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

Another One Rides The Bus

Hola Everyone!!  This week was full of some first time experiences.

         I had the opportunity to go on divisions with a member. The member I went with is about 65yrs old, and was a blast to work with. She is like a crazy, awesome Grandma to me, and we taught really well together =)

     Then I got to go on exchanges the next day with my Sister Training leader and help teach some of her investigators.

      I also had the fun experience of Contact a bus this week, haha nothing like standing at the front of the bus and preaching the gospel to everyone in a language you don't know, haha quite the adrenaline rush, cant wait to do it again =D

The scripture for this week that I really love is: 

Romans 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

          I love this scripture because it is a reminder to me that no matter what situation or who you are, you are still a child of God and He loves you. Period. He is always reaching out His hand to help you reach your full potential. Even when you feel like no one can help you, He is there walking every step with you.  

I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week! 

Love ,

Hermana Orison

Photo:

 Exchanges!! =D

 

 

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

 

 

The Less Active =P

                Well yesterday was my last day of training, I am now a full on missionary today, whoot! Kinda scary because my Spanish is still not the best haha (And my English is getting worse and worse as days pass haha). These 4 months have definitely flown by fast!

                This week was a really hard week, getting adjusted to a new area is never really fun. Especially this one, I found out that my job here is quite different, Me and my companion were sent to this area to focus on the less actives (this area has at least 200 less active familys just in this ward, because some elders, years ago, were baptizing and not teaching -__- ) So we have to cover three different missionaries areas (really huge area for us!) and find all the less actives and reactivate them. I found out that the past two transfers (3 months) no one had really worked in this area, so we are starting from bottom. 

But I am enjoying working with the Less actives, they all need a lot of help and I am glad that I have the opportunity to be here and teach and learn from them. =)

                 But I got some really good news =) Yesterday was "normal" transfers and me and Hermana Fisher are staying in Mochis (of course, since I just got here Friday =P) but my Best friend Hermana Capps is transferring from Ciudad Obregon to be our sister Training leader here. Whoot!! I pretty much screamed and jumped up and down in the middle of road with excitement when our district leader told us. I know Hermana Capps will make this area awesome and I finally have a friend here! Whoow!! Miracles do happen!! =D

Anyways, funny moment of the week,

                 In Mexico when you greet each other, you hug/shake hands and kiss the air by their cheek (I think its called a face...) and as Sister missionaries we only greet girls this way and have to tell the guys no, because of mission standards. 

                 We had just finished with a lesson and I was really tired and not thinking straight. I gave quick kisses to the sisters and then shook one of the guys hands and went in to give a face, mid way through my brain started working again and I quickly pulled away, apologizing and everyone started laughing. 

yep, I bet I was pretty red then. Gotta love different cultures haha =) 

Anyways, Love you all! Have a good week! 

Love, Hermana Orison

 I found turtles!!!! =)

2 Gringas y 1 Grande Area

Hola Mi Amigos! ¿Como Esta?

So yeah, I didn't really write a group email last week, (sorry!) didn't have much time. I have to say these past two weeks have been a little challenging. But hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger =) Or I guess in the case of a mission, strengthens your testimony =)

On Friday I had a "special" transfer to Mochis (another State in Mexico, yes our mission covers two states). It was reallllly hard to leave Ciudad Obregon, saying goodbye to everyone was awful =( Especially since two of my investigators have Baptisms coming up on Feb 14 (I know great day to be baptized, right?) But I know this is for the best and this is where God wants me right now =)

Mochis is definitely different then my last area. It is really beautiful! It is a mix between California and Texas, and the area we cover is HUGE!!! TONS OF WALKING!! WHOOW!!!  My new companion is Amazing!!! Her name is Hermana Fisher, and she is from California =) I'll admit I was really nervous to have an American as a companion because I thought my Spanish would decrease because we would probably be speaking more English. 

But nope! When the President put us together he told specifically that we could not speak any English with each other, and so far we have followed though with that. Surprisingly,  I have learned so much more Spanish! More then I have even learned in the past two weeks! This transfer has definitely helped me a ton with the Spanish =)

  Yesterday we had Stake Conference, which is considerably different then the conferences in Utah. They used a lot of visual aids, and called up volunteers to help them with Missionary practices, it was so weird! But pretty cool, haha our mission president had to give four talks =P And A Seventy spoke too! His name was Elder Ortiz. He came and visited with us missionaries after he gave his talk, never thought I'd see the day that I would be talking to a seventy in Spanish. Miracles do happen haha ;)

Well hope all is going well in Utah =) I am doing much better and getting adjusted to my new area =) I love and miss you all! Have a good week everyone! =)

Love

Hermana Orison

 Me and Hermana Fisher! :)

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