Well, this is it. Last letter from Sister Erin Orr

Hey mom :)

your letter made me get all teary in the library for the last time :)

this week has been great! we went to the Family History discovery center by the temple with Omar and he LOVED it! he got so excited about family history and i think he really felt the spirit at the temple. he is just so diligent in studying and making changes and wanting to know truth. i love teaching him! it should always be this easy!

we also taught teresa and randy again. teresa committed to be baptized on july 9! if we dont have anything maybe i can come back for that weekend? i just love these people so much! she is so cute and genuine! she always has snacks set up for us when we get there and she just has so much love and the ward too loves her so much already! everyone is so excited that she decided to be baptized! Her husband passed the sacrament for the first time this past Sunday which made me so happy!

also my new favorite song is this instrumental one called "redeemer" i think, by paul cardall. i have listened to it over and over on a cd we found in the car. you should check it out.

we also taught tatiana again. she is such a hippie. i love it. hah she said she has been doing an ancient practice called sun gazing to de- calcify her galnds. haha basically this girl stares at the sun and thinks we are brainwashed into thinking it is bad. she is so funny! we had a good lesson with her about the book of mormon and brought the YW president so that should be good! she is going to yw this week!

also miracle! we finally taught this lady christina this week! this is what i told president about it in my email:  on Christmas eve i met a lady named Christina who was just great and willing to learn as we tried to teach her though, things always seemed to come up so we stopped trying after a month or two. but we ran into her this week and she just told us that in all the short interactions we have had with her over the last several months she has felt the spirit and wants to seriously learn whatever we have to say. and this time as we have began teaching her there have not been such problems setting times or actually sitting down for lessons. that is one cool thing about staying in an area for a while! i got to witness the Lord preparing a soul!

also will yall pray for Kathy Arop to feel Heavenly Fathers love this week? she is in deep need.

i cannot believe your crazy saturday! i hope you took a good nap yesterday!

i forgot to mention a less active lady we have been teaching came to church yesterday for the first time in so many years and bore her testimony! that was so sweet! we went over for dinner with heer visiting teachers and thier families and had a big barbeque

i am just so grateful to get to be part of the lives of all these great people and to bet to be a tool my Heavenly Fathers hands in bringing them to the savior and to eternal joy! i love that not only do i get to meet and love so many people but i can do so much for them because of Jesus Christ. He has offered them and everyone everything! i am grateful to be the messenger! this past 19 month has been crazy and happy and emotional and tiring yet energizing. i am excited to be on the member missionary side of the work i am grateful to have learned how stinking valuable member missionaries are and to get to set goals to continue becoming something. 

Thanks for all these letters mom and the packages and the love i could not have done it without you! youre the best!

i guess my next weekly update will be delivered in person!

im glad bobs ging to efy! hope she has fun! school here dosent get out for 2 more weeks! insane!

welp enjoy your next 7 days without me right next to you! your not going to get that again for a while:)

LOVE sister erin orr

T-2 weeks

Hey mamma dear!

thats kind of insane that Skyler (Winsor) is MARRIED! and so fun that Amanda (Burdick) and Brayden (McFadden) and the ryan kid that i don't know are all going to the same mission! so fun!

i hope chair shopping is treating you well!

Omar had to wean off coffee but he completely stopped yesterday and is ready to be baptized on the 25th! (investigators have to be living the word of wisdom for three weeks before they are baptized). he just rocks. we are going to the temple/ family history discovery center with him tomorrow hopefully! the 25th is going to be the best day i think:) we taught him the law of chastity and about temples and family history this week. we have been teaching at the home of a young couple in our ward and they are becoming great friends which is the best! he was listening to the CDs of the book of mormon but decided he would get more out of it by actually reading, even though i thought he was retaining really well. he has read like 14 chapters in 3 days! this guy is just so humble. its awesome.

we also taught this lady, Teresa this week who is amazing. her husband was taught in another ward and moved to our ward right before he was baptized like a month ago. she has been coming to church and asking great questions and we have built a great relationship with her. since the elders had been teaching her husband the "new member lessons" we all figured they would teach them both. but she wanted us to teach her so she invited us over for dinner and a lesson this week which was awesome. she is an amazing lady who has been through so stinkin much but now she is so humble and just wants to follow Christ and learn. i love that she just asked to be taught! she has so many great questions. and her husband is bomb. he got the gospel library app and not only studies the book of mormon everyday but whatever else he can find so that he can be a involved supportive member of the church. we get to teach her tonight im way excited!

we also taught this 17 year old girl, tatiana this week. this girl is deep she is a total hippie and just way into philosophy and energy and chokras and things like that and tries to relate it to the gospel. which when we are trying to teach simply, it makes it kind of difficult. but she is way cool and we are trying! she has been through alot too. 

we also met a ton of new people this week. we walked almost everywhere this week instead of driving which lead to a LOT of new potentials! we seriously walked so many miles its crazy!

for sister northrups bithday last week we did luch with some other sisters which was way fun! also we went to the beach and we found like a nest or something of so many baby crabs! they were so cute and we just kept finding more and more under rocks so that was fun!

we also went to a funeral for christinas husbands dad. basically a Sudanese funeral is everyone gathers at a home and they take turns standing and sharing condolances and singing and such. we went to support the husband which i think actually really softened his heart towards us. oh also i forgot to mention, no one was speaking english. it was all dinka. people kept stopping and saying. so sorry you cant innderstand us. we speak in our language. they were all super sweet and sincere. we definitly stuck out being two little white girls in a house very full of very dark sudanese people :) 

also yesterday we had a fun experience. we went to try our potential, Leslie and as we got there she was about to go fishing. she said to just get in the car and we can teach her and fish at the same time. so we did :) we didn't catch anything but she understood what the importance of our message was! and we will get to teach her again. haha that was new one for me!

our 5th sunday lesson went well! they cut it short cause the decided to set apart the new elders quorum presidency and high priest group leaders in front of everybody. do they usually do that? anyways it was good! im excited about our new ward mission plan! and other people are too so we are happy about that!

welp i hope you have the best 14 days before i can hug your eyes out of your head!

LOVE erin

Sprinting to the Finish and Milking Goats

hey mom!

this week has been a great one! 

Omar is going really awesome and is cutting back on coffee. weaning off. it amazes me the willingness people have to change when they are reading the book of Mormon. it changes things drastically. he has great friends in the ward and stayed for the full 3 hours for the first time yesterday.

we got to meet pesenga, who was our referral that wants to be baptized. she is hard to catch but when we do she seems so solid. its kind of tricky just dropping by her house because she is rarely home and every single time we run into her stepdad who wants to save us. his name is pastor al. he begs us to follow him in prayer so we can accept Jesus into our lives and be saved. its so awkward saying we don't want to do that. he always looks so sad. but i love getting to testify of Christ's true and living church! he doesnt' super seem to get that though...

i can't say I'm a master goat milker but i have definitely tried. I'm not actually bad i just need to work on my aim! haha. luckily i will get to practice because we get to help twice a week for the rest of my mission! such a fun experience! we get the full farm experience! cleaning poop, collecting eggs, feeding animals. the dude offered to let us help him butcher a bunny. maybe someday i can handle that... i will send pics next week. the goats name is finney:)

we had a very culture-y day on Saturday. our dinner appointment fell through so we just went to a Mexican place we had coupons to, then we went to cheyanne's but she wasnt' home so as we were walking home we saw some people who were carrying a bunch of stuff in to a party so we offered to help. turns out it was a big Ethiopian graduation party. they wouldn't let us leave until our plates were FULL of food. which was fun to try Ethiopian food. it was pretty good. there was one dish of raw beef that we steered clear from! then we went to teach our sweet Muslim family and they made us a bunch of afghan food! we were so stinking stuffed by the time we got home. we did 5 minutes of jumping jacks in an attempt to puke or at least burn some calories. our calves are still sore from that. 

we exchanged with the sister training leaders. so i got to go with sister young. that was fun! we met a man who was juggling in the park who happened to be contemplating all the perfect questions! we had a great conversation! his name is jim we will teach him more this coming week! also since we exchanged i had a chance to get stuff to suprise sister northrup. today is her bday! since we are always together i could never surprise her so the exchange was great for that! i had libby run to the store and grab a bunch of birthday stuff and i hid it and then i set it all up and surprised her this morning! she is 20 today! so fun! we are trying to figure out something fun to do! 

we got to teach miguel this week and he seems really sincere. we haven't heard much from him since but we will hope for the best!

we had a really great lesson about repentence this week with libby and the less active members she lives with. that is something i just want to empahsize way more.

this next week us and the elders are going to do a 5th sunday presentation for the whole ward to introduce the new ward mission plan we have been working on! pray for us!

good luck with the sandwich shop! i will be there to help soon! way cool that addey is planning on getting her patriarchal blessing so soon!

i love ya mom! I cant believe i have been gone for over a year and a half! insane!

k well i hope you have the best week!

LOVE erin

May 16th: 4 weeks to go and so many good things

hey mom :)

this week was a little slower but the good things that happened were great!

like we met a lady who has a full blown farm going on in her back yard and she hurt her back so we get to do service for her by milking her goats! so excited!

also our investigator Omar is the actual coolest. he went all the way to Bellevue to the Deseret book to get the book of Mormon audio on cd. well actually first he went to the christian bookstore here in town and basically got torn up when he asked about the book of mormon!( poor guy!) but he is cool and took it in stride. he is reading and feeling the spirit and is really really excited about what he is learning and feeling. He reminds me of Libby in that he is so close to the spirit already and just knows this is right as soon as he hears it. He is on date to be baptized on the 4th!

we also got back in touch with Cheyenne yesterday. we have barely gotten to see her since she had her baby.and good news! she and her boyfriend are breaking up and she is moving to Portland. that might not sound like good news but she is excited to keep learning about the church and to keep the commandments which being with this guy makes really really hard! so we get to teach her for like another month and a half before she goes which will be good!

also we have been teaching a less active lady and we taught her the word of wisdom and she gave us her coffee. then a couple days later she called us and asked us to pick up the coffee she hadn't given us because she was for real done this time! and she has been good since then! infact she has set a date to come back to church and is planning a "return to church" barbecue for afterwards! so cute! 

we also had a zone conference this week. it was amazing, it was all about repentance and i learned so much. mostly about how repentance is the process by which we become new creatures, beings who are able to live in the presence of God and have all that he has. how we dont just repent to get clean hands but also to get a pure heart. it is a transformation! it removes the bad and makes the good better! so cool! we are focusing on helping converts repent, which should always be the focus. so im just super grateful for this training. also since it was my last zone conference i had to bear my testimony to all the missionaries. so that was fun.

it was also my last mission devotional last night! it was fun to be sure! last time im seeing so many friends!

im so excited to see this new house and see the stars in morgan!

OH! also i got my travel info today! did you get it?? i will be arriving in salt lake at 2:05 pm on june 13th :)

Good luck with the move! 

Have the best week! i love you quite a bit!

May 9th

hey mom!

yes its been too long! :)

i forgot to update you on our investigators yesterday! they are amazing! our awesome ones are pretty new to us. we just dropped quite a few people we had been working with for a while. they just weren't progressing. anyways so the new ones...

we have been teaching this guy, Omar for a couple weeks. he is so awesome! it was kind of a fluke how we met him! we knocked on his neighbors door  which is like inches from his. and we heard a knock come from the inside of his door. and he goes "identify yourself!" and we considered running away but we were just like "uh, the missionaries" and he come out laughing saying he was just messing with us. anyways he said he would come to church. and he did! and we taught him the restoration which was great! he likes the "environment" at church (aka the spirit). he is really doing great and looking forward to his next lesson!

we got a text today from the zone leaders for a referral we get to teach! it basically said she wants to be baptized and sealed to her family in the temple! i am so stoked! this is what happens when you keep working hard through slow weeks! basically my dream come true!

we also got another referral for a man named Miguel who seems so cool! a member of the lake sawyer ward called to give it to us! and he remembered me! we get to teach him for the first time tonight!

we taught a 16 year old girl last night for the first time and she committed to be baptized! woot woot! her name is yoseli

ok. we have been trying forever to have a lesson with this girl tristan who was baptized when she was 13 and wasnt active for long at all and dosent remember anything about the church. she is 25 now with a family. we finally got to teach her this week. and just taught like she had never heard the gospel before. it was such a sweet lesson! she prayed with us and got choked up because it had been so long since she prayed. i love teaching people who already have the gift of the holy ghost :) it was really great! we are hoping to teach her husband too!

also there is an old lady named shirley who we are teaching who is convinced i look exactly like one of her ancestors and that we are family. no one else thinks i look like her but i am going to check family search!

before i forget to tell you, there was only one brand new sister who came out to the mission and i was talking to her at choir practice today and she was like "whats your name " and i told her and he got all excited cause i looked familiar and apparently she had read the whole blog you had been doing! hah! she loves it and says you're funny! im excited to see this blog someday!

i think thats about it! 

Love you so much!

May 3: Last Transfer

hello my favorite mom! 

you won your bet:) im staying federal way! sister northrup is staying too! mixed feelings about that. i love federal way and her but i was really hoping for some change. i figured out this morning that its only 42 days though. and i can do anything for that long:) i am really excited to sprint to the finish! im setting goals and making plans  to work my butt off this next 6 weeks! stoked!

i will answer you questions 1st:

i am good for whenever on mothers day. we will be out of church at 2 on sunday. would 4 work for you? i guess that would be 3 your time or should we try for earlier?let me know asap!!

as for summer plans i would really love to do anything that involves swimming:) alot of swimming is my hope for the summer!

libby got some help from people who set up her familysearch profile. but they didnt give it to her so we are working on retrieving tht and then maybe you can help!

um im not sure about china. there are pros and cons i guess. if i go the pros are that it would be way fun to do with em. and it would be a super cool adventure and look good on applications and things i think. cons are that church attendance might be difficultish. missing christmas and getting home tightly before school.

staying  and going to school would be good. concerns there are money( well i guess thats a concern either way. i dont know if im going to be able to get much of a job before china anyway) and missing the adventure.. but i really do miss school and it would be better transition mode to set me up for lifelong activity in the church i think. which is most important. that sounds dramatic but a lot of people fall off when the get back from their missions. and i just dont want an excuse to do that:)

im happy with either. what are your thoughts?

we made a lot of cookies this week too but not for any kind of benefit to us. i am sick! our young women were doing fund raiser for girls camp and selling cookie dough. turns out a bunch of members bought some to give it to us. so we have 5 huge rolls of cookie dough. we baked a whole roll of them yesterday and gave them to christinas family. also the other sisters in our zone's apartment is being fumigated because they got bedbugs so we all have been squish-living in our apartment since wednesday. they will be moving back today though. anyways since the have been living with us we have completely run out of food so all we have are the cookies. this is why im sick. i ate to salads yesterday just to try to start feeling better. thank goodness we get to go shopping today! only veggies for the whole transfer im thinking will fix me!

but it has been way fun to have the sisters with us! one of them, sister ketchum, and i have been friends for a long time and she just went home yesterday! that was sad! but sister baxter was companions with both of us anfd she is getting married in utah in june or july so we will get to see eachother there! :)

 im glad you miracle got my letter!  maybe just invite people to my talk who ask to come... :)

we taught this guy named omar who is a miracle and talked about family history cause thats something he is really into. he mentioned before we even brought up the temple that that is something he really wants to see! then he came to church and a big theme of sacrament meeting was temples so that was cool! we havent talked much since then but im excited to hear what he thought!

we got to teach monique who is amazing!

christinas kids and us all fasted for the dads heart to be softened so kuol could be baptized. it was thier first fast ever. they are so great! we told kuol about the temple. and he was way excited. we came back to teach his mom a couple days later. and she said kuol had asked if he could lie to us that he was 12. (he just turned 10) so he could go to the temple.ha! it cracks me up that he asked permission to lie. he such a good kid!

we found some awesome people this week! good things are happening.

i cant remember the other things. but i love ya!

LET ME KNOW ABOUT THE TIME OR WE WILL PLAN ON 3 YOUR TIME!

April 25th: Birthday :)

hey mom!!

yes i had a great birthday and a great week!

first to answer your questions. i am still of the opinion that no one should hear me give talks ever. good to know its on fathers day though! thanks for that information. Libby is still working on getting to the temple. she is unsure. hopefully we can get her birth moms info so she can take her name to the temple! i think that will help light a fire under her! Cheyenne finally had her baby on like Wednesday! and she comes home today! that girl has been in the hospital forever! apparently all is well and  the mom and baby are both healthy and happy! bree and tim came to church for the first time! yay! they could only stay for sacrament meeting which happened to be unusually boring... seriously. not good. but we are hoping the spirit filled in the gaps! also they finally read the scriptures! so many good things!

we visited sister callahan who is finally getting into a treatment center to help her overcome her addictions! she has been trying so diligently to get in and get straight! the finally accepted her! she just wants to be baptized so bad so this will be a great step! while we were there she wanted to make her son some dinner but he didn't want anything his mom was suggesting. he said he would make his own dinner. he got out mayo, jam, and white bread. he slathered both sides of three pieces of white bread with both the jam and mayo. stacked em up and at the whole thing. it was one of the nastiest things i have ever witnessed i think. but it was so funny to see how much he loved it and kept commenting on how it was his favorite food!

wood chipping at the cahans was fun! us and the elders hauled tons of branches and threw em in a wood chipper! we were covered in dirt afterwords. it was way fun! and a couple days later the called and said they had something for me. i was immediately suspecting dad! haha. so fun!

we met the litterally cutest baby ever. he is russian. his name is vadeshlav.

Saturday we had a service project at a park we got to clean out a bunch of blackberry bushes! twas fun! brother havili who we had dinner with on my birthday said he was going to bake me a cake. haha  i thought he was joking. but the next day we came and his wife brought out a desert after dinner. and he said wait i made sister orr a cake. and he is a big tongan dude that clearly dosent bake so we just laughed and then he told his son to go get it out of the garage fridge. and he had a huge giant cheesecake! so we had both deserts:) twas grand. they are so cute and funny!

we had a lesson with Christina's family this week. when we got there she was making"samoosas" which is like a meat and veggie mixtures stuffed into these tortilla triangles and fried. so we helped them make those cause the dad wouldn't be home for like 10 minutes. i am bomb it making african food it turns out. :)

we met some awesome new people to teach this week. one not awesome lesson ended with a lady convinced that our church wasn't true cause our choir dosent have robes. 

but we met an awesome lady named ariel and we had previously met her family but they weren't interested but she totally is! and way prepared to receive the gospel!

also we started teaching a lady named shirley last week and taught her about the book of mormon and she is sucked in! she loves it! so that is amazing and good news!

also a less active family we are working with decided to come back to church! which means kids being baptized and ordained with the preisthood! so many good things!

im probably forgetting things!

i DID get your package! it was way cute! im stoked for the laptop! and love the banana chips! also the decorations made the day!

sister northrup is a bomb companion to have on your bjrthday she made it so cute! she is taking me to a restraunt called saltys down at redondo beach so that will be fun!

all in all its been great!

this is the last week of the transfer so we will find out saturday if im staying or going for my last transfer!

sister eaton said to start aranging mothers day calls! any time in particular work for you? if i am still here our church gets out at 2. if im moving ..i dont know. 

I love ya mamma! have the best week!

17 months in and 21 years old on Sunday :)

Erin and Sister Northrup in Bishop and Sister Cahan's home

The birthday flowers were delivered there by her dad just shortly before - 
Erin's 21st birthday is on Sunday

hey mamma :)

this week was much better! we got to teach a bunch! i could definitely feel your prayers. 

one girl we taught this week is named Brittney. we met her right before we were going to go in for the night! late night miracles! she is athiest but interested in why people believe what they believe so she said we could come back the next day. we came and taught about the restoration and the spirit was so strong! she prayed for the first time ever and asked heavenly father what her next step should be! that was amazing. she is ysa age, so we are probably going to have to pass her off but hey it was cool!

I'm not sure if i ever told you but there is an apartment complex where apparently insanity is drawn to because we have the wackiest experiences there! i have tons of stories i could tell you about. but this place seriously is nuts. so for fun we decided to contact there one day this week. the first man we talked to would not let us leave forever! he kept telling us we had time for his story! he was telling us about how he just read a book by some "theologian"  about how the tree of knowledge of good and evil that Adam and Eve partook of was actually a marijuana plant. and that it gave them knowledge because they smoked it and it made them think. so.... i was pretty much just dying to get away from this person OR teach him the truth. but he never stopped talking. we would walk away a few steps and say we had to go and he would tell us that we cant just cut him off. i guessed we kind of asked for it by going to waterbury. i probably wont make that mistake again anytime soon!

we got to go to a luncheon at a horse track! it was for food bank volunteers so everyone in our zone went! that was fun. there was a raffle drawing and  basically everything was won by elders! ha! it was grand!

last night we went to the mission devotional with Christina and her family. we rode with them in their big family van. it felt like home! the devotional was amazing! one of the best i have seen! and the family loved it! milton even came! who is the 15 year old who never comes and he loved it too! i think i have told you but we have been trying so hard to talk to the dad because he is never home and he is the obstacle holding up the boys from being baptized. by a miracle we caught him home this week! and he said we can start teaching him! that will be way good! plus if he dodges us. his kid invited us to his birthday in a couple weeks which will be a big family dinner so we will definitely catch him there too!

the other day sister northrup left to a baptism for one of her investigators who lives forever away so libby came out to be my companion for a few hours! (libby is a recently baptized member) it was great! i love that lady so much! we found a bomb lady named Jo to teach and libby testified so powerfully! we talked about going to the temple to do baptisms. hopefully libby can go soon. she has her recommend and she has the info and wants to do the baptism for her mom. satan is just trying o keep libby away. can y'all keep her in your prayers?

good things are happening in federal way! i sure love this place!

we had fhe with a family this week who i love. they are less active. but love fhe and have really been making an effort to get to church lately! we had a great lesson with them! the fhe "treat" turned out to be a feast! chicken, pasta, salad, horchata, pie... it was like second dinner. so good! so much food at 8:30 at night!

cheyanne has been in active labor for like a week now. still no baby. that woman needs prayers!

i dont know if i have mentioned but this ward is tiny! very small! and we just found out that 2 pillar of the ward families are moving away. so thats less than good news! the stake president blessed our ward with growth though! so we are still working for that and counting on it!

have fun cutting bushes and buying refrigerators and all the good stuff! have a great week :)

LOOVE Erin

Looking on the bright side

Heya mom :)

This week has been a tough one! Our plans looked amazing but a lot of cancelled appointments and dropped investigators and such. But hey, next week looks great due to all the appointments rescheduled for then! And dropped investigators just means that they weren't ready yet and we get to spend more time on people who are. All good things! 

We did get to see Bree and Tim this week. They decided that it is way important to know if this is true and that they have not been giving it the time and attention it needs. They decided on their own to read the Book of Mormon everyday with prayer. So that was great! We got to meet Bree's daughter too!

We also had exchanges this week and I got to go with Sister Young who is super sweet and we had a lot of fun! We met a guy who is just like Stephan from the weekly update on SNL. Literally. And his name was Steven and he had the same catchphrase. It was grand.

Love Jared's cute pics! My favorite is the one on the swings!

Good luck on the sandwiches! What kinds are y'all making?

I'm jealous of your and dad's date! BBQ sounds so good right now! I have made some bomb BBQ chicken tacos lately! We are about to go get our weekly sub zero! Did I tell you that missionaries get free ice cream there! Luckily it's not in my area or we would be there everyday! But on Pday we can go anywhere in the zone :) 

Also I'm excited to hear about summer plans!

Well I love ya! Thanks for all you do!!

Erin

Conference and Sweet Teaching!

Hey Mamma!

Yes conference was so good!  We watched most the sessions at the church! Sunday morning we watched at the Cahans house with Christina's family! And the son, Kuol, who we are now teaching brought his friend to watch too! so good! so good! Bree and Tim were going to come too but her son was sick. Bummer! We are going over there tonight though cause she really wants us to meet her daughter.

We taught Bree and Tim about the plan of salvation this week and it was awesome! Bree got so excited and just looked at Tim so happy. hHe was flipping through the pamphlet we gave him and looked up at her and was like "huh?" and she was like "did you hear what they said?" and he was like "sorry i was reading." Hah, total guy! And she was like "Tim we can be married forever!" It was so cute and he became a lot more excited with her when he caught up to what we were talking about. They want to be baptized but are going to have some word of wisdom struggles so they are currently praying about when their baptism date should be/when they can be done with that stuff. The spirit is always so strong in those lessons! They are way prepared!

A MIRACLE happened this week. We had a super slow day. We couldn't find people to teach, no one was home, blah, blah, blah. But lo and behold we met a girl named Berra! And she was bomb! And we set an appointment to come back the next day! And we came and she wasn't home. Instead her sister answered the door and said we could come in and teach them while we waited for her. We walked in and a group was hanging in the living room. 

and as we taught about the restoration more and more people piled in, including Berra when she got home. Turns out this is a family of 10! They are so great! And very prepared and interested! They just moved to America from Rwanda a year ago. The kid's english is really good but the parents don't speak it at all. It was fun.  We would teach them a concept and then they would all discuss in their language and then the 15 year old who was apparently the designated spokesman would ask us a question in English.  We taught a bunch of them again yesterday and it was really great the kids are ages 19,18,17,16,15,12,7,and 5. We are so excited for this family! We are finding Swahili and their Rwandan language speakers to help us teach the parents.

Also we taught another BOMB family from Kenya this week. Seriously prepared.  I just love africans!

In was walking up towards a house this week and I looked down and there was a snake on my foot just sliding on across it! Sister Northrup just made fun of my reaction which was my normal short high squeak.

I also got called "sister whore" again when someone was praying for me this week...

Also we met a girl yesterday while we were going over to meet a potential investigator. Our person wasn't home but her friend, Ariana, was hanging out at her house and told us she wanted to hear the message. So we told her and then she told us her story. Poor girl has had one of the hardest lives I've ever heard of and she is only 26. When we taught her about the apostasy and what apostasy is, she told us that that's where she is at - separated from God. She felt that we were totally God-sent and we felt similarly! We are going to see her again tomorrow and she is going to get a priesthood blessing! This girl needs prayers. It was such a blessing to meet her!

I'm gonna have to see a pic of your  fancy cake! Good luck on the sandwiches! 

Thanks for the forecast! It has been so nice this week! Like completely the opposite side of the spectrum from the past few months! Thank goodness for spring!

Well I love ya. I think that's most of my news!

Have the best week!

Love Erin

Happy Easter!!

Sister Orr, Sister Hampton, Sister Northrup

hey mom!

yes the sun finally came out and its actually staying for a second which feels like a miracle. since it wasn't cloudy president said we could all go watch the sunrise on saturday cause that's one of his Easter traditions. our zone leaders told us to all meet up at redondo beach which we did but it turned out to be a lame place to watch the sunrise. it would be much better to watch the sunset over the water! either way, we saw a baby seal so i was pretty dang happy. 

 

and then later that day KATHY AND CHRISTINA GOT BAPTIZED. it was amazing. they were so happy and the spirit was great! everything went well. and then we had dinner and then we went to the general womens broadcast! which was way cool. im going to try to look up that "i was a stranger" thing when im done emailing.

 

don't worry i figured the fruit and veggies were my Easter package. seriously the best. a lady in the ward gave us Easter baskets each packed so full of chocolate and i just gave it all away. i could not handle it.

 

church yesterday was so good! first of all christina and kathy were confirmed. also we just had an amzazing sacrament meeting.  we got to teach gospel principles. the usual teacher just gave us a 30 minute dvd and asked us to play it in place of her lesson since she coulnt be there. but it turns out there is only 1 tv in this building and everybody needed it today. so we just taught on the fly and it turned out really good! the spirit was strong! so that was a tender mercy.

tell bob her braces look great!

sounds like yall had a fun easter weekend! 

 

not actually alot noteable happened this week! lots of laughing and fun and hard work!

sorry for the short letter. i keep getting distracted by elder hollands face2face. so dang good!

 

ok welp i love ya more than i love the sun! which is quite a bit at this point

 

lOVE eRIN

So close!!

The beautiful sisters of the Federal Way Zone

Hah! I cannot believe you were at the church!  (Erin's referring to mine and Garret's secret visit to Seattle where we accidentally found ourselves right outside of a church where Erin was meeting inside)

Yeah President and Sister Eaton came to my district meeting on Tuesday and then they were leaving and president goes "we are off to meet some people" and then he just looks at me and I'm like "..fun" and then he was like "do you know who?" and he's like " we are going to have lunch with your parents".  And I just laughed! And seriously I was 80% sure you were stalking me all week! I was fully anticipating seeing you guys! So funny! Thanks so much for all that fruit and juice and wasabi ranch snap peas! That's the best! I wonder which Elders you talked to! What did they look like? I bet the lake you walked around in Maple Valley was Lake Wilderness! I ran there every morning! (It was!)

This week has been awesome! On Wednesday, we had a training on studying which was pretty cool!

And we got to go to the Family History Discovery Center again with Kathy (the black girl from the pic) and Sister Bellessa came with us! Kathy loved the temple so much and never wanted to leave! She said she can picture herself getting married there! I just love all of those people! She and her mom are getting baptized this coming Saturday so we are prepping for that! They are amazing! 

Sister Northrup, Sister Bellessa, Kathy, and Erin

We taught Cheyanne AND her boyfriend Nate for the first time! He opened up so much and wants to change! He had a crazy experience in jail.  It was like a vision too! Heavenly father told Nate in this vision that he needs to change his life and to do that by meeting with us! So bomb! He talked a lot! So we didn't get to teach much but I'm stoked they are going to get married and baptized!

And you are absolutely right! People here talk to themselves so much!

So, I hit my 16 month mark this week! So nuts! I have been gone forever! Home is starting to feel like real life again and not just some distant non-reality!

Really good things are happening in this area! Me and Sister Northrup get to stay! This will be my 4th transfer here. Saturday was so long and dead and I was like "maybe I would be ok leaving" Buuut Sunday night we found out we were staying and yesterday was a miracle day! We found some awesome prepared people! So I am way stoked to stay for another 6 weeks!

I got my passport photo today and will try to scan it over to you. If I cant I will just mail it. Hope thats ok!

I was so happy there was sunshine this week for yall's visit! Especially so y'all could see Rainier. When its cloudy, that things gone! 

When I sent you that pic of us at the temple on Friday, I was like "oh shoot what if they're in Seattle??" So you calmed my nerves telling me you were home! haha! (all done through Sister Bellessa texting me - so handy!)

Where did y'all eat in Black Diamond? The Black Diamond Bakery? That place is the best!  (Yes, we did - and yes, it was!)

ok I lovve you!! Talk you ya later:)

3 months from today she'll be in our arms!! :)

Sweet Janiah's baptism day :)

The Federal Way Zone

hey mom!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! are y'all doing anything fun?? wedding pics look way fun! i cannot believe Kaylee and Tyler have a baby!! what??

Glad the girls got my letter this time! Is Bob anymore wanting to go to efy?

The baptisms were great! We got kind of nervous cause when we first showed up they were having a huge stake pinewood derby scout thing that took up the whole church and was super loud! We then learned then somebody did not actually reserve the church for the baptism. So that was somewhat stressful. We just went ahead and filled up the font anyway! By the time the first baptism was supposed to start the scouts were pretty much done so that was good! Yvette's baptism was great. A lot of ward support and went way smoothly! The spirit was really sweet! She had to get dunked a couple times because of her hair floating the first time. Sister Westover got to come up from Puyallup so that was fun to see her! Yvette is samoan so her fam doesn't do things small! they had all kinds of food that was way good and way not american! There was bright red hot dogs that were bomb! And these spam and rice teriyaki rolls! It was fun!

Then we got things ready for the next baptism. While we were doing that Janiah's aunt - who is the member/ driver of the family said she was sick and couldn't make it so the kids and Janiah's mom would need a ride! We were a little frantic for a minute but soon Yolanda (the aunt) decided she could still come. When she showed up her face was way swollen. She is such s trooper! That was a sweet baptism as well! Janiah got a little nervous and her little brother told her to just let him do it. hah! She was all good and happy after she came out of the water:) We got to the church at like 10 am and didn't leave till 5. It was an all day thing!

The next day Yvette got confirmed. Janiah did not. Her aunt took some meds when she got home from the baptism and didn't wake up till 1/2 way through church! So nuts! So she will be getting confirmed next week :)

I decided daylight savings is good for missionary work! People usually aren't as bugged when we are knocking on their door and its still light outside!

We had another bomb lesson with Bree and Tim this week! We brought another couple from the ward and they loved each other. Tim said when we left last week they realized they had been looking for answers to problems and finding direction in their lives and decided it wasn't a coincidence we showed up when we did! He told us about a time 5 years ago when he was a truck stop fueling up at like 4 am. He said no one was there but all of a sudden an old man walked up from a car he had not seen previously and said "it looks like you need some help" and handed him a Book of Mormon! He said the man walked away and left right after that! He said for the next few days he kept asking himself and others "do i need help?" 

Mom, last week I bought amazing cheese that i have been putting on everything! It's gouda spiced with jalapeno, habenero, and chipotle peppers. I made bomb tacos with this stuff! I also made spicy indian mango chicken tacos with nectarine in it. Mom. It was so good!

Cheyanne's boyfriend went to jail over the weekend but apparently he keeps telling her over the phone that he wants to turn his life around and that he is done messing around and that he wants to sit in on our lessons now and start supporting her and learning himself! So thats good news! First lesson with him is tomorrow!

The new easter vid is out at mormon.org/easter! It's pretty dang good!

I love you mamma! I hope you have the best birthday! 

Oh and thanks for getting me hooked up to go to church in china!

Love you!!

Teaching and Baptisms

hey mom!

this week has been great! we are getting ready for the baptisms! still a lot to do but everyone is getting prepped! so they are on! thats exciting! Janiah brought her cute friend to church yesterday and invited her to her baptism. she is pumped! so are we! 

we taught cheyanne again this week and had such a great lesson. and it was about the law of chastity! who would have guessed that would ever be one of my favorite lessons?! but honestly. it was so good! she has 1.5 kids and is living with her boyfriend so we were thinking she has got to get married or get out or she cant get baptized. we were teaching more towards marriage since she has been with him for 8 years and they have the kids. but she said that she was really grateful for this lesson and that she has felt that god has been telling her to leave for a long time (her boyfriend is way bad news) and that hearing this commandment gave her the strength to even consider actually acting on these promptings! so that is in the works now. the spirit was way strong! on saturday we went to her baby shower at a buffet. they had the best cheesecake! :)

also this week the best thing happened! we had met this girl bree last week and mentioned that the everyone seemed to have construction shirts like the one she was wearing and that it was a total washington thing and we wanted one. when we stopped by this week she was like hold on. and came back with the shirts! it was so cute! so now we have bomb construction shirts. also even better news is that we taught her and her husband! they are awesome and they understood the need for the priesthood and the necessity of it! and they said if the come to know its true they will be baptized! i love them! they are named bree and tim.

us and a ton of people dropped everything and helped an old lady move into and apartment. we had the job of unloading the truck while others moved the stuff to the 5th floor. literally we got to a certain point of the truck and it was just a wall of  boxes of yarn, all the way back. so much stinking yarn. 

we taught our sudanese friend christina and we asked her if she has gotten answers to her prayers about what we have been teaching. she said yes. and that it came as she was watching some random african movie. all of a sudden a commercial came on talking about the book of mormon saying you can pray to know if its true, she said she thought to herself "i do know its true". and took that as her answer! how crazy! the lord works in mysterious ways! we have been talking to her and her daughter about the temple and family history and they are way excited to see the temple! so we are planning on doing a trip to the Bellevue discovery center. woo woot!

also we were teaching a lady named corrina and when we showed up she and sterling (her son) were about to go across the street to the park. so we went over and talked about the gospel/ swinged on some swings. and she told us she had met a guy earlier that day who lived down the street and they had been talking about the gospel. she invited him to come and we eventually taught him about the restoration and he wants to be baptized! so that was way good!

oh also president and sister eaton came and did comp study with us! they told us that this had been the rainiest washington winter on record! and i can attest! it has been rainy!

have yall gotten any china info? specifically where we would be? its making me a little nervous that i might not be able to get to a church very often. a lot nervous actually. do you think i could call and ask?

love you sososso much!