Mom,
(Regarding my note to her that Aubri was trying to pester me while I wrote to her) Haha, if Bob has been annoying you can send her my way! She has been on my mind all week! I just want to hug that girl! Also I would have LOVED to hear about San Fransisco (Garret and Emily's trip this week) but dad didn't EVEN write me. so what the even heck?
(Regarding my question to her of who knows a family in our new ward that she'd mentioned) Not my companion but my friend from the mission. Hermana Natalie Peacock knows one of the Kotter boys. I cant remember how - maybe swim team? I don't know! but I guess when the ward split he took a picture of my plaque and sent it to her and said "guess who is in my ward now!" Hah!
Its been super rainy so hopefully thats helping with the fire situation. I haven't heard really, but since its been a "droughty" summer, when the wind and the rain came it blew all kinds of dry branches and pine needles EVERYwhere. The streets look nasty!
I've been working on the bangs situation. Biggest regret of my life. I have accepted that I'm going to look like a 6 year old for a while. WORST.
(Referring to the pics and video that I sent her of Emily's post-wisdom-teeth-removal goodness) Emily is SO dang cute! I would love to know her thoughts on Niki Manaj and soccer moms! (part of Emily's ramblings - so funny!) (Regarding Emily getting a sunburn in San Francisco and not appreciating it) Also are you telling me that she has been white by choice all of these years? I thought her skin just didn't absorb sunlight. Geez Louise.
(Regarding a pic of a Phantom of the Opera cake that I decorated for a 6 year old) Love the cake. Good to know there are other small children that love that stuff, that are not in our family.
We had an awesome lesson with Chelsea last night! We talked about the Book of Mormon and she committed to read 15 minutes everyday! Since we last met she has been watching videos on mormonchannel.org and re-reading the restoration pamphlet and trying to read to Book of Mormon. Her countenance has definitely lightened and she is recognizing the spirit when she feels it! I don't know if i mentioned but she is moving to Arizona in a few weeks so will probably have to be baptized there. She is moving back to her moms house and Patrick is coming too. I am REALLY hoping that the transition will be good for her spiritual growth and that her family will be supportive of the changes she is making. I am praying for that everyday! She is so awesome and willing to submit to the will of the Lord. She knows thats where happiness is!
Adam is being flaky. I'm not sure why. Every time we have gotten the chance to talk to him, he assures us that he is very interested and wants to change. but with the last few appointments he has not shown up or answered his phone. It's a super bummer because he needs it so bad!
OH GUESS WHAT! Remember the 14 year old boy, Austin, that I was teaching in Lake Sawyer?? He got BAPTIZED this week! Woot Woot!
We also found a guy named Jack this week who is like in his 50s and has a bunch of grown up kids. He is awesome! We were having trouble finding a solid member to bring to our lesson so we just brought a member who was close and available, but that we didn't know very well. Turns out he has an awesome conversion story!! I didn't even know he was a convert! The spirit was so strong! I am so excited to teach him again!
Does middle school have soccer? Is Addey going to try to do that? I will be home for next school year!
Well. hope you have a great non-scatter brained day:)
LOVE you SO much! Thanks for all your support and love!
Sister Erin Orr
Monday, August 31, 2015
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Sweet perspective on Grandma and 1/2 WAY DOWN!!!!!
Hey Mamma Dear,
Sister Eaton did tell me about Grandma this morning. not as in detail as you did but she still did a good job:) I'm glad, though its a little unexpected, that everyone is at peace. Y'all are in my prayers everyday. It is transfer day so it just makes sense that my missionary grandma would move to her next area today :). It's a good day to have the gospel in our lives! I'm going to miss her hugs but I'm so grateful/excited for my extra companionship! I super hope everything goes well with traveling and the funeral this week. Please let me know if there is anything specific I can pray for!
My trio is being broken up today and they are going back to the Cedar River ward and I am staying here in Rock Creek/YSA. I absolutely LOVE the Cedar River ward and the investigators. I am going to miss them so much! Luckily my YSA boundaries cover that area still so I can pop over and have a chance of running into those people. I quite love them. My new companion is Sister Baxter. I don't know her super well but every time I have talked to her she has like showered me in compliments, so I'm not too sad to be her companion. ;) She also seems really capable as a missionary, so I am stoked to work with her!
Crystal is still set for baptism this Saturday and is technically eligible but I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with her being baptized just yet. She hasn't been to church in a while and has barely read the Book of Mormon. I am going to try to hold off at least a week. We will see what happens.
Miracles have happened this week!!! The past few weeks have been really tough, cause we have been working so hard and talking to everyone and working with members and have been seeing little fruit. but this week we:
-got a referral from the elders who gave us a bomb girl named Miranda to teach. She is already finished with 1st Nephi and is reading and praying everyday. She is so cool. I'm so blessed to get to teach her.
-contacted into a lady named Susan and just testified about the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel. And she totally got how important is is to read it and find out if its all true! I get to teach her tomorrow -- woot woot!
- started "phone contacting" which is going through the phone contacts and just calling up the names I don't recognize. I just ask how their experience was talking to missionaries in the past. I set a few appointments that I am excited about and cleaned out some names of people who don't want to learn. Win-win! One appointment is with a girl named Chelsea who is the girlfriend of the less-active member Patrick, I mentioned a few weeks ago! She said she had a baptismal date set before and that she still wants to be baptized! I guess they moved around the same time the missionaries white-washed so they just fell out of contact. She said her and Patrick have been talking about going back a lot and that
Sunday night she prayed to know which direction to take, and then Monday morning I called her! Seeing the way the Lord uses me is one of my favorite things about being a missionary I think!
You asked about the mission devotional. They have one every months and it travels around the mission. This past one was in Federal Way. As missionaries we are allowed to go if we either sing in the choir or bring someone we are teaching. I sing in the choir occasionally but this time I didn't. We brought a less active/returning to activity member. So I still got to go. There was a 15 year old girl who testified so dang strong. I love seeing the real intent on investigators parts plus the effort and obedience of missionaries leading to people becoming changed through Christ. It is truly a miracle.
I love you mom!
Sister Erin Orr
Dad!
I love that restaurant! Did they give you a paper hat? When we visit Washington though, I have to show you where the best ribs ever are!!
President sent me a "half way" letter this week and basically said the same thing! Like, look how far you have come and look how far you can go, type thing. Thanks for reminding me!
Guess what happened this week! We had just gotten to a guys house to do service and he lived up a big hill. So I walked up it and realized I still had my bag on my shoulder so I went back to put it in the car. And I went down a different side of the hill which like went really really steep at the bottom and it had been raining so it was slippery. So when I got there, I of course fell SO hard on the ground. I was wearing running sweats and I couldn't see my legs but I could feel some clear scratches. I thought it was fine though so I just put my bag in the car and went back up the hill to do service and a few minutes later I could feel the the scratches might not be so minor so I rolled up my pants and I had 3 big gashes in my knee. Such a bummer. So I called Sister Eaton and she said to go find a nurse in one of the wards and ask if i need stitches. So we literally called all the nurses in every ward and no one could look at my leg. So I went to the ward mission leaders house in the Cedar River ward and his wife's sister is a doctor, so they facetimed her in and she said it could go either way. Stitches or not. So I decided to just slap a bandaid or two on it and go stitchless. So that was a fun part of the week.
Another thing we did this week was Zone Conference! It was the best one yet! President is usually like a "work harder, do better." kind of guy, which is good even though sometimes stressful and annoying. This time though he was still super inspiring to be progressing and hardworking but he had so much more love and compassion and it really made the difference. I think a good number of missionaries have been struggling with some discouragement recently. one thing that i really got out of this zone conference is the importance of charity in the work. Charity doesn't come from us, it comes from God. It is the pure love of Christ. Its something we have to pray for always. When we can tap into God love for His children then we can start doing His work right.
Right after Zone Conference, I had my last ward coordination with my YSA ward mission leader and ward missionaries. They are all moving and going to college. So we will be ward mission-less for a while. They are all so fun and I'm going to miss them a lot! We had a pizza party for our last time together!
LOve you! Way to be a missionary!
Sister Erin Orr
Sister Eaton did tell me about Grandma this morning. not as in detail as you did but she still did a good job:) I'm glad, though its a little unexpected, that everyone is at peace. Y'all are in my prayers everyday. It is transfer day so it just makes sense that my missionary grandma would move to her next area today :). It's a good day to have the gospel in our lives! I'm going to miss her hugs but I'm so grateful/excited for my extra companionship! I super hope everything goes well with traveling and the funeral this week. Please let me know if there is anything specific I can pray for!
My trio is being broken up today and they are going back to the Cedar River ward and I am staying here in Rock Creek/YSA. I absolutely LOVE the Cedar River ward and the investigators. I am going to miss them so much! Luckily my YSA boundaries cover that area still so I can pop over and have a chance of running into those people. I quite love them. My new companion is Sister Baxter. I don't know her super well but every time I have talked to her she has like showered me in compliments, so I'm not too sad to be her companion. ;) She also seems really capable as a missionary, so I am stoked to work with her!
Crystal is still set for baptism this Saturday and is technically eligible but I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with her being baptized just yet. She hasn't been to church in a while and has barely read the Book of Mormon. I am going to try to hold off at least a week. We will see what happens.
Miracles have happened this week!!! The past few weeks have been really tough, cause we have been working so hard and talking to everyone and working with members and have been seeing little fruit. but this week we:
-got a referral from the elders who gave us a bomb girl named Miranda to teach. She is already finished with 1st Nephi and is reading and praying everyday. She is so cool. I'm so blessed to get to teach her.
-contacted into a lady named Susan and just testified about the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel. And she totally got how important is is to read it and find out if its all true! I get to teach her tomorrow -- woot woot!
- started "phone contacting" which is going through the phone contacts and just calling up the names I don't recognize. I just ask how their experience was talking to missionaries in the past. I set a few appointments that I am excited about and cleaned out some names of people who don't want to learn. Win-win! One appointment is with a girl named Chelsea who is the girlfriend of the less-active member Patrick, I mentioned a few weeks ago! She said she had a baptismal date set before and that she still wants to be baptized! I guess they moved around the same time the missionaries white-washed so they just fell out of contact. She said her and Patrick have been talking about going back a lot and that
Sunday night she prayed to know which direction to take, and then Monday morning I called her! Seeing the way the Lord uses me is one of my favorite things about being a missionary I think!
You asked about the mission devotional. They have one every months and it travels around the mission. This past one was in Federal Way. As missionaries we are allowed to go if we either sing in the choir or bring someone we are teaching. I sing in the choir occasionally but this time I didn't. We brought a less active/returning to activity member. So I still got to go. There was a 15 year old girl who testified so dang strong. I love seeing the real intent on investigators parts plus the effort and obedience of missionaries leading to people becoming changed through Christ. It is truly a miracle.
I love you mom!
Sister Erin Orr
Dad!
I love that restaurant! Did they give you a paper hat? When we visit Washington though, I have to show you where the best ribs ever are!!
President sent me a "half way" letter this week and basically said the same thing! Like, look how far you have come and look how far you can go, type thing. Thanks for reminding me!
Guess what happened this week! We had just gotten to a guys house to do service and he lived up a big hill. So I walked up it and realized I still had my bag on my shoulder so I went back to put it in the car. And I went down a different side of the hill which like went really really steep at the bottom and it had been raining so it was slippery. So when I got there, I of course fell SO hard on the ground. I was wearing running sweats and I couldn't see my legs but I could feel some clear scratches. I thought it was fine though so I just put my bag in the car and went back up the hill to do service and a few minutes later I could feel the the scratches might not be so minor so I rolled up my pants and I had 3 big gashes in my knee. Such a bummer. So I called Sister Eaton and she said to go find a nurse in one of the wards and ask if i need stitches. So we literally called all the nurses in every ward and no one could look at my leg. So I went to the ward mission leaders house in the Cedar River ward and his wife's sister is a doctor, so they facetimed her in and she said it could go either way. Stitches or not. So I decided to just slap a bandaid or two on it and go stitchless. So that was a fun part of the week.
Another thing we did this week was Zone Conference! It was the best one yet! President is usually like a "work harder, do better." kind of guy, which is good even though sometimes stressful and annoying. This time though he was still super inspiring to be progressing and hardworking but he had so much more love and compassion and it really made the difference. I think a good number of missionaries have been struggling with some discouragement recently. one thing that i really got out of this zone conference is the importance of charity in the work. Charity doesn't come from us, it comes from God. It is the pure love of Christ. Its something we have to pray for always. When we can tap into God love for His children then we can start doing His work right.
Right after Zone Conference, I had my last ward coordination with my YSA ward mission leader and ward missionaries. They are all moving and going to college. So we will be ward mission-less for a while. They are all so fun and I'm going to miss them a lot! We had a pizza party for our last time together!
LOve you! Way to be a missionary!
Sister Erin Orr
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Oops, missed a week -- here's Erin's most current letter :)
Hey mamma dear!
I'm glad Addey can read my letters! I can barely read my own handwriting. Did Bob get one too? I believe I sent her one!
I LOVED talking to grandma! So much fun to hear her voice!
I got to go to Renton on exchanges with Sister Jeffery this week! We just picked up where we left off and had so much fun! Being in Renton made me miss humble places! Maple Valley is not one of those so its nice to know they are out there!
The trio is fun! We all get along really well! i did get them to run with me once and one of them just power walked the whole time so we had to get creative and run in circles and stuff so we could stay together and keep running at the same time!
This week was pretty hard, work wise! The good news is that Crystal is back on date for the 22nd! But we had a couple investigators drop us this week. Also not much progression with the ones we are teaching. Also with all the contacting we have done, which is tons, we haven't really found people who want to change. It got pretty discouraging and so I got a blessing from my district leader which was really good! also I just started setting small goals. Like the other day I went out with the intention to just give away one Book of Mormon on our walk to lunch and back. And the second person I talked to is really interested and took it! It was a bomb conversation! So that was a blessing!
I got your package! LOVED IT! Not sure President is going to go for the lemonade stand idea but i'll ask!
LOVE you so much!
Sister Erin Orr
Hey my Fadah!
Turns out the trio is still super fun! And my teaching abilities are getting better now that I have to do so much of it! So thats a blessing!
Also your scripture, D&C 101:16 was exactly what I needed this week. Really perfect. my souls was pretty darn not still about the lack of progression in this ward despite of all our efforts, but that verse is very reassuring that God has a plan for all these people and maybe that plan doesn't involve them being baptized tomorrow like I would have it. He knows how all things should be, and as long as I am working hard every moment, I don't need to stress cause its in His hands!
We got a great referral from some other missionaries for a girl named Miranda! Like her whole extended family are members and all her best friends are too! She is excited to learn and I am so excited to teach!
I hope you have a fun time in San Antonio!
LOve you!
Sister Erin Orr
I'm glad Addey can read my letters! I can barely read my own handwriting. Did Bob get one too? I believe I sent her one!
I LOVED talking to grandma! So much fun to hear her voice!
I got to go to Renton on exchanges with Sister Jeffery this week! We just picked up where we left off and had so much fun! Being in Renton made me miss humble places! Maple Valley is not one of those so its nice to know they are out there!
The trio is fun! We all get along really well! i did get them to run with me once and one of them just power walked the whole time so we had to get creative and run in circles and stuff so we could stay together and keep running at the same time!
This week was pretty hard, work wise! The good news is that Crystal is back on date for the 22nd! But we had a couple investigators drop us this week. Also not much progression with the ones we are teaching. Also with all the contacting we have done, which is tons, we haven't really found people who want to change. It got pretty discouraging and so I got a blessing from my district leader which was really good! also I just started setting small goals. Like the other day I went out with the intention to just give away one Book of Mormon on our walk to lunch and back. And the second person I talked to is really interested and took it! It was a bomb conversation! So that was a blessing!
I got your package! LOVED IT! Not sure President is going to go for the lemonade stand idea but i'll ask!
LOVE you so much!
Sister Erin Orr
Hey my Fadah!
Turns out the trio is still super fun! And my teaching abilities are getting better now that I have to do so much of it! So thats a blessing!
Also your scripture, D&C 101:16 was exactly what I needed this week. Really perfect. my souls was pretty darn not still about the lack of progression in this ward despite of all our efforts, but that verse is very reassuring that God has a plan for all these people and maybe that plan doesn't involve them being baptized tomorrow like I would have it. He knows how all things should be, and as long as I am working hard every moment, I don't need to stress cause its in His hands!
We got a great referral from some other missionaries for a girl named Miranda! Like her whole extended family are members and all her best friends are too! She is excited to learn and I am so excited to teach!
I hope you have a fun time in San Antonio!
LOve you!
Sister Erin Orr
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Erin's letters from LAST week (I'm only 6.99 days late -- but they're really good, so read it anyways) :)
Hey Mamma Dear!
Talking to you was the best! (Erin was able to call this week to arrange a day/time for another phone conversation with her Grandma Banner, who is very sick. She and I talked for like 30 minutes and it was like manna from heaven.) It was so unexpected too! I had no idea when I woke up that I was going to be talking to my MOM! Haha, so weird. That needs to happen more often:) Except the bad news is that usually when we have talked I get to just go straight back to the work and refocus, but this time Sister Dolan has been dying and in pain so we have literally spent the last 4 straight days in our apartment. So I may have gotten a little trunky. But with all that free time I made some BOMB foods! Guajillo lime chicken tacos! Grilled peanut-butter, banana, and honey sandwiches! So dang good.
We found out this morning that Sister Dolan is being sent home to see if she can get better :( probably tomorrow or the next day. What the even HECK? I'm so sad and so is she. She only has 3 months left! She could use some prayers that she will feel at peace about going home and that they will find out what's wrong with her insides.
At this point, I don't know whats going to happen to me! I could be thrown in with another companionship or given a new companion from a trio, or get a mini missionary. I have no idea. It's going to be an adventure. But I know God is heavily involved with his missionaries and that whatever He and President decide will be the best thing.
Good news! Crystal has been in Spanaway at her aunt's house so we haven't been able to meet with her BUT some missionaries happened to walk by while they were doing some yard work and asked if they could help. Crystal's aunt let them, and Crystal was so excited to talk to missionaries. Apparently they had some awesome gospel discussion and she helped them teach the plan of salvation to the rest of the family. She was so excited about it and called me right after they left. She always calls me just to talk, haha, but don't worry, I keep our conversations purposeful! Yesterday we talked about the restoration of the gospel and just further clarified it in her head.
One of our investigators, Robert White, thinks he understands and believes our message but he doesn't think he needs to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood. Clearly there is a point of misunderstanding but he never ends his talking ever. He just talks constantly and never listens. That man is hard to teach. But anyway, things like that are why I think its so important that people understand the "why" of the message we share, because that's what really brings the cause for change.
I love ya! Have fun at the rodeo! Hug my sisters for me!
LOVE Sister Erin Orr
Hey Dad!
President send out a super cool blast today that I am super excited about. I think he has been doing his research on it for a while and its such bomb information! (by the way a blast is when he sends a voicemail of himself to all the missionaries -- he does this every couple days).
Today he was saying that 1 out of every 19 investigators gets baptized. Those are the odds. BUT there is one thing, that of the investigators who do it, 70% get baptized.
President had us take a minute and guess what that was. I thought daily Book of Mormon study.
He said that that one thing is reading the entire book of 1st Nephi.
Isn't that incredible? That odds go from 1 in 19 to better than 2 in 3 when people start from the beginning of the book and just read. And not for just a couple days but until they finish at least the first 22 chapters. I believe that it is because those people have real intent.
President gave us a challenge to start with all our current investigators and those we meet. And that is to read the entire book of 1st Nephi in 10 days. That's like 15 minutes of reading per day. I'm so excited to see what happens.
Cameron read it in like a week!
This is going to be so cool!
LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Sister Erin Orr
Talking to you was the best! (Erin was able to call this week to arrange a day/time for another phone conversation with her Grandma Banner, who is very sick. She and I talked for like 30 minutes and it was like manna from heaven.) It was so unexpected too! I had no idea when I woke up that I was going to be talking to my MOM! Haha, so weird. That needs to happen more often:) Except the bad news is that usually when we have talked I get to just go straight back to the work and refocus, but this time Sister Dolan has been dying and in pain so we have literally spent the last 4 straight days in our apartment. So I may have gotten a little trunky. But with all that free time I made some BOMB foods! Guajillo lime chicken tacos! Grilled peanut-butter, banana, and honey sandwiches! So dang good.
We found out this morning that Sister Dolan is being sent home to see if she can get better :( probably tomorrow or the next day. What the even HECK? I'm so sad and so is she. She only has 3 months left! She could use some prayers that she will feel at peace about going home and that they will find out what's wrong with her insides.
At this point, I don't know whats going to happen to me! I could be thrown in with another companionship or given a new companion from a trio, or get a mini missionary. I have no idea. It's going to be an adventure. But I know God is heavily involved with his missionaries and that whatever He and President decide will be the best thing.
Good news! Crystal has been in Spanaway at her aunt's house so we haven't been able to meet with her BUT some missionaries happened to walk by while they were doing some yard work and asked if they could help. Crystal's aunt let them, and Crystal was so excited to talk to missionaries. Apparently they had some awesome gospel discussion and she helped them teach the plan of salvation to the rest of the family. She was so excited about it and called me right after they left. She always calls me just to talk, haha, but don't worry, I keep our conversations purposeful! Yesterday we talked about the restoration of the gospel and just further clarified it in her head.
One of our investigators, Robert White, thinks he understands and believes our message but he doesn't think he needs to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood. Clearly there is a point of misunderstanding but he never ends his talking ever. He just talks constantly and never listens. That man is hard to teach. But anyway, things like that are why I think its so important that people understand the "why" of the message we share, because that's what really brings the cause for change.
I love ya! Have fun at the rodeo! Hug my sisters for me!
LOVE Sister Erin Orr
Hey Dad!
President send out a super cool blast today that I am super excited about. I think he has been doing his research on it for a while and its such bomb information! (by the way a blast is when he sends a voicemail of himself to all the missionaries -- he does this every couple days).
Today he was saying that 1 out of every 19 investigators gets baptized. Those are the odds. BUT there is one thing, that of the investigators who do it, 70% get baptized.
President had us take a minute and guess what that was. I thought daily Book of Mormon study.
He said that that one thing is reading the entire book of 1st Nephi.
Isn't that incredible? That odds go from 1 in 19 to better than 2 in 3 when people start from the beginning of the book and just read. And not for just a couple days but until they finish at least the first 22 chapters. I believe that it is because those people have real intent.
President gave us a challenge to start with all our current investigators and those we meet. And that is to read the entire book of 1st Nephi in 10 days. That's like 15 minutes of reading per day. I'm so excited to see what happens.
Cameron read it in like a week!
This is going to be so cool!
LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Sister Erin Orr
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