Happy March!!!

Hello mamma dear! how are you??

this week has gone by so fast but so many things happened! I seriously just love this ward and the people that we are working with and everything involving present circumstances!

so Janiah the 9 year old was going to be baptized this coming Saturday but we are pushing it back a week because of a funeral so we are going to have 2 baptisms next Saturday on the 12th. so that will be a fun day! i am stoked!

Janiahs' family is from Louisiana and they are like the best sassy black family in the world. one funny moment was when we were over teaching Janiah and they had a friend over named Tabeaclyanna. haha and every time she said her name me and Sister Northrup were trying so hard not to laugh. anyway this girl was being loud and distracting. and then Janiah just brakes out in rage and goes "GET OUT!"  and her little sister goes "you don't have ta holla at her." ha! we just busted up! it was great! i love their family! all the kids LOVE primary songs so we turn on sing along videos on their wiiU and do that every time. they love it!

we also taught them and a couple other people the law of chastity this week. lots of that lesson!

we had another flushing hard drugs down the toilet ceremony with our investigator. those are always grand!

we are still teaching our Sudanese family who are just amazing! they fed us african food this week which was fun. it was pretty good! it was like soup over a mash-potatoey dish and they all just ate it with their hands. if they eat that with their hands I'm pretty sure there is nothing they would ever use utensils for. luckily they gave me a spoon! and they taught me some words in dinka! also their african friend was over last night and i introduced myself and he looked at the 18 year old, Kathy, and goes "she is sister whore?". and kathy just face palmed and was so embarrassed. he decided to call me sister "arrrrr" since he cant pronounce my name.

the past couple times we have taught the mom, Christina, we have brought a lady with a one year old baby and both times she has decided to breastfeed him in the middle of our lesson with nothing covering her at all. i never imagined so much nudity involved in sharing the gospel but hey, Christina didn't care!

Adriene fall off the face of the earth but ran into her this week by a miracle! she says they have had a LOT of family problems in the past few weeks but she still wants to learn and join! poor lady! we are just happy shes not avoiding/ dropping us!

thats rocks that y'all are having people over and such! one thing that i have seriously learned throughout my mission is the importance of being an example of the believer in word on conversation in charity in spirit in faith and in purity. most of the people we are teaching are all progressing and have gotten as far as they have gotten. the role of member missionaries in this work is of far greater importance than people realize. be a friend. share what it is that has blessed your life so insanely (aka the gospel of Jesus Christ). its not complicated even though satan makes it seem like it is. talk to the people around you. we have no right to withhold this happy as heck message!

learn it. live it. share it. thats the motto.

another thing we did this week was spend a significant amount of time helping an old lady named 

Rita move into a senior living facility. good thing me and Sister Northrup are buff cause she had a lot of really big and heavy stuff to fit into her hotel room sized apartment!

Your cakes and cookies look amazing! Have fun with all the wedding and cake and chickens and house selling things going on around there!

love you soso much!

Sister Erin Orr

15 months!!! :)

Hello mother dearest!

this has been another great week! hard at some points but that happens!

we got to go to a mission devotional last night which was probably the highlight of my week! i got to see so many people especially since it was in kent i got to see so many people that i love from the beginning of my mission! and i got to see sister frischknecht and sister westover and sister davis! i love them so so much! Kathy our 18 year old Sudanese investigator came with us. and she loved it! those things are way good! elder bennett was randomly there too so i got to see him. he said he is going to be one of jared's  "bridesmen" hah!

so we are teaching a girl whose records got lost so she will be baptized next month.  her name is yvette and she is 12 and super cute. since we have been coming her moms best friend moved in with them. she was baptzed 4 years ago and has kind of drifted since then but really wants to get back and go to the temple so we are goin to start teaching her today! yay! im so excited to help her get to the temple!

awkward moment this week. our dinner appointment cancelled so our ward mission leader called a less active family to feed us. so we called to affirm they were planning on us for dinner and showed up. and she had us just sit down on the couch and basically waited for us to make conversation with her or else she wouldnt say anything and we just kept sitting there. and i could see that there was nothing in the kitchen. so my suspicions continually grew that she indeed was not aware that she was feeding us. so we shared a message and then ran to 5 guys real quick for some food before our 6:00appointment! 

we met a girl named tony this week who is bomb. she is not religious but veru spiritual. she is basically a total hippie. she was telling us what she thought the purpose of life is and the plan for us before and after death and it basically was the excat plan of salvation which was pretty cool. except she mixed in a little reincarnation. but honestly these were just things she had come up with so we had an awesome talk about that!

we had a ward game night where i basically just played heads up for an hour. and rocked it. 

there was also a stake relief society activity. we just stayed for the dinner part. they had a live band of men from the stake that were actually pretty good! they took songs from like the 60s and 70s and made them have mormony lyrics. it was way cute. especially cause it was way loud in our small church gym. and there was like 200 old ladys rocking out to these dudes. they had songs about nursury and home teaching and  potlucks and things like that. and president and sister eaton were there! 

oh also we had a ward conference and the whole theme was rescuing. which is awesome the stake president challenged everyone in the ward to rescue someone this year! so we are going to work that angle now to help the members have missionary experiences and INVITE!

i have an insane craving for chocolate chip cookies right now. so i will probably make some today! wish me luck:)

I love ya mom! (even though sometimes you forget to write me)  (This is 100% not true - but I did mix some things up the last two weeks which didn't look good - oops!)

LOVE erin 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

hah! yes i got both your letter and package last week! that was awesome! pday wont be on Tuesday again for a while. i will for sure let you know!

now there are 6 people committed to baptism! they are all amazing! i cant even contain how amazing it is to be here right now! i love teaching poeple about the gospel so much! 

so this has been a crazy week! last Monday we got a text saying we were getting another companion the next day! she had been visa waiting for 2 transfers in Canada where she is from. We got her Tuesday evening along with a bunk bed and an extra desk. her name is sister Cameron and she is SO cute! i love her so much! Unfortunately. we found out later that day that she might only be with us temporarily because another sister in the mission was maybe going home. so we got only one full day with her which was Wednesday and it was indeed a great day! and that night we got a phone call saying she would be leaving us the next morning :( so sad! mission life definitely keeps you on your toes!

we had a zone conference on friday which is always great! they sang happy birthday to all the missionaries who will have a birthday between now and next zone conference, which included me... weird. im such an oldie.  but the good thing was i got to see all my friends there! sister webb and sister cameron and sister ketchum! i love these girls!

on Saturday we had the best day ever. it was a miracle day! we had an appointment set with a new lady, adriene who we hadnt taught yet but she was eager and excited to learn! so we were stoked but we couldn't meet at her house because its crammed and there are lots of babies running around and no one else was super eager to have us over. so we told her we could have a member meet us either in their home or the church and give her a ride to and from. we planned this like 5 days in advance and spent like the whole 5 days trying to find someone to come! but even Saturday morning we had no one who had said yes. eventually one lady told us that if she was back from issaquah on time, she would do it! so we kept that as a back up while we kept calling people but no one still was a go. it got time to leave the house and our 10:00 cancelled. and we were like "shoot." so as we were praying before we left the house we asked Heavenly Father for an opportunity to lift someone. as we were praying we got a text from libby. she needed some service moving one rooms furniture to another. so we did that! it was great! then we went to a baptism another ward was having and we brought our investigator Kathy. it was a great baptism! they are samoan so there was some prayers in samoan. and very different refreshments. kathy loved it! at the end she was talking to a member who came with us and she said " this might be really fast, but i think i really want to be a part of this church." so that was amazing. next we met a member for another set lesson with a potential named david. he bailed on that but we had another potential named marylee next door who had set a couple appointments before but they didnt work out. it was a good lesson. except for her husband was sitting like 10 feet away shouting his religious opinions at us the whole time! hah! the reason i say it was goo is because she really intently listened and cared and invited us back. hopefully her husband will be busy next time! then we were about to go to our lesson with adrien and the member texted and said she would not be back in time. so we asked the one who was with us ( who is not even in our ward) if she was busy. and she said she would love to come and bring adriene to the church! so we went our separate ways and all met up there and had probably my favorite lesson ever. she has been searching for this light forever. and knows that she has found it. she feels sad that she has missed out on being a member of this church for her whole life. she has told her family "im going to follow sister orr wherever she takes me." ha! like i have anything to do with it! she is really incredible! i am so excited for her baptism next month! and then we went to dinner with one of my favorite members and then served an investigator by cleaning windows and such! it was amazing and at the end of the day my body was tired but i felt so energized! 

on saturday we had a stake conference broadcast from elder renlund and a few other general authorities! it was so great! did yall have that? i think this one was just for the west coast and hawaii.

also we did exchanges yesterday and i got to go with sister ketchum who is my favorite! we taught a tom of awesome lessons! including one to a beautiful persian family. the 17 year old kid is the only one who speaks english and he is still learning. but the love this gospel. and love learning. the th 17 year old, quian, translates everything we say. i takes a while . ha! but it was a great experience!

also cheyanne who is bomb got back from portland finally and they taught her while i was on exchange! she knows this is true and she is awesome! she comitted to baptism!

the china interview was good! it got me way excited! i asked if me and em could be in the same apartment. hope thats cool! it was really informational. she hardly asked me anything except for like what im most excited for:) it sounds pretty set.

you should do the bakery/ sandwhich shop! do you know how good my sandwhiches are? we could make billions. or as much as one can make owning a bakery in the booming metropolis that is morgan, utah.

thanks for everything! LOVE you so much!

Sister Erin Orr

Benefits of serving in a ward where your brother served...you're not left out of the big news! :)

Mom!!!!!

Thanks for setting up that interview for me! (referring to possibly teaching english in China during fall semester) Wish me luck!

We just got back from the beach we went with Libby and got Sub Zero ice cream. Did you know missionaries get free ice cream there? Who knew? Apparently all the elders cause they showed up too! Haha,

This week has been great the work has been rolling forth in Federal Way! We committed 4 people to baptism! Also we had a birthday party for one of our investigator's sons last night at the Bishop's house and it was awesome!  We also got a new ward mission leader which I am excited about!

I'm trying to remember what happened this week... I usually think in advance and look through my planner, but I left that in the car. I came slightly unprepared to email!

Yesterday at church a lady from another ward who I know came up and said she HAD to show me Jared's engagement pics! Ha! It was great! I was wondering if that was coming! And then right after sacrament meeting, I was rushed by a couple other ward members telling me congrats for Jared! So funny but really cute pics!

We had an awesome lesson with an investigator named Mark! We talked about the Book of Mormon and he is willing and excited to read. We brought a lady from the ward with us and it went really well.

Me and Sister Westover (last companion) got to go to the taco truck in Maple Valley when we went up there for transfers! SO good!  I dont know if I mentioned but she got transferred and gets to live in the lake cottage in the Lake Sawyer Ward where I was a year ago! And she's in a trio! I'm so sad she's not with me anymore but happy that there will be less junk food around here, so I can finally lose weight!! Haha!

My new comp has been out for 3 transfers and is from Pocatello Idaho. She is a faith-filled and capable missionary! I'm grateful to have her to work with in this area.

I am seriously coming up blank for things that happened this week! I need a nap! Haha!

Well I love ya! I'll try not to spend too many hours crying about the lack of mom letters this week :)  (little mix up at home and she didn't get a letter from me -- til later this night -- oops!)

LOVE Sister Orr

Transfers, Teaching, and Lotsa Service

Sister Orr helping to load/unload luggage on transfer day

hello:) 

i am staying in federal way! sister westover is leaving me though! so sad! i have not been closer to a companion yet! she gets to go to lake sawyer and live in the lake house though.  i am so happy to stay here though! we have a lot going on! my new companion is named sister northrup. i dont know her. but i will in a few hours!

we had exchanges this week and i got to go with sister baxter! which was good cause it was the last time isaw her before she went home yesterday! miracles happen on exchanges and it was sure true this time around! we found so many people to teach! my favorite being a girl named kristine who just wants so badly to know her purpose in life!

we also the day before met a guy named nate who seemed semi intyerested and said we could come back the next day. when we came back his girlfriend, cheyanne, opened the door and she just felt the spirit so strong tell her to let us in! she has such an intune relationship with God its incredible and understands what we are teaching! i am so excited to teach her more!

a couple days ago we met a girl named regina. we were walking by on the way to Nicoles house, and she was sitting out on the steps and we started talking to her. she is so friendly and sweet. we told her we were from the church of jesus christ of latter day saints and taught a little about the restoration and we asked her what she believed about christ. and she said "dont judge me but i really like what the mormons have to say about all that." so then we explained that we ARE mormons and she got excited and wants to learn more! so we are planning on teaching her tonight! yay!

we got to do some good service this week! at libby/ the davis's house we helped them build a fireplace/ media center they bought from home depot. also we got to scoop kitty litter cause they all have bad backs and they have 7 cats and 7 huge litter boxes. so that was grand.

...and last night we went and deep cleaned gina (the elders investigator's) kitchen. that was fun!

and the other day we were tracting and saw a lady packing boxes in to a moving van. so we helped her load those for a while and i thought she was like 21 or 22 the whole time. it turned out she is an insanely tall and mature 12 year old! she is 5' 11! her name is ayla! we had an awesome conversation with her about the restoration. like all of her extended family are members of the church!

i dont know when nicole and janiah will be baptized. soon i hope! they are just not making the time for lessons very much. so probably not this weekend :(

i got a mini book of mormon at deseret book when we went. yall should get them. they have a guide to the scriptures kind of like a bible dictionary but i like it better!

sorry for the lack of letters to my siblings! i have not written like any one at all since christmas i think. so yes i will be getting back into that!

institute sounds way fun! im quite jealous. that was one of my favorite parts of being in the ysa wards!

have an incerdible week!! i love you! 

LOVE erin :)