader turned and told the whole District to make it a goal to run every morning. Whoot! My companion hates me, but I am happier then ever! Running again feels awesome! haha I run around a park now every morning while my companion sits on a swing starring at me (i'm trying to convince her to get some running shoes =P).

Entonces,

I hope everyone is doing amazing! Have a good week everyone!! =)

​

3 month mark for all of us!

The proposal

Hola!

          So its been a fun week full of a tooooon of work, we have found many new investigators this week, and we have been working on some reactivating. We got two families to come to church today, along with two investigators (whoot! Whoot!)  I'm loving this mission more and more every week =)

           I just got done with More visa papers today (Ah I love being a Gringa) and realized the last time I went on a Visa trip I did not understand anything that they had asked me, but this time I understood everything, whoot! Spanish is getting a lot better! I now understand almost all the conversations going on around me, its awesome!

          Haha, so this week I realized that I have been learning a lot of Spanish and improving a ton, but my companion was not getting any better at English. Our mission president wants all his missionaries to learn another language during the mission. So To help her learn English, we decided to make a day where I would speak Spanish all day (not to difficult) and she would speak English all day. We call it Idioma Jueves (Language Thursday, yeah sounds better in Spanish =P) and let me tell yah best thing we have done! We are getting along a lot more because we understand the others point of view (the missionaries that already know the language honestly have no idea how hard it is at times XP) and our work has definitely improved.

             Now to my awkward, creepy, funny, moment of the week (the reason the title is The Proposal):

Me and my companion were coming out of a lunch appointment and headed to our next lesson, when a guy on a Motorcycle stopped besides and asked me if I was from Utah.

            I told him yes, and then he asked what part of Utah, And I went to explain the geography of Utah thinking this was someone interested in the church (people always stop us and ask about the church and people who know Utah usually know about Mormons) and after I got done explaining he asked

"¿Will you Marry Me? "

Yeah, I bet my face was priceless at that moment.

he asked again "¿Will you marry me? I need to marry an American girl and Live in America so I can get a social Security Number."

                I explained that I was a missionary and I was here for a year and half and not allowed to get married (to put it nicely) and then I turned to look at my companion for help and realized he had been speaking English and she had not understood any of it and was getting ready to share a pamphlet with him. I quickly stopped her not wanting to turn this into a celestial marriage proposal! =P

                 Then he said "so I have to wait 18 months to marry you?" and yeah I finally just told him up straight no! I will not marry you! Ah! and quickly walked away with my companion, walking down the road screaming "ewwwwww" while she laughed at me. Always thought my first marriage proposal would be romantic, not in the middle of a street of Mexico by some stranger haha hopefully next time is better and after the mission ;P

Well that my week! Love you all! Have a Good one!

Love,

Hna. Orison

Starting this new year with some White =)

              So this week has been amazing! Our investigator L. was baptized yesturday! She is amazing and her baptism was ahhhhh totally awesome! The spirit was so strong! Just being there testified to me that this church is soooo true, I have no doubt about it. Just seeing her glow after Baptism, has once again showed me that this is the Best Mission ever (sorry for you other missionaries But Mexico is the BEST!! =P)

                Entonces, Feliz Anos everybody!! Mexico is crazy on New Years, parties are in all the streets and fireworks are going everywhere (like in the trees, right over me head, down the streets....yeah everywhere). We were with an investigator for dinner on New Years and her Grandson (11 years old) had a firework explode in his hand, everyone was freaking out.

              But I checked it, and it looked like only a stove burn (thank goodness) so I got it quickly wrapped up for him (haha the grandma was applying a tomato to it, something they like to do in Mexico, don't know why...) and got them all calmed down haha, it was an exciting moment for the day.

 These are the best lights we have found so far.

Well I hope all is well for you guys! Have a good one!!

Love,

Hna. Orison

And A Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

              So this past week has been awesome!! For one I had the chance to talk to my wonderful family (Nice to hear from you all!) and then a Christmas Miracle for me, we had three investigators come to Church!! WHoot! it has been quite a struggle to get just one to church so when three came, it was a miracle! 

              And since the New Years is coming I set some goals, one of them is to hand out at least one Book of Mormon a day and God definitely helped me with that goal this week because everyday He blessed me with someone new to give it too. Haha my District leader is definitely going to have to get more Book of Mormons ;P

              Our zone leaders gave us a goal on Saturday to contact a certain amount of people in the street. It was the end of the day and we were talking to one of our investigators at her store. I was four people off from completing my goal and I felt there was no way I could complete it because we were heading home right after we got done talking to our investigator. But once again God heard me because at that moment four girls came and sat down at a table in front of the store. Haha! And my companion was busy talking to the investigator so I went and contacted them by myself! (okay, it sounds really easy but contacting people in another language that you hardly know, is harder then you think haha) and then I came back to my companion who was like

 "Did you just..."

and I was like "Si" and then "Whoooooooooow!"

Yep. Just like that. It was an amazing moment.

            On another note, I am sad to say I actually got cold this week =( We were out tracking some streets the other night and I am pretty sure it was around 40 degrees with a really cold breeze. I was trying to ignore it, but then one of the Members of the ward we work with saw me and said "your turning blue" (I was not!) and made me take one of her jackets because I am "so smart" and didn't pack any because I'm in Mexico haha needless to say, I bought two today. Yay!! =)

          Entonces, everybody I hope you had an amazing Christmas! Have an Awesome New Year! Perfect time to set some new goals (maybe some goals for missionary work hint. hint.) Have a good one!!

Love,

Hermana Orison

 

 

 

 

 ​I told you I would Find them!! Yep, my life in Mexico is complete now =)

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

           FElIZ NAVIDAD everyone!!! I hope everything is going good for you all.  We had the opportunity to play "Santa" this morning to a few of the kids here. These kids pretty much have nothing. They don't go to school, no toys, few pairs of clothes and both of their parents walked out on them. It is really sad and heartbreaking. The other set of sisters collected some toys and clothes from the members and we delivered them today, saying "Santa" sent them to the wrong address and we were delivering them to the right place. Their faces lit up so much when they saw the packages. They had never received one before. I almost started crying, it was a really emotional moment.

           This has been the second family I have been able to help out this Christmas. Another family has about five kids and they live in a shack of wood and metal. The kids only had a few pairs of clothes, no parents (they live with their grandma) and that's it. We were able to take all the kids to a Christmas party (first party they had ever been to), get some clothes, and treats for them. When we went to drop them off the little four year old ran up to me and gave me a huge hug and ran into the shack with his candy bar happier then ever. Yeah, I may have teared up a little bit on that one...

           I am very grateful to be on this mission, because It shows me of all the things I have in my life to be grateful for. I have so much, where as these people have nothing and are happiest with the simplest things. For many people the church is all they have. I am so happy that I have the opportunity to spread it to more of the people here and put a few more smiles on their faces. I love giving them the hope and faith they need, to show them that they have a Heavenly Father that loves them. Best job ever!!

I love you all, and I hope you are all having an amazing Christmas!

Love,

Hermana. Orison

 

My Christmas Morning breakfast.  :)

Whow! It has been a long day and I don't have too much time to write today. I had to go into the city to get some Visa stuff done with all the other Gringos in our area. It was great!! I got to see all the Elders from my MTC district!! I didn't know I missed them so much haha we all ate at a Burger King (haha okay I lied about the no more burgers thing, I love them too much! And Burger King is definitely better, one day I will find a the Carl's Jr here though)

But Life has been great here. We had the opportunity to sing Christmas carols outside of the Hospital this week, which was really fun it helped light up the mood of a lot of the people there. And our ward also had a Christmas party this week! So much fun! I never knew how funny The Christmas Story could be until I saw in reenacted by our ward haha it is so funny to hear it in Spanish! Oh and they fed us Pig Head in our tacos, which actually tasted really good. I wont complain haha.

We have at least sung every Christmas song in the hymn book about 50 times! I pray that they will get more espanol Christmas hymns, because singing the same five can get a little annoying but watcha yah going to do =)

Well I feel like I am getting fatter everyday, one habit I have not broken from the MTC yet is being a fast eater, and I am so paying for it. Every time a member sees that my plate is empty, they put a ton more on it because they think I'm starving, haha! I'm totally not.

Well love yah all! Have a good week! Enjoy the Holidays!!

                  We are God's elves :)                        

Familiar things!! I still love my Video Games and my MTC District!

Love,

Hermana Orison