Birthday Fun, Taking the Baton from Jared, Kanye References, Baptisms :) and More!

Mom!  That was literally the best birthday package you could have sent! So dang CUTE! Also I LOVE the necklace. Also the pizza ;) My companion has only seen me eat really healthy so she was kind of taken back when y'all sent all my favorite foods and one of them happened to be peach rings. Whatever. I ate them all in like a day. We were actually on exchanges at the beginning of my birthday so me and Sister Kirschner celebrated by doing lunch at Starbucks. So I got my vanilla bean frappucino with caramel, which tasted like real life so that was fun! Then that night after we exchanged back, Sister Jeffrey made up a chocolate chip cookie recipe for me and it was SO good! Quality birthday I would say.

President Eaton sent out a blast this week saying that we had to contact (or find new people to teach) for at least an hour everyday this week and since its been pretty rainy this week we couldn't just talk to people on the street, cause there wasn't any. So we tried tracting. It was pretty good. We had a LOT more success in the small towns right outside of Maple Valley than in Maple Valley. I think it's cause those small towns and people are a lot more humble and are willing to let change into their lives. We found some cool people and set up some appointments! So, I'm excited for those! We had a quite a few door slams though so that was fun. :)

We are teaching a guy named Wayne who is so sweet. He has had a really hard life, so he is really skeptical and moving slowly in the gospel. He is coming along though. He has just recently started believing that there is a God, and he totally feels the spirit in our lessons. His whole family joins us for the lessons which consists of his girlfriend Lisa and her two daughters Gabby and Dana and Gabby's son James. In our last lesson, the spirit was so strong and James, who is six, started talking about how he feels God in his heart. We asked him what it feels like and he said "it feels like God is being nice to me". It was so cute. And in Lisa's prayer she said "if only we could all feel how James feels". So we got to testify to her that she totally can! And that James feels the spirit so strong because he is such a humble kid. It was an awesome lesson.

Also there is a family who I LOVE their last name is Blue and we stopped in one day just to see if they were home or we could set up an appointment to teach them (they are less active) and we got there and they were in frantic cleaning mode cause her parents were going to be there in a few hours and the house was crazy messy. So since our next appointment had canceled we got to do some super fast paced and intense cleaning. It was pretty fun! 

Thank you again so much for the fun birthday! Good news all of my companions thus far have eyebrow masters. So they just do mine for me, so I can spend all the money on clothes and make up, and such!

I love you more than Kanye loves Kanye!

LOVE Sister Orr


Hey dad!

Things sound so good at home! I'm so happy! Also I'm so glad the girls get some Tejas time this summer! So fun. I'm definitely gonna need some too when I get back!

So Gabby, this girl we are teaching, who I told mom about. We are teaching her whole family but her too, on her own. And she committed to be baptized!!!! So excited cause I really think she will make it there. She just needs a new job so she can come to church on Sunday! So that is the goal with her right now. She is so awesome. She already prays every night and reads the pamphlets we give her. She's so cool.

Also we contacted her next-door neighbor and he wants to learn about the gospel so we are teaching him tomorrow. I think if we can just get all of our investigators on one street that would be great cause for our miles quota. I'm pretty sure we are at like 1300 miles for the month already. Oops.

I guess me backing into that guy on Virginia was mostly a blessing cause we got a good realtor out of it and we were gonna need a new back bumper anyway so, I guess your welcome ;)

On exchanges this week, my Sister Training Leader that I was with apparently has a thing for pillow talk and we were up so late because she would NOT stop talking. So I have been catching up on sleep ever since. I'm super excited for a nap today!

Also another miracle happened and that involved a referral i got from JARED. He taught a girl in Auburn who got baptized and fell away really fast. So since I'm in the YSA ward, she is totally in my area and we had an awesome lesson with her. It was rad.

Welp. I have to get off but have a GREAT week and thanks for the birthday stuff!

love!, Sister Orr

Pictures of the Lake Sawyer Area

Erin and the Rojas family

Erin and Joan

 

Erin, Sister Frischnecht and the Ridley family

 

View of Lake Sawyer from her cottage

 

Hitting the BIG 20, a New Area, and the 5 Month Mark

Good morning my mom!

Thanks for the birthday shout out on Facebook, I got quite a few emails, which was sweet. I can't believe I'm almost 20. I'm gonna have to warn my companion that I need to get all my immaturity out by Friday cause that's when adulthood starts for real. So that is going to be a task.

I LOVE my new area. Maple Valley is so pretty and friendly. It reminds me of McKinney actually. These are some solid people. Also my bishop looks like Greg Kinnear. 

My companion is Sister Jeffrey and she is so cute and has SUCH a strong testimony and is pretty much a gourmet chef. I'm so excited to be her companion. And she is from Oklahoma. Also SHE RUNS WITH ME! Everyday! I love it! 

On Saturday we did service ALL day. It was awesome. All pulling weeds. I am rocking a sweet farmers tan. Actually its not a tan yet, my arms are just VERY red. We pulled weeds till lunch and then for lunch we just slept on the grass at the stake center for an hour because its so warm outside and felt so good! But the relief society president's husband rode by on his bike and saw us and apparently he has been telling people because quite a few people mentioned it to me at church. 

Welp. I'm super excited Em likes her ONE roommate! She will love Hillcrest! One of my best friends lived there and loved it! Also like 45 of my YSAs are about to head up to BYUI so i feel like Jared and Emily are just going to be walking past people I know, all the time.

Love you a lot!

Sister Orr


Good morning dad!

So my first Sunday in this area was so crazy. Since we are over two wards and they are both at the exact same time in different places, we go on splits. So I went BY MYSELF, which I had never done before, to a new ward. It actually wasn't bad at all. I just stuck with the ward mission leader's family. Then I went home with our dinner appointment and Sister Jeffery met me there and we took off to our mission devotional in Puyallup and were there for the rest of the night. It was fun!

This week I met a bunch of investigators. The work in this area is on fire!  Mick is one - I think he is like 60. He is so close to God. He loves the scriptures and loves to pray. He came to church yesterday. So I'm excited to see how that was for him.

Also one investigator, Michelle, she is so awesome, I asked if she really wanted to know if the church is true, and she said probably not. And I was so taken back because she LOVES religion and has studied it her whole life and I would have thought of course she would want to know which church really is God's church. But she said it would make her sad to know that so many people like Ghandi and Muhammad were just wrong, and lived their lives in vain and she started crying and it made me realize how much empathy she has for like, the entire world, and how she just wants everyone to be right and to be included. So we talked to her for a while about how these people weren't wrong. They taught things that Christ taught and led people closer to him everyday, which is what we should be doing. They just didn't have all the information.

Guess what else. My district leader was trained by Jared. Elder Basillius. And he is very excited that I am in his district and talks about Jared a lot. To everyone.

Also more good news. We were helping a lady vacuum seal a bunch of racks of ribs earlier this week and she gave us one! So I'm about to go make ribs!

LOVE you!

Sister Orr

Easter, General Conference and Teaching

Hello to you my mother!

Park City sounds so fun! Getting away and just relaxing sounds like the greatest thing ever. It's not actually built into the missionary schedule though, ever! But that is what General Conference felt like this week. Getting to sit in a dark chapel and soak in the general authorities for 8 hours. I would call it quite blissful. Especially since it was AWESOME! 

On Saturday right after conference, we had planned to go drop by and visit an old couple that we want to teach, but they weren't home so since we were in the area we dropped by a young couple's house nearby. I think I've talked about the Tanners. I love them! They are less active but just for the past year and they are wanting to reactivate but are having a hard time being motivated. She was home and we got to watch the Because He Lives video with her and talk about that. And that girl has such a strong testimony! It's so awesome, but it also just goes to show that even those with the strongest of testimonies can fall away if they stop doing the important little things! It also shows that Heavenly Father totally knows what he is doing! He inspired us to go somewhere where no one was home, while at the same time Katelyn was home alone nearby and ready for us to teach her and she was open to share her thoughts and feelings with us! We just need to trust that he has us where he wants us.

We also got to see Joan this week and share a message with her. We set a goal before we went in to not leave with more than two things she had given us. That goal FAILED. She always gives us so much stuff! And I love her but every time I say "no" she says "don't fight the old lady!" What the even heck! But she is not only not reluctant to pray with us anymore, she loves it, and throws in stuff she wants to have said! Yay!

Yesterday for Easter dinner we went to an old lady's house who had her old lady BFF over and we had a full on Easter dinner. It was really good! But I had a bite of sweet potato casserole and it was SOO hot and so I swallowed it really fast and it burned my throat.  AND, gross alert: Sister Frischknecht looked and she said I have a BLISTER on the back of my throat. Nast! It hurts!! :( Then after dinner, the BFF old lady went home and the sister whose house we were at is quite homebound and barely able to move and there were TONS of dishes. So I did those while Sister Frischknecht and her talked. loved it :)

Love you with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength, 

Sister Orr


Olo Dad!

That's so awesome that you asked a polish guy to read the book of Mormon! Way to go! Even if he dosen't, the success is in the invitation!

The talks were so good at conference. I especially loved the music and dancing one from Saturday and the one by Elder Pearson on Sunday. So awesome I cant wait to get them printed!

Guess what happened this week! We went over to this lady's house this week to help her download the gospel library app and she was drunk out of her MIND. She was crying and screaming and crazy. Apparently she used to be wicken and was telling us about all the philosophies she had that came from that. Like that everything has a vibration level. A kimodo dragon is at a twenty and Jesus is at 1000. She told us that like 40 times.  It was great but we did get the app downloaded so mission accomplished.

Another person we got to see this week is named Cathey. She has been in and out of activity and has had some really hard challenges that have caused her to lose faith in the atonement. She really loved the Because He Lives video (we have been showing it to everyone in the world). People really respond well to things that the church puts out! It's so awesome. We were hoping she would come to conference, but she said she would watch it from home, which I REALLY hope she did! Elder Holland's talk would be so perfect for her!

Also Andrew apparently changed his mind about wanting to meet with us and said no, but then a few days later he said he might be interested again. Ahh! I do want him to know the gospel so bad. He just needs to decide that's what he wants too.

Also while we were visiting a home-bound lady this week, her caretaker joined in on the lesson and really took a lot from it. we talked about the picture of Jesus knocking on the door with no knob and how its our job to let him in, and she was really interested in that. So I'm about to print that picture off for her.

Thanks for the pictures!

have a great week! Luh you!

Sister Orr