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! :)

How Embarrassing

Whoow! It has been a hard working week! My companion and I got more  lessons done this week then ever  before (hehe we got more lessons done this week then the Elders! They usually only get in two, yes, they were a little irritated ;P Sister Missionary Power! bam! ) And we got so many new investigators that are just amazing! I am so excited to teach them! =)

I had the opportunity to teach a lesson with someone who knows English! Whoow! I am proud to say that I can teach perfectly in English, I got him committed to read the B.O.M., pamphlet and pray! I honestly this he will do it (unlike other investigators...) and it was funny because my companion had no idea what was going on (tables turned) and I was leading the lesson. It was a happy moment this week =)

Oh so funny story:

We had just finished teaching a lesson with an Investigator, and she seemed to know a lot about Joseph Smith, a lot more then most investigators. After the lesson I asked my companion about it and she said 

"well yeah she is a member"

me: "wait shes a member!?"

"Yeah, just really less active"

me: "But, I invited her to Baptism the first week here..."

"yeah, that's why we were all laughing"

Yes, I found out this week that I had invited an member to baptism my first week here...Yeah as Yoda would put it "How embarrassing" or as facebook or Instragram would put it #Languageproblems #don'tknowspanish #SoyGringa and on.

Well, Have a good one everyone! Love yah!!

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.  :)