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

NO MORE BURGERS!

Whoow time is going by fast, I cant believe another week has gone by so fast. Well, for starters we did get our water back on!! Yay!! (Happy Dance) so I don't stink anymore (at least I don't think so...) we have been doing a lot of activating for our ward (there are a ton of less actives) so Ive been meeting lots of the members around here, they are all really nice and happy people =) 

'Im still learning the dos and don'ts in Mexico. for one, don't ever eat a burger from any of the little shops here, they are not very good (I would honestly pick McDonald over them, yep that bad) and you will be up at 3 in the morning throwing it back up haha (all part of the Mexican Experience) 

One thing I have noticed here is that Coca-cola pretty much sponsors this place haha at least it looks like it. they sell coke everywhere, every person offers it to us to drink and the label is pretty much on every street haha its so weird.

We watched the Christmas devo last night at the stake center, and it was so nice because all of us American missionary went into one of the back rooms of the church and watched it in English, it WAS SO NICE!! AH! I MISS MY ENGLISH SO BAD!!! haha as Elder. Yoo said while we were watching it "it feels like I'm in America again!" it was so true haha I definitely needed it and the words that were spoken in the devo felt like they were just for me. If you missed it go watch it! Like right now! It was great =) oh and if you haven't watched the Christmas video "he is the gift" put out by the lds church, go watch that too. it is so amazing! I love it! (christmas.mormon.org)

I hope all is going well for everyone! I miss yah! I love yah! Keep being awesome!!

Love,

Hermana Orison

 

 Oh My companion cooked my Spaghetti for breakfast haha (and I just hit the guy beside me with my memory card just barely oops haha what can I say, I was excited to upload my pictures!) Our lovely wash and rinse cycle, yeah this is the life!!

  Our lovely wash and rinse cycle, yeah this is the life!!

This is the Life

Hola!!!!

                     Wow has it been a week! I don't even know where to begin haha Mexico is so different!! My companion Hna. Alfaro, she is from Mexico and seriously I think without her I would literally die haha! She is very smart and we have been teaching each other English and Spanish to communicate. 

                     My area is in Ciudad Obregon, all the houses here have gates around them, there are no paved roads, and there is no carpet in any of the houses I have been to so far (haha I know weird thing to notice). We walk everywhere and if we don't we take one of the buses which is very exciting haha. Imagine a school bus with half of the seats pressed against the windows, a broken windshield, and a bus driver who stops for about one second to pick you up (as in the bus is moving as he is finding change for your money and while you are still trying to get to your seat haha and its not moving slow!!) I have a ton of fun with it though haha 

                 The people here are really awesome!! I love them, although I can barely understand them, they are really patient with me and they are always happy its awesome! 

                      Haha I totally forgot about thanks giving until I read everyone's emails. They do not celebrate it here, Thinking back to what I ate that day I think it was a really spicy bowl of what looked like spaghetti Os. The food here is amazing though, I just ate manray soup for lunch (sorry for spelling errors I'm on a Spanish keyboard and the keys are not quite the same haha).  They serve tortillas at every meal and they are AMAZING!! 

              Ah yesterday someone stole one of the pipes to our water line! Haha so we have had no water for two days. ahhh yeah its the Mexican experience, why someone needed a pipe is beyond me. but, I hope they needed it more then us 

           Here's some Awesome stuff, we had a lesson Last night with my favorite Investigator Cesar,And I was able to testify to him and tell him my baptism story IN SPANISH!! it was great!! He is now thinking about baptism and I committed him to read a chapter out of the Book Of Mormon (the one that helped me know the church was true). It was an awesome experience!! Made me love this place even more  it's the best!! 

I hope all is going well for all of you!! I love you all! have an awesome week!! 

Love,

Hermana Orison

My welcoming to my new home haha

 

Us getting water.

                                                    My new home. And so the adventure Begins :)