Monday, February 24, 2014

Downtown Tampa & her first Alligator! 2/24/2014

This week has been pretty crazy long!!

Our P-day got cut pretty short on Monday, so we could head up to Metro (Downtown Tampa)!
Our car was still in the shop so we were able to get a ride up with some other sisters that are serving just south of us... they just so happened to be Sister U. and Sister C! (both of our MTC companions are now companions! :D)
And we got to spend 3 days with them!!!! It was sooooo cool!!!!!!!! :)

Anyways, we arrived in the afternoon, and we were given a large stack of mormon.org cards, a few pamphlets, and a schedule/walking instructions (it was totally like the MTC..haha)
So we were sent out into the wild, and were told not to come back until 9pm! It was a lot of fun walking! Sister L. and I made a plan to take turns talking to everyone! That way we were accountable! It worked out well, and it was a lot easier than we thought to hand out the cards and talk to people! On our way downtown we met Juan! He is an awesome guy from Tampa, I was able to tell him about the website, and ask if he believed in Christ. We got to have a good discussion and I bore testimony of Christ's church, and strengthening my relationship with Him. And he told us he wanted to learn more! :D We got his information and gave it to the missionaries in his area :) It was pretty cool and basically fantastic!
We got lost, of course, in downtown- mostly because we were to stubborn to take our map out.. we didn't want to look all tourist-y! haha, so when we got to a certain road were supposed to turn left, but we went right... taking us into a part of town where there weren't people! haha, (don't worry mum, they told us not to talk to the homeless people, and they gave us pepper spray.. plus! we are protected! ;)
But we got to meet a lot of people! And basically it was super good for me!

We had a lot of great experiences and handed out about 35 cards in just 3 hours! I'm probably repeating myself, but I just want to emphasize how easy it was for me to talk to everyone! It is sooooo hard to do in our area, when I make so many excuses, but in metro I had just decided to talk to everyone I could- and it was super easy too!!!!! :)
Tuesday was the longest day of my life! but somehow the shortest too! hahaha, just like everyday out here, I suppose :)
We worked out in the fancy gym in their apartments! And then I had a good study, and wrote daddy a long email on my ipad.. he'll get it soon, I had to wait to send it until today but its on its way! We did a big companionship study with all 8 of the sisters that were staying together and it was really great! We did role plays of how to approach people and invite really quickly! It helped a lot, because Sister L. and I were assigned to be on the bus that day! We were kind of freaking out because that is suuuuppppppeeeeerrrrrrr awkward if they aren't interested and we have to sit next to each other for the rest of the trip!! you know?! But we practiced how we wanted to do it!
Anyway, we didn't know how to catch the bus... so that took a few hours of wondering from bus stop to bus stop.. lol. That's also when we got the call from the elders that Brother H. (Their ward mission leader) had a heart attack and was in a medically induced coma... We prayed a lot! I'm so glad for technology so that you could all find out too!
They are in AZ with their daughters, and the latest information we have is that they were warming the body back up, and took his breathing tubes out, he remembered who his family was but couldn't remember dates. Apparently he was having trouble breathing on his own so he was put back on the ventilator, as of Saturday night. That's all we know right now.. not super comforting! :( but keep the family all in your prayers!

Okay- so the bus ended up being a whole lot of fun!!!!! Sister L. and I would split up- one would take the front and one would take the back! We handed out cards to the entire bus 2 different times!  And we had so many cool experiences!  We got to teach basically the whole first lesson 
to different people throughout the day!

Really quick cool thing that happened- we were getting closer to our stop at the bus terminal, and I kept looking back at a lady with her baby girl by the back exit.  I kept thinking I needed to give her a card! But I made some excuse in my head, and our stop came and we hurried off the bus.. well, I looked back and the bus driver got off too, and I just knew I needed to go back!  So I told Sister L., "I have to give this lady a card, I'll be right back!" I ran back on the bus and invited her to church and asked her if she would check out the website, she was really nice and seemed really grateful that I invited her!  I told her to have a nice day and started to turn away, when a man at the back of the bus stood up and asked if he could have a card!  I said "Sure!!" So I ran back there and started telling him about the website when the lady behind him just put out her hand to receive one!  Then the people across from her wanted one and eventually I had give a card to everyone!! Because they all asked for one!!! :D  It was sooooo coool!!! Sister L. followed me onto the bus, and while I was at the back- someone told her "I didn't get one!" so she shared the cards too! I stood there and told all of them about church and the website and it was pretty much amazing!! :)
Anyways, so many more wonderful things happened! and I was soo glad I learned to listen to the Spirit's promptings!
Sooooo,, our second day in metro- we handed out 154 cards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
Wednesday came and we were exhausted! but I really loved the things I learnt!  Now, it is soooooooooooo much easier to talk to someone in our area!
Wow! So that took up a lot of my time! But the rest of my week was great too!! 
We taught Victoria and Lynn a great lesson on Saturday... and drum roll please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I SAW AN ALLIGATOR!! It was so awesome! That's what some of the pics are of! :)
And we had a really great fundraiser for the YW on Saturday night that our investigators came too! It was a blast! 
Okay!!
I love you lots and lots! 
Do you have any pics for me this week!?!??!?!

SEE YOU IN A WEEK!
Sister Ormsby
xxx

ps- got the wax pot when I came back from metro! THANKS!!! It is awesome! :D
pps- thanks for the skirt too!!! i lurve itt!!!
ppps- the beehives mailed me Book of Mormons that they wrote their testimonies in! So I can hand them out! how cute is that?!?! :)


                                               Sister Ormsby in Tampa!


                                                                     City of Tampa

                                                           Sister Ormsby and Victoria
 
                                                Sister Ormsby & the Alligator in background!
   
                                                      The Alligator!

                                   Sister Ormsby with her companion and Martha & Delia :)
 
                                                                    Martha!

                                     Video of sisters with Alligator!  

            Her quote with this:  "I know I sound American in this......... don't make fun!"

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Guess who has an IPad? :) 2/17/2014

Hello MUMMAH!! 
What a coincidence that I am writing my email on my IPad too!!! :) haha, we can only use WiFi though, so we are sitting at Village Inn this morning, looking quite unsocial with each other as we email on our iPads! Hahahaha, I suppose I should order my breakfast before they kick us out... Lol
Okay- great! Bacon, eggs and pancakes :)
Anyways this week has been pretty awesome!! First off, yes. We got iPads!! It is no longer a fallacy! This is reality! And it is weird!!!!  There is so much to get used too!! 
We have to input everything in it! And it is kind of annoying! Haha, we aren't allowed
to use paper anymore. Like at all! We can't even use our paper scriptures and PMG.. 
We have to study and teach solely with the iPads!
It is pretty crazy!!! So now I have a massively great bag, that is always basically empty now! 

Then Thursday Sister L. was really sick with a fever, so I took care of her and we didn't really have an opportunity to go out, but I made valentines for our sisters :)

Friday was valentines day! And I put up little surprise sticky notes for Sister L. all over the place while she was sleeping! I also made her strawberry tortillas for breakfast!!!!! It was a flashback! And pretty much delicious! :)

Saturday we got a call that this afternoon we are going to Tampa! Until Wednesday night! 
There is something that President has created out here called the Metro Training Center. Our own little MTC in the FTM. The Metro area is in downtown Tampa, and it is basically just a
street contacting area. President has been sending a few companionships in each week. We get taken out of our area for 3 days.
They put us up in an apartment and we all do studies together and work out in the morning and then they send us out to different places to walk and talk to everyone! Like some people are given a bus route, or a busy park to go to. We walk all day long and try our best to talk to
everyone! I am so freaking excited! It is gonna be sooooo sweet! The idea is basically that President thinks our missionaries aren't bold enough, and he is getting us over our fears by essentially throwing us in the deep end! He relates it to a batting cage, he is gonna stick us
in one where the balls are coming 100mph and it is gonna be hard and it is gonna be scary but then we will get the hang of it. So when we are back in our own areas, and a slow 60mph ball is walking past us in a neighborhood it will be so easy to hit it out of the park! I might have overlapped metaphors, I hope that made sense! Hahaha It is gonna be amazing! Everyone that has gone so far has absolutely loved it! So we are pumped! Everyone also says it is exhausting! But what else is new! ;) exhausting means your doing something right! :)

Okay, that's all for now, I can chat for a bit if you can! It's a
holiday today, right?! Are you working? Do you have fun plans with the
kids?!
LOVE YOU ALL!

See you in a week,
Sister Ormsby
Xxxxx

                                                  First IPad selfies!  LOL


                                                 Strawberry tortillas, mmmmmmm......


Thursday, February 6, 2014

The longest week so far! 2/3/2014

This has been a LONG week!!! Like the longest of my mission!! 
Monday, I didn't enjoy my regular p-day routine or relaxation because we had to drive up to Tampa for an Emergency MLC!  We were there all night because our mission has a lot of obedience issues! It was heart-breaking to President, because last week was the first time on his mission, he had to send someone home for disobedience! :(  basically we all need to be stepping it up A WHOLE LOT! Because he doesn't ever want to have to do that again! We are starting with all the little simple rules that we have been letting slip, like music- new mission rule: No More Music. (my package of cds will be on its way back to you next week.) Missionaries that have been having issues all stemmed from letting their music slip into inappropriate and then everything else got worse... so he is just cutting it all out! 

But we have definitely felt a lot more responsibility now though. We have been doing crazy amounts of exchanges with our sisters now to help them with their 'little' problems or hold-ups.. we are actually going to be on exchanges all this week out of our area.  We will only be here on Tuesday and on Sunday... :/ Probably one of the hardest things for me in this calling is to leave our area to help other sisters... I want to help them, but I feel bad like I'm forgetting and neglecting our area!! :( But I know that the Lord will bless us and our work when we show him how important it is to help the other sisters! Our zone leaders have organized to rotate exchanges with every elder in the zone, they are staying out of their area until Feb 15! crazy!! BUT holy cow, the Lord has given them sooooooooo many miracles! The list is tooo long! They are working soo hard! So we are gonna do the same and I know the Lord will bless us too. 
We are going to do 72 hours with each sister, and the plan is to have a perfect 3 days. Perfectly obedient to all the little things for those 3 days, and we will see blessings/miracles! :)

Laura wasn't home at our appointment! Such a bummer!! But we have been getting so many potential investigators walking more often. We have walked at least for a little bit every day this week and it has been sooo cool! I am so much more bold now, holy cow! hahahaha. We walked for 3 hours on Friday in the pouring rain and I rolled my ankle (I'm fine, I didn't even notice until we got in that night LOL) and we meet people! 
Anyways, sorry I don't have many specific stories to tell you, but I am really grateful for a fresh start this week! It will be so great to refocus my work and our zones work! I am sooo grateful for the atonement this week and for our mission President, I know that he is called of God and that he is helping our mission be better. I love this work and I love Florida! Thinking that this time next year I won't be a missionary, or it will be all over really freaks me out! hahaha, that doesn't make sense to me! That I have been out that long?! haha whaaaaaa?????

OKAY!
I seriously love you all and I love my Savior!
See you in a week!
Sister Ormsby