Week 52

What do you do when your companion has a seizure?

So my companion keeps praying for us to have adventures... well by the end of this week I begged Heavenly Father to just let us have one normal day. 

First of all, Tuesday was my first day of service at the Bishop's storehouse. It was tons of fun! However... the adventure followed.... So right before all this happened we had actually gone to the church to get hna Gamble a blessing for some personal issues and had hurried home to get our bikes and start our day off. First of all Hna Gamble had never ridden her bike on her mission and before her mission she barely knew how to ride one. So we start off and I immediately realize that she is't cruising down the hills like I am. She would be pedaling down the hills just to catch up to me as I just held on to my breaks so that I wouldn't get too ahead of her. I couldn't see the problem though so we continued on and for maybe two miles. She looked okay but really she was working hard and I realized this as soon as I stopped to wait for her and looked at her back wheel... it was completely flat. It also just happen to be about 80 degrees outside. So we come to this light were we had to cross this big intersection and just across the street is this Ford dealership. I suggest that we stop to see if they could pump up her bike wheel so that we could continue. So we pedal our way up the street to the garage and all of a sudden we hear this loud crash behind us, right at the intersection we had just crossed there had been an accident. So we stop and think about going over to help but in that moment hna Gamble starts feeling sick, so I go over to give her her water bottle while she cools down. Then just at that very second a man come up to us and asks us if we need help... he turns out to be a member from back in Hopkisville. He offers us 10 dollars to give to the Ford people so that they can pump up her wheel. We refuse but eventually he just hands Hna Gamble the ten dollars. All of a sudden Hna's face leans down. She was leaning on a light post and as her head comes down she starts drooling and shaking. I grab a hold of her and ask for the members help as we hold her while she is unconsciously seizuring for maybe 10 seconds. She is completely stiff but all of a sudden her eyes roll back and she looks up and says to me that she doesn't feel good and then she goes limp and I start laying her down. I get her on the floor and by this time she had fainted. As soon as I put her on the floor she starts gagging and immediately I know that I need to place her on her side. So I push her to her side and almost immediately she pukes on the side walk. As shes puking though she comes back. So I'm scared and crying over my also scared and sick companion. The member who had been standing next to us is no where in sight. I have no idea what to do. Eventually the member shows up again and he goes straight into a blessing of healing the he disappears again. By this time though I can think somewhat straight so I call who I thought was hna Stephanie who lived close by but I had actually called the wrong member. So I start telling her in English what had happened and probably freaked her out, but she ends up calling the Relief Society president, who I should have called from the beginning, but anyways! Then I call Sister Andersen, presidents wife and she calls the mission doctor who suggests we go to the ER. Well by this time Hna Gamble is feeling a little better and firmly tells me that she does not want to go to the ER. The whole Reyes family show up a couple minutes later (the Relief Society president's whole family) and at the same time a random man with lights on his Jeep car pulls up and he turns out to be a firefighting medic.... WHAT? So he checks out my companion and tells us that it was probably over heat but that she would be okay with just going home and resting. He helps us get her into the car and the whole time I'm trying to convince her to go to the ER, because seriously we almost had to carry her back in the house. Anyways... Shes okay! Later this week we figured out she might just be anemic and with all the other factors that went into it, it seams pretty reasonable. Today we are going to a clinic so that they check her out and make it official. It was kind of amazing though to see all these miracles play out. Everyone who was there at just the right time and the things that happened at just the right moments. First of all the car accident... if she hadn't of gotten off her bike she would have probably fallen along the way. All the members who showed up and the random medic... not so random. Heavenly Father is protecting his missionaries. 

Another example of this happened Friday... ready for more adventures? So earlier that day they had told us that there were going to be some thunderstorms. We had the car that day so we weren't too worried. We head over to an area about 20 min from our house for the first part of the day, but we had to come back for dinner at a member's house. Our member cancels on us sometime in the afternoon and so we just planned on being at the church at 5 for English class. At around 4:14 we start heading home because hna Gamble has this "feeling to head home early" so we go on our way and we first stop at our house to pick some things up and hurry over to the dry cleaners to get some clothes. We had gotten home at around 4:40 when it started to drizzle a little. By the time we got to the dry cleaners at 4:45 is was raining pretty badly. We finally got to the church at 4:50 and by then it was poring down really bad. We ran to the church door and in maybe 4 seconds we were completely drenched. We get inside and see a car pull up, our students. All of a sudden we hear alarms go off. The tornado warnings go off and the members come running in to the church. Hna Gamble is freaking out but i know exactly where to go... The baptismal font! We hide in the baptismal font for 20 min with two of the English students. If we hadn't of gotten there  a little early we wouldn't have made it to the church and the students would of had to be outside during the tornado warnings. Nothing happened! We are fine!:)

On another note! Conference was amazing! I received many answers to my prayers and even some I hadn't even prayed about. More revelation than I have ever before in my life! I hope you all watched it. I will for sure be listening to them over and over again over the next six months. :) I think my favorite talk was a tie between Elder Ringwood's on Saturday afternoon and Rosemary M Wixom's on Sunday. I also really enjoyed Linda Burton's, Elder Perry's, Elder Bednard, Elder Renlund, Elder Utchdorf and Elder Nelson:) And ofcourse I love President Monson. I am so glad to have a prophet on the earth today! I am so thankful for the atonement and for temples and being able to be with my family forever. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and the strength it is for my imperfect testimony. I am grateful for Godly fear, second chances, grace and the opportunity to participate in the Sabbath day. I am grateful for the oportunity that I have to serve. I love serving. I love it with all my heart! 

There are a lot of things to send this week:D I took lots of pictures and videos of all the adventures we have had! You have been warned! this is going to be a spam week!:D

Los quiero a todos!

Hermana Orellana

Week 51

Goodletsville TN!!!!

What a great week! I absolutely love this new area! I was so sad to leave Hopkinsville, but I should have known better because Heavenly Father blessed me with the most amazing place. I love all the members already and we get to be pretty close to the city and to more Hispanics to teach! 

I have a new companion! She is companion number 10... Yup I have had 10 companions. It makes you wonder what God is thinking right? So I present to you all Hna Alexandria Gamble. She is from Redding, California. She is the oldest of three children and has been out for almost nine months. Her favorite color is green:) she loves owls and she is really really sweet and caring. She has a talent for bringing the spirit. She has one of the strongest testimonies I have ever heard. I love when she shares it:)

Okay so some cool new changes! I live in an apartment with two other sisters! Sister Schenk (you pronounce it "shank" like, "I'm going to shank you with my pencil") and sister Gustaveson, they are the STLs in the area! It's fun stuff:) we also share the car with them but this times it's better because they can take us places when it's not our car day. 

Also I get to ride a bus!

Also.... I met David... As in David Archuleta... As in Brother Archuleta. Okay lemme explain, So he works most of the time here in Nashville and for some reason he comes over to this side for institute. Well, we get invited to institute to translate for a couple of the kid who don't know English. So yeah! I met him on Thursday and he is a lot different that I thought he would be. He's really quiet and shy and also very short. I tried my best not to freak out but hopefully he will let me take a picture with him one of these days. What an adventure! :) he's really good friends with a little group of our Spanish members. 

This Sunday I also got a change to translate. Although we have the Spanish branch, this last Sunday was Branch conference and they asked me to translate for all the English folks. It was good:) I actually enjoy doing it and maybe I'll get to do it after my mission too. 

We have some really good investigators too but also work a lot with the members so that makes me quite happy. :) conference is coming up! I hope y'all enjoy it as much as I'm sure I will. 

 Hope hall have a treat week!

Hermana Oreo

So here are some pictures:) 

-my companion being attacked by some little monster children

-my cute companion

-dollar general! Yeah! I guess it's not getto here in TN!... I burst out laughing! Hahaha does anyone else thinks this this funny?!

-yummy food

-I made those tortillas!:D

- at Sunday lunch:)

- sis Lafevor and I! Sister Lafevor is in my stake back at home. :D

-playing with flowers

Week 50

 I'm getting transferred! Again! :( no one expected this. Hermana Hoferitza got a phone call early on Saturday and president asked her if she would train, meaning I will have to leave. The thing is that I don't know where I'm going:P they are doing this new thing where they don't tell us until we get to transfer meeting on Tuesday. Hermana Hoferitza and I have already made a chart with all the different possibilities and after talking to one of the APs on Saturday we think I might be going to Goodletsville TN with Hermana Gamble, but we aren't completely sure. :P the other possibility is West Nashville with Hna Lavoue.... Who knows.... Who knows...

The other thing is that today I officially sent things home. It's getting close people!

Also my brother got his call :) San Fernando as planned but this time his date is May 20th! He has 17 days till he leaves... But who's counting right? 

I think the funnest day this week was Saturday:) first of all we had the car! Also one of my recent converts Hno Cortez came to "have a soda" with us. So he lives in Paducah but had lost his job and had come to work down in Hopkinsville. So the elders gave him out number and he was so exited to find out that we were here, but then on Friday he quit his new job because he had found a better job back in Paducah! Anyways! He invited us out to lunch and it was great to see him again. He was very thankful to me:) it was very sweet to see the progress that he has had and all the blessings that have come in his life since his baptism. And I am very thankful to have had the privilege of being a part of that. 

Then on Saturday we also attended a baptism. The elders investigator Sandy got baptized! President Andersen even came! It was awesome:) then we ran off to do some missionary work. 

This Sunday we also quite awesome. The members were all sad to see me go which made me feel better because I'm terrified that they will forget me when I grew to love these people in inly six weeks. They had a party for one of the members birthday and we got to mesh it with a going away party for me too. It was all really sweet. 

Well this is all! I love Hopkinsville! It was a fantastic area and I love Hermana Hoferitza she was one of my favorite companions. I am very sad to leave, but I will go where the Lord wants me to go and I will give it my all. 

Enjoy the silliness,

Hermana Orellana

Week 49

Man! It's been a fun spiritual roller coaster week! :) we had some cool activities. First of all spiring is finally here! This morning I packed up some winter stuff that I won't be needing on my mission anymore. I have been looking forward to that because my suitcases have gotten excessively large this year. I remember I used to make fun of my trainer because of all the stuff she carried along with her and now I understand! Human-beings are hoarders... Some more than others, but still. 

So on Wednesday we got to go to the temple. We only get to go about every six months. This time it was a bit different... First of all I panicked a little because my recommend got a little damaged in my bag and they couldn't read the bar code numbers so I had to talk to one of the members of the temple presidency so that they would let me in. It wasn't hard but it took a little while and I sweated quite a bit during those couple of minutes. It made me really grateful to be able to go inside the temple when I did. Also during this trip I had more questions then I have ever had before and I only came out with a couple of answers the rest of the answers came later in the week or will probably get answered at some other point. Ether way, I learned that I still have a lot to learn and that the temple will be the place to go for assistance. 

On Friday we got new iPads! They are way legit! Pretty much the only difference is that they are faster and have more memory capacity which I am very thankful for. So this week we spent it trying to put all our personal stuff back on the new iPads. For the next two months we will be re trained on how to better use our technology resources.... :D

We also had stake conference this weekend. It was quite good:) we had a cool experience on Saturday night. So first off some background; we live about five min away from the stake center, walking. Our meeting had ended and we were casually walking back to our apartment complex when we noticed that there were a couple of cars on the side of the road. The people had skirts on so we assumed that they had just come out of the meeting as well. I debate in my head for a couple seconds whether we should even ask if they needed help, seeing as there were already multiple people there and my lack of car fixin skills. Well I rapidly decide to just ask anyways and in reply we got, "no we are okay, but hey are y'all walking? Let me give y'all a ride. Get in my minivan." So we say, "no, that's okay we literally live across the street" and they say, "it looks sketchy. Just get in my car anyways. Do y'all want a Wendy's frosty? It's not pumpkin time and y'all look like you could go for a frosty." We hesitate because it was literally the strangest request we had had all day. And someone goes, "they hesitated, that means yes!" So we cautiously get in her car and this random member turns out to be the coolest woman I have ever met! Until this point of my life I have never had such a strong desire to be like anyone else (except Jesus of course) in my life. She was hilarious/crazy/supper spiritual and crazy fun! She said the most outrageous things and I was laughing the whole time! It's difficult to describe her, but let's just say she was a riotous angel! So fun!

And last but not least:) My compa and I got the opportunity to go to the cultural festival on Saturday. We got to help one of our members and in the process we got to pass out the word about the gospel and ran into some awesome new investigators! We bought some cool new toys and I took some videos of the different dances:) enjoy!

-Hermana Orellana

-a man who had a pet squirrel! His name was Rockie (the squirrel) :D

-my new $3 shoes! Also notice my tan line from last year is still there!

-our temple pics:)

Week 48

Nerf Wars!

We are sitting in the Paducah building playing with Nerf guns! I had forgotten how much I love this place. The cool thing is that exactly a year ago I got to Paducah. We came down to Paducah for a funeral. It was suppose to be for Friday but it got moved to today because of the weather. It snowed again!! But this time the snow melted in just a couple of days. It started snowing on Wednesday and so everything was closed on Thursday... Including Walmart!! Anyways then on Friday we went to Spanish conference and my companion ended up in the ER.... 

Alright lemme explain, so Hermana Hoferitza has this cool scar across her neck. (She always tells people that she got her scar fighting her ex-boyfriends, jealous ex-girlfriend who tried to slit her throat... But that's not true) ACTUALLY what happened is that her saliva gland started making stones and it got infecting and so they had to go in and take her gland out which left a cool scar across her neck. Anyways, so this surgery happened about a year ago and just now about a week and a half ago it starting acting up again. So we had made plans to see the ENT specialist but the weather had gotten in the way and the doctor just wouldn't come in to work! And Hermana Hoferitza was in so much pain and it was just getting progressively worse. So come Friday morning she couldn't eat or drink anything, but we didn't want to go to the ER in Hoptown because we had heard some really awful stories about it from all the members. So we get all the way down to Nashville for the Spanish Conference and the first thing we do is call president to get permission to drive to the ER. I couldn't drive her but Hna Lapin took her. At the ER they tell her she has an infected apses. They cut her open! And all this gross infected stuff came out! It was crazy! So now she has this cut in her mouth that needs to drain. Yesterday she slept for 20 hours straight! 

So that was my week. Snow and infections...

But actually Spanish conference was really nice:) we got to get together and learn of way we can apply our teachings to our investigators and the culture. I love this culture! I love my mission!

Spring is coming! I'm so happy:) 

Love yall!

Hermana Orellana:D