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!"

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......

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

Photos from the Brandon Zone Conference

 These photos were gleaned from the Tampa Florida mission facebook page

 ..... Isn't she beautiful?   Enjoy!!

A week full of enlightenment and miracles 1/27/2014

Just a few pictures of this week! I made rolls for the first time this week! 

They were surprisingly good!! And Sister L. and I had some blood oranges! :)

This week was full of wonderful, enlightening and spiritual meetings! On Friday we had zone conference, Saturday morning we had a mission wide training (two of the area seventies came) and then stake conference on both Saturday night and Sunday! (where those seventies spoke as well as Sister McConkie, general YW, and Elder Russell M. Nelson!!!) SO YEAH. I have been feasting this weekend!! :)

Here are some things i loved to learn on these meetings:

Zone Conference: President Cusick is such an awesome missionary! He taught us how to street contact with our lesson pamphlets and leaving prayers in peoples homes.  Then we did a bunch of role-plays so it was great! Lately he has really been focusing us on finding, which is where we are lacking, so its great!!!! :) He has encouraged us to get out of our cars and really go talk to people! He wants us to be walking or biking to appointments so we can talk to more people than if were just driving by, it is sooo good!

Mission Training:  First off a side note, Sister L's MTC comp is now companions with my MTC comp!!! :D So that's cool! and we got to see them both on Saturday. 

Okay, Elder Kopischke is a member of the seventy that came to speak at our stake conference, and President persuaded him to come early and meet with the whole mission! He is sooooo funny! And he taught with such a wonderful spirit! He began by asking us a scriptural question; "What desirest thou?" or "What would you have me do?" He gave us all a few moments to write down the list of things that we desire of hope for for our missions and let us continue to add to the list throughout the meeting. My list is a page long, so i wont send it all to you.. but the gist was this: 'to love and serve with all of my heart, might, mind and strength.' Make a list of the things that you desire for your life! It was eye opening to recognize the promise that if we ask the Lord, He is bound to give! We need to first understand what it is that we want, and then to simply ask for it!!

He taught us 4 things to make our mission dreams come true!

1- Be as obedient as possible.

2- Be as pure as possible.

3- Plan as good as possible.

4- Work as hard as possible.

in that order!

We discussed obedience a lot! But not just to mission rules, but to more celestial laws, like obeying the promptings we receive and not letting Satan slowly pull you further from the truth. it was basically amazing, I'm probably not explaining it right. 

He opened the floor to questions for the second half and we could ask what we wanted and either he, or President, or Elder Thompson (our Tampa area seventy) answered it!  Somebody asked a question about boldness and I learnt a lot from the answers given. There are so many ways to be bold! To be bold- be persistent. To be bold- do not deviate from your message. To be bold- be clear, don't confuse loudness with boldness, be plain and simple. To be bold- don't get arrogant or overbearing. To be bold- PRACTICE! To be bold- exercise your faith.

We gain our confidence through Jesus Christ. He is the author and finisher of my faith, He is the reason I can be confident in my message.

AND SOOOOO many other awesome things!

So- another side note, after this training we had a dinner appointment but nothing else set until after, so we decided to walk to our appointment! We were walking for about 30 minutes.. not in the proper walking shoes, and an extra heavy bag, and no one was on the sidewalks to talk to. No one.  We were getting pretty discouraged. We decided that the Lord was probably testing our faith to see if we would try walking again if it didn't work out the first couple times.... so we resolved to just practice how we would approach someone.  We had a pamphlet out and we were running through what we would say, when a car pulled up on the side of the road and a lady rolled down her window and yelled out at us asking if we were Jehovah Witnesses.  I told her we were Mormons and asked her if she had heard of us, she hadn't! Which is weird! hahaha, anyways- she ended up telling us that her 4 year old son just asked her the night before who Jesus was, and she asked us if we had anything that would help her teach him. We ended up giving her a pamphlet, a Book of Mormon and we have an appointment this week to teach them!!! It was such a miracle! She even told us that she drove by and felt like she should ask us, so she did a u-turn to come ask us!! MIRACLE! So, basically I love walking now and we are gonna do it everyday! It was amazing! :)

Now, my time is gone! But Saturday night was a wonderful session on hastening the work and then Sunday stake conference was a broadcast from Orlando with Elder Kopischke and the others I told you- it was broadcast to 48 stakes in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. It was soooooooo awesome too!

Elder Nelson taught the basic doctrines of Jesus Christs gospel in 9 facets:

1- The Godhead

2- The Plan of Salvation

3- The Atonement

4- Dispensations, Apostasy, Restorations

5- Prophets

6- Priesthood and Priesthood keys

7- Ordinances and Covenants

8- Marriage and family

9- Commandments

He left us all with his prayer that we will love the Lord and yoke ourselves to Him. And that we can be one of His true disciples. Learn by teaching and feasting on His words and live as He lives, love and He loves.

Let me tell you how happy and blessed I am right now to be serving my Lord and to see miracles everyday. He watches over each of us and whatever we desire will be given us, we need only ask!! I love this work and I love you all!!!

See you in a week,

Sister Ormsby

Another Transfer!!?? 1/20/2014

I just love her beaming smile!

                                                

So a quick explanation first from Mum:  Transfers were last weekend, and Sister Ormsby & her companion have been together this whole time, so they (and everyone in their ward & families) were certain they wouldn't survive another transfer!!  Also this week's photos are from the Florida Tampa Mission FB page... there was a Brandon Zone declutter & restock day!

I KNOW! Can you believe I get to keep my best friend and the best ward for another 6 weeks?!!! I am in shock still :D
How on earth can carter be growing up that quickly?!??!!!! I swear, he just learnt how to roll over! :(  Does tama even need a life vest?!! AHHHH!!!! :( :(

I CANT BELIEVE TAMA IS SIX! What the what?!?! Tell him I hope his birthday was wonderful and I love him!

I am super amazed at how the time is flying out here. I know we all said it, but freak! I only have a year left?!?! I think I just blinked and I'm already six months out! What?! The Lord has really been blessing me out here! For starters, I get to be with Sister L. for another six weeks!! (March 4 is the next transfer) We never thought that would happen!!! We are making a bit of history! :) Being a STL this week has really taken it's toll, we did 3 exchanges in what we thought would be our last week together! So, not a whole lot was able to happen in our area. That can be a little frustrating because our numbers have been dropping, but I just tell myself that it is for the greater good! :P

Anyway, we all know I'm great at stressing myself out, so on Sunday I made a massive list of names I feel like we are forgetting, people we need to follow up with, or contact and that is our focus this week! We have penciled that whole list into our planners for everyday this week and we are going to get back on top of it! It is hard to not lose the work in your area as we focus on the sisters in the zone. But my personal goal this transfer is to be on top of them both! (no pressure, right?! haha) I feel like we needed last transfer to understand what we were doing, and now where we are I can actually make a difference! So that is my plan, keep the prayers coming! :)

I thought it was pretty funny that your Sunday was so busy, but only because that is my everyday x235623952759082456832! :P even P-days are crazy because we have so much to get done!

I don't know how it is happening, but the Ormsbys worlds seem to be spinning just fine! Most of the time I don't think I'm really missing anything or like much is changing, and then I have a moment of realization..... it has been six months. AHH!! hahahahaha, it is surely bitter-sweet! and it is nice to hear that I am missed ;)

I am so excited for you to meet Martina! She is sooooo sweet! I really love her and am excited she will spend time with you guys! (only a little jelly) totally send her back with my stuff! :)

Okay, cant think of much else, gonna have to wrap up.. I cant wait for those letters and pics in the mail!! ;)

I love you all so much!!

See you in a week,

Sister Ormsby

                   

                      

Sending Love & the MLC 1/13/2014

Photo from the MLC

MUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you there?! I'm writing out a letter.. but i dont have any pics this week! (But I do!)

So cool that Corey (Elder Bogaert) is off! :) 

So funny that you commented in that,(I sent her the pic above... there is a FB page for the Florida Tampa missionaries that is run by the mission home.  They post photoes of different activities; this one being the Mission Leadership Counsel.  Anyway I commented on her beautiful smile and another person commented how they have the best companionship in the mission! So I told her, and asked how she knew her.) because Sister R. is our old STL. She finished her mission right before Christmas and she lives in Utah! We LOVE her! She is sooooo sweet! :)

Your New Beginnings night sounded like a hit! The cupcakes looked so delish and I wished I could've had one!

Snow sounds terrible and honestly if you can give me a little money to get a jacket that would be amazing. But i don't need much, probably a beanie or something for my head. (oh man, funny story- our heater went out the night of the cold front- we wore two pairs of sweatpants and 3 shirts and 2 pairs of socks to bed. We both only have one blanket each.. only problem was my head was frozen! haha)

We had a CRAZY WEEK! And by crazy I mean it absolutely disappeared! I don't even know how, but I am in my sixth month on my mission- I REALLY CANT BELIEVE IT! Where is the time goingggg????????? AHH!! I don't want it to enddd!!!! :/

Okay- minor freak out over.

This week really zoomed by though! We did exchanges on Thursday and MLC on Friday and exchanges on Saturday and Sunday. Today we will try and relax and then tonight more exchanges. Wednesday we are doing a training and another exchange until Thursday. Saturday we have transfer calls!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So yeah- REALLY busy!! But, in a good way!

Thanks so much for your letter this week! I have missed getting letters from you guys/anyone. haha- but I loved it and it was just what I needed! So thank you!

Wednesday we had District Meeting and afterwards we were able to have a really good talk with the ZL's. They are so awesome! They always help us feel more qualified and more like the STL's. Elders cant counsel us, but they were so great at explaining things and helping our confidence and execution of being STL's go up! I really just had to stop and realize how selfish I was being. There are sisters that are struggling and need my help and I was having a pity party for myself and wanting someone to come hug me and tell me I could do it- when really what I NEEDED was to stop dwelling on my insecurities and selfish desires and turn outward- and to think about the sisters and what I can do for them.

Rambling much? Sorry- ill sum up.

Jesus Christ turns outward. When He was betrayed and when He was struggling, or really whenever- He always, always, always looked to others. He saw how He could help them, serve them and love them. The natural man in all of us does just the opposite. We are prideful and selfish and we all innately 'want' without giving. The purpose of our life on earth is to become like our Heavenly Parents. The Lord always looks outward and we should all be striving to also.

So, these last few weeks I have been 'wanting' without giving. That was stupid. And I have repented. And I will try to be better from now on an turning outward. At serving and loving these sisters because it doesn't matter what degree of inadequacy I feel- the Lord wants me to do this. Therefore I can. :)

I am grateful for your love and support and for the example my Savior constantly is and for the opportunity to continue to learn and grow in this life. I really love you all and miss you dearly!

See you in a week,

Sister Ormsby