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

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

Flash Back!

Hola everyone! Don't have too much time today, so I am making this quick:

This week has been pretty fun, I had the opportunity to go on swaps with my Mom!! Hermana Alfaro!!!! You have no idea how weird it is to teach with your trainer 7 months after your training! (I'm freaking out! I almost have 10 months in my mission :O

Haha it was weird but fun teaching with her. Our teaching styles are a lot alike and we almost ended up repeating each other at times. Being able to teach her investigators with her was the best! It showed me how much I have progressed in my mission =) It is sad, this is her last transfer in her mission, so this will be the last time I will be able to teach with her =(

We had a mission activity this week, but with another ward. Our mission president sent all the missionaries that are on this side of Obregon, to go to this ward activity that was in my Church here!! It was awesome! I got to see some people from my first area!! I could actually talk to them!! WHOOW!!!

For the activity they gave each companionship a map and a list of less actives to visit and they put us with a companionship of members. Oh I am so glad we had members with us because it was not our area and maps of Mexico don't help for nada!

But we ended wandering around looking for houses for 2 hours! And we only found houses where no one was home or no one lived there. We had a little hope as we knocked on the last house of our list. But when we knocked a guy opened the door with a big smile,

 "Ah the missionaries! do you want to come in?"

"well, yeah" I said

"Pass in! But I'm going to warn you it is a little messy in here." He said opening the door for us, and we saw tools and all sorts of stuff all over his tables and floor. We had to hop over stuff to get to the couch.

A movie was blasting and the house smelt weird, my companion was asking me if this was a good idea we both had a little weird feeling, we had two members with us and the younger girl was looking really nervous.

I said a little prayer in my head asking God if wanted us to leave or stay. I got the impression to stay in the house. So we stayed, and I asked a few inspired questions and the guy ended up telling about how his dad had died a few years back and his mom had moved away, and he had started getting into some bad stuff but some friends helped him out of that situation and he was now attending the catholic church. but just a few weeks back his life started falling apart again.

We ended up teaching him about prayer and about the plan that God has for all of us, and that we are able to live with our families forever through this gospel. The spirit was so strong! He ended saying the prayer and it was so powerful! and I am so excited to say that he attended church the next day =) I felt like God had put us there in the right place at the right time =) I love this mission!!!!! =D

 Love Hermana Orison

Food =P

Whoooooow P-day!!! Hola mi amigos!! We had some fun times this week:

1. We were eating lunch at a members house last thursday, and she put out a plate of sliced peppers. Having 8 months in the mission, I was sure I would be fine eating them, so I took a big slice that had a lot of seeds on it not even thinking about it and quickly put it into my mouth. Hehe ya I dont think I have cried so hard at a meal before, haha that is when they told me the seeds were the hottest part -_- and then they gave me soda to drink because thats all they have here, haha didn't help! But I am still alive! =P

2. We are teaching a family right now, that is just incredible and amazing. They invited us to eat dinner with them after one of our lessons, my companion and I didn't really want to because we just got done eating a big meal with a member and were already full, but we accepted, because we didn't want to be rude. So some how I stuffed down a plate of re fried beans and meat and was completely full.

And the dad of the family asked if I wanted more, I told him no and that I was full. But he doesn't take no for an answer, and grabbed my plate and filled with re fried beans and meat. Ahhhh, I honestly don't know how we ate it all! That's the fullest I have been in my life XP then after the meal he gave us a bunch of fruit (mangoes, oranges, bananas) to take home haha my companion asked me
"did you pray for food?"

me: "haha, no I'm pretty sure this is a sign from God that I need to eat healthier" XP

3. We had ward conference this Sunday which was pretty fun =) All the missionaries had to sing in the choir, which actually sounded really good =D

Most of the talks that were given Sunday were about The Sabbeth day and how it connects to our faith in God. If you think about it, when we attend church, it is an act of faith. It is an act of faith that we will receive personal revelation from the talks or the classes that we attend. Another act of faith is repentance, which really is a beautiful thing. It give us the opportunity too look at ourselves clearly and show us all the things we can do to be better people and to live better lives, it is a change of our thoughts and actions and a part of the repentance is the sacrament. When we partake of the sacrament we become clean of sin and we have the opportunity to start fresh again. Which leads back to attending church, one of the ten commandments of God. I know God gives us commandments not to restrict us, but to benefit us. When we obey His commandments we are free of unnecessary burdens, and live happier lives because we have the opportunity to receive the fullness of His blessings.

How amazing is this Gospel!! Love it more and more everyday!!

I love you all!!

Love Hermana Orison

My English Sucks! Whoow!

HOOOOOOOOOOLA!!!!! 

This week has been so long, but very good. We our finding a lot more people to teach that's actually progress, whoooooooow!!!! Miracle!!! Summary of my week:

• Our District had its first English class together (Our President has really been pushing on all the missionaries to learn at least one language in their mission) And we practiced giving the first lesson to each other in English, and I was the only English Speaker in my group, so I lead it off and helped my companion out, haha it was actually really difficult to teach in English because my brain has taught this lesson so many times in Spanish that It forgot all the words in English. When we got done the missionaries we were teaching told me that I sounded like a Mexican trying to speak English, WHOO!!! I have been waiting forever for that insult!! ;)

• I had to give a talk in our ward Sunday, and I didn't end up writing it until the night before (As a missionary in Mexico, you neeeever have free time, never!!) So I wrote my talk about the Holy Ghost because I thought we didn't have specific topics. When we went to sacrament meeting the Bishop announced that I would be talking about Obedience...yeah didn't get that memo...So I got up to the stand and said "Today I would like to talk about the blessing of Obedience, the Holy Ghost." and gave my talk and I am proud to say that people were crying during it (And not because my Spanish is bad!!) we could really feel the Spirit in that meeting =)

• Funny surprising moment: We contacted a women outside of her house and we started teaching her lesson one and I taught her about the Baptism of Jesus and started inviting her to be baptized when she cut me off and said "Where do I go to get baptized?" I stared at her shocked and explained where a church was, but told her she needed to pray about the things we were teaching first so she could receive an answer from God that they were true. (Because I don't want anymore less actives!) She stared at the pamphlet we gave her then looked at us and simply said "I believe it is true" and then her sister walked in and women asked her Sister if she wanted to listen to the Mormons with her and her sister said "ah, I was already baptized with them" by this time me and my companion were so confused and shocked, but invited her sister to come to church too. By the end of the lesson we had an investigator with a baptism date and another less active to work with, haha miracles do happen! I promise! =D

I hope You are all doing well! Have A great week! I love you all!!!

Love,

Hermana Orison

 

 Me cleaning the graveyard! Whoow! Sweeping up ashes and leaves =P

The last dinner of our last transfer (yeah didn't want my Zone leader in the photo...hehe)

 

 Our investigator has a turtle that wanders around her house and always comes out to greet us during our lessons =D

 

Feliz Dia De Madres!!!! =D

    FELIZ DIA DE MADRES to all you Mommies out there!!!! 

Skyping my family yesterday was amazing! =) I love you all! When I got done Skyping, the family of the house I was Skyping in laughed at me when I got done because I had a huge smile on my face. They also told me that they understood half of my conversation because I had been speaking Spanglish without really realizing it, oops! To my family, I am sorry if you didn't understand everything that I said, the Spanish is getting to me =P

     Yesterday we also got Transfers, and I am staying in Mochis again with Hermana Serrano. Third transfer here, whoow! I feel like this next transfer here is going to be really good, I am excited for it =D 

Little Funny story: Saturday we had another mission activity where we invited all members and investigators to the church to watch Meet The Mormons, we were sad when only one of our investigators showed up. But 20 minutes into the movie, the DVD stopped working and one of the Elders thought it would be a great idea to put ¨17 miracles" on instead. I love that movie, but when you have a bunch of people watching it that don't really know anything about Joseph Smith or Pioneers, its a little weird. Especially when the first 2 minutes is of a wolf chasing down someone and a person freezing to death, AHHHH!!! Me and my companion quickly became happy that we didn't have more then one investigator there (Who asked a ton of questions, but said he really liked it. Yep, he is our Golden Investigator =) ) Gotta love the life of the mission =)

I hope you are all doing wonderful! I love you all!!

     I want to include this link to a Mormon Message (by Elder Uchtdorf of course) for all the Moms out there, you are the greatest creators, I mean you make people? How cool is that? haha LOVE YOU!!! =D

 

 

 http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/create

 

And here is a Photo of my Zone before Transfers =)

Crazy RM!

     Ah don't have too much time! but my companion was a little sick this week. And our sister training leaders ordered her to stay home and rest for two days, meaning as her companion I had to stay home too.

     Let me tell you, I almost went crazy that first day staying in our house! It was the first time in five months that I had spare time. Time with no plans or scheduled things. I was freaking out because I didn't know what to do, so while my companion was sleeping, I cleaned the whole house, translated two chapters of the Book of Mormon from Spanish to English, read a bunch of conference talks that could help our investigators, studied Spanish, cooked dinner and on and on. 

Yeah, lets just say the second day I called our sister training leaders and asked them to do exchanges with me because I couldn't handle staying in the house "relaxing" for another day. There are souls that need saving dang it! haha

     Just warning all of you, I am probably going to be a really crazy RM. to my family, Please plan out a lot of things out for me to keep me busy when I get back or I might go insane lol =) Besides that I am loving my mission!! And we are getting a lot of work done here =) I love you all! Have a fantabulous week!!

Love

Hermana Orison

Mexico Is Never Boring

Whoow! It has been a long roller coaster ride this week. We had a lot of ups and downs, but its all good =) Some things that happened this week:

• I learned how to make tortillas last P-day! And they tasted amazing! (didn't look the best, but tasted awesome!) I can now make tortillas for a living if School doesn't work out! (haha jk Mom)

• Our District Leader is sick! And called us at 2 o'clock in the morning. (which freaked us out because we thought something happened to him and his companion) and when we answered the phone he said 

"Hermanas! do you know what happened!?"
"No Elder what!?"

"I just woke up with a Cockcroach in my Mouth!!" 

"That's just gross..." Why he called us at 2 in the morning to tell us this, I will never know. Elders are Elders.

• I cant pray in English! One of our Less actives asked me if I would say a prayer for him in English. So I started it out "Dear, pad-I mean heavenly father...Estamos...Thank thee..." yeah my brain was having the hardest time translating my Spanish prayers back to English haha, whoow! Success! I am probably going to have to join the Spanish Ward when I get home haha =P

• We had an Investigator come to church this week! WHOOT!!! This area was opened about 6 months ago, and has not had one investigator go to church. When I came into this area I had the goal having at least 1 go to church, we finally accomplished it! and I am pretty sure there will be a lot more investigators to come =) Whoow!!

• Really good news, we moved houses today! I am sooooooooo excited! Our other house was...well not the best...yeah. I am actually excited to live in this house =) Its pretty =) I got to wear jeans for the first time in my mission to move all our stuff out of the house. I have to say after wearing only skirts for about 6 months, it feels really weird but good to wear jeans! Yep, I miss them =) 

Well that is the summary of my week, I hope you are all doing well! And loving the snow (haha its like 70 degrees here right now =P). Have a good one everyone! 

Love,

Hermana Orison

Meet the Mormons

 So our mission President let us watch meet the Mormons this week! AHHHHHHHHHH it was amazing!!! (even more amazing was that we watched it in spanish and I understood it!!) It is full of awesomeness! Boxing, prosthetics, zip-lines, missionaries, Navy, Football, and all my favorite stuff =) It did make me really miss home (especially when the missionary is leaving for the MTC, I think all the missionaries watching it were crying, because we all knew how it felt) the spirit was really strong in the movie, it was amazing. Everybody, por favor if you have not seen it, go watch it! Its the best!! =D  

Work here is definitely getting better, we taught a less active family yesterday. Everyone in the family are members except for the dad. The dad is usually never home, but yesterday he was and we got him and his wife to listen to our message about the restoration and during it we were feeling the spirit so strong. We invited the Husband to baptism, and he said yes! The wife started crying and said "I have been waiting for so long to hear him say that" It was one of the best lessons I have ever been in! I know this family will be so happy when they are united together in the principles of the Gospel. The family is the primary ordinance of God, and a family the applys the principles of the Gospel in their lives will have a home full of the Spirit and happiness, I have seen it so many times here in the mission. I am in love with this gospel! It is the best! I have the best job ever! =D

I love you all! and miss you too! Have an amazing week! =D

Love,

Hermana Orison