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
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
8 months for Sister Orr!
Erin and Carl Eads (in the vest) - Jared baptized him and loves him!
Hey Mamma!
Glad you like the bangs! I hate them but I didn't even cry about them until yesterday, so that's good news. I'm becoming a stronger person out here it seems.The picture with the Eads was from last night at the mission devotional. I knew that one with the Farrishes wasn't going to be cute - I didn't even look at that one so just ignore it :)
i was called to bear my testimony at the mission devotional last night which was a cool opportunity but there was like 700 people there and i was SO terrified. I used the fact that I was speaking to entice people into coming, and we did have 2 investigators there! Whoot whoot! I only had to talk for literally sixty seconds but there were so many points that I wanted to touch on in my 60 seconds that I wrote it out and edited it until every line and word was planned, purposeful and precise. Haha, I realized then that if I skipped any lines while I was up there (I couldn't bring any notes) that my thoughts would not make sense because of the way they flowed together. I worked hard on memorizing what I wrote and prayed I would make sense while I was speaking. While I was up there I'm sure you could tell I was nervous but as I was speaking I knew exactly what part of my testimony I should say next so that it would all make sense. And my mind never even went blank, so that was a miracle. I felt Heavenly Father's love and support so much in that moment!
Haha, I don't know if you knew how stressful talking in front of people is for me, but the fact that I was given the assignment to bear a one minute testimony and it caused a week of major phobiation, should be somewhat of an insight:) Anyways, turned out good. Glad it happened. And Michel, our investigator, walked in as soon as I started talking and was smiling and waving at me from the doorway, so that was fun! :)
Also do you remember Ted? My 76 year old investigator that got baptized? He spoke there! And he talked to the missionaries for a minute and just said basically: Don't give up. You're changing lives. Even if you don't recognize it and even if they don't recognize it -- people need you and your message.
It was so tender! I love that guy. I wrote him a letter a few weeks ago and he said he has been asking everyone where I "got shipped off to" so he could write me back. Haha. I did put a return address on that letter, but I guess he doesn't pay attention to that kind of thing.
Michel got introduced to the Bishop while she was there! Which was awesome! They had a long conversation that I didn't get to hear but I'm excited to know what they said to each other!
Also we got a new YSA investigator this week! She was being fellowshipped my a member family in the Lake Wilderness Ward and she lives in those boundaries so those elders taught her the first few lessons, and then they handed her off to us cause she really should be in YSA:) Her name is Em, short for Emily but she just likes Em. She is really cool and has a lot of questions. She said she likes asking me and Sister Dolan questions because we don't get offended. Apparently that was a problem before with the elders. Haha. I love answering genuine questions. That is one of my very favorite parts of the work --helping people understand the gospel that really want to understand it. That is what I call fulfilling.
Also we taught a girl named Tana for the first time this week. Me and Sister Jeffery tracted into her a while back and we finally got to meet up with her. She straight up told us that she is going through some trials and that she needed some spiritual guidance. As a missionary, I am so grateful for the humility that comes from trying times in peoples lives. EVERYONE needs the gospel, but so many people won't step out of their comfort zone to change. Even if the change is good. People are scared of being uncomfortable, so trials do a great job of pushing people out of their comfort zone for them:)
I quite love you! Thanks for the letter! Keep me updated on grandma and her health and happiness and such!
Tell Jake happy baptism!
LOOVE Sister Erin Orr
Hey Dad!
So since you didn't send me a letter (he actually did) I will just tell you about the most boring day of my week. That would be Saturday. Sister Dolan was sick so we had to sit inside all day. It was so brutal. Basically I did a lot of texting and calling: setting up appointments and fellowship, sending spiritual thoughts, inviting people to our mission devotional. Also I exercised as much as I could in our little apartment and cleaned EVERYTHING and we found a sketchbook so we drew a bunch of pictures. I'll send ya some I drew. Also I read like 40 chapters of the Book of Mormon and updated our area books. I sent out one mass text to a bunch of obscure people inviting them to the devotional and his one YSA texted back and said he was ready to start coming back to church (he is less active), I felt like the spirit worked through me in sending out that text and including him. Anyways pray for Patrick Gibson! He knows this church is true already. But he is going to need some serious strength in coming back! I think if Sister Dolan had not gotten sick, then I never would have had time or thought to text Patrick and he never would have let me know he has the desire to change! Miracles man!
Welp. have the most quality of weeks!
LOVE Sister Erin Orr
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Erin's letters this week
Hello Mamma Dear:)
Yeah, sorry it took so long to get to the library! We had choir practice this morning and then went to the mall in auburn for a bit and then grocery shopped and then came here. It was so weird going to the mall. I haven't been in one of those things in 8 months! And I've been pretty dang removed from the world since then. It was weird and super fun! Also the only thing I bought grocery shopping this week was celery. I love that stuff!
Melain Blue fixed my hair and its SO short now. She felt so bad about Sister Jeffrey's haircut on my hair. she just kept whispering "sorry" the shorter and shorter she had to make it. I look like Dora! Just kidding - its not that bad but I wanted long hair so bad. I'm gonna have to start taking some prenatal vitamins or something.
My friend Makayla told me that her mission president said that sister missionaries have the biggest impact on "potential elders" than on any other group of people and we have totally seen that to be true! Since we are in the YSA we get to work with a lot of mission-age less-active members and we are working with 2 guys Aaron and Kyle that are working towards being active and mission ready! We are having Aaron study from Preach My Gospel and teach us what he learns! it is awesome! He asks about mission life a lot and he is so excited for his own personal growth and the growth of those around him. He is also planning on getting his patriarchal blessing soon!
With Kyle, he has already made up his mind to serve a mission and is taking steps to get Sundays off so he can come to church and he ordered a Preach My Gospel. He's just doing great. We went over to meet with him this week, but he accidentally scheduled us at the same time he was working. His mom though, who is less active, was home and invited us in and we shared a message. Our conversation somehow lead to the temple and she told us that she hadn't been through yet but she had always wanted to. We encouraged her to go and promised her so many blessings and set goals with her! It was a really awesome lesson! I wish we were actually in her ward. Her ward is covered by elders but she LOVES sister missionaries. I'm glad she has a YSA age son so we can still meet there and follow up on her goals! I'm so excited for her!
Sister Dolan has been a sicky for a few days this week so pray for her health! I sure am:) She is so great! We have gotten along so well from the beginning!
I will also pray for your hoarse voice and your eardrum and the right side of your face:)
I love the thought of giving our name to Christ during our mission. I have learned so much out here. and I have SO much still to learn!
I love you so much! Thanks for everything you do!
LOVE, Sister Erin Orr
Hey Dad!
Eric will be glad to know his missionary work is inspiring kids across the nation! He is so cute!
Sister Dolan is more willing than able to run with me:) She has not been feeling well at all this week. We ran once but I have been working out still! We think we are going to get a membership at our little apartment complex gym, so even if she can't run, I can at least do the treadmill. She loves the work and we are so excited to work hard together and baptize people! We did a lot of street contacting this week and found 14 new potential investigators!
A couple of them are really really bomb! One guy named Jeremy is so excited to learn. He was just enthralled as we told him about Joseph Smith's experience in the Sacred Grove. We are meeting with him Friday and there is a couple in our ward that live right across the street from him who have been praying for missionary opportunities and they are so cool and they want us to teach him at their house so that will be awesome!
Also! We found a family! The Bruce's are the cutest people and I love them. The guy was actually an NFL player. Do you know of an Mkristo Bruce? I hadn't heard of him but their family is crazy fit! The lady, Evelyn, is a personal trainer and has a gym in her garage! She said like, everyone she trains is mormon and she loves learning and is super interested!
Super exciting! Miracles are happing all the time!
LOVE Sister Erin Orr
Yeah, sorry it took so long to get to the library! We had choir practice this morning and then went to the mall in auburn for a bit and then grocery shopped and then came here. It was so weird going to the mall. I haven't been in one of those things in 8 months! And I've been pretty dang removed from the world since then. It was weird and super fun! Also the only thing I bought grocery shopping this week was celery. I love that stuff!
Melain Blue fixed my hair and its SO short now. She felt so bad about Sister Jeffrey's haircut on my hair. she just kept whispering "sorry" the shorter and shorter she had to make it. I look like Dora! Just kidding - its not that bad but I wanted long hair so bad. I'm gonna have to start taking some prenatal vitamins or something.
My friend Makayla told me that her mission president said that sister missionaries have the biggest impact on "potential elders" than on any other group of people and we have totally seen that to be true! Since we are in the YSA we get to work with a lot of mission-age less-active members and we are working with 2 guys Aaron and Kyle that are working towards being active and mission ready! We are having Aaron study from Preach My Gospel and teach us what he learns! it is awesome! He asks about mission life a lot and he is so excited for his own personal growth and the growth of those around him. He is also planning on getting his patriarchal blessing soon!
With Kyle, he has already made up his mind to serve a mission and is taking steps to get Sundays off so he can come to church and he ordered a Preach My Gospel. He's just doing great. We went over to meet with him this week, but he accidentally scheduled us at the same time he was working. His mom though, who is less active, was home and invited us in and we shared a message. Our conversation somehow lead to the temple and she told us that she hadn't been through yet but she had always wanted to. We encouraged her to go and promised her so many blessings and set goals with her! It was a really awesome lesson! I wish we were actually in her ward. Her ward is covered by elders but she LOVES sister missionaries. I'm glad she has a YSA age son so we can still meet there and follow up on her goals! I'm so excited for her!
Sister Dolan has been a sicky for a few days this week so pray for her health! I sure am:) She is so great! We have gotten along so well from the beginning!
I will also pray for your hoarse voice and your eardrum and the right side of your face:)
I love the thought of giving our name to Christ during our mission. I have learned so much out here. and I have SO much still to learn!
I love you so much! Thanks for everything you do!
LOVE, Sister Erin Orr
Hey Dad!
Eric will be glad to know his missionary work is inspiring kids across the nation! He is so cute!
Sister Dolan is more willing than able to run with me:) She has not been feeling well at all this week. We ran once but I have been working out still! We think we are going to get a membership at our little apartment complex gym, so even if she can't run, I can at least do the treadmill. She loves the work and we are so excited to work hard together and baptize people! We did a lot of street contacting this week and found 14 new potential investigators!
A couple of them are really really bomb! One guy named Jeremy is so excited to learn. He was just enthralled as we told him about Joseph Smith's experience in the Sacred Grove. We are meeting with him Friday and there is a couple in our ward that live right across the street from him who have been praying for missionary opportunities and they are so cool and they want us to teach him at their house so that will be awesome!
Also! We found a family! The Bruce's are the cutest people and I love them. The guy was actually an NFL player. Do you know of an Mkristo Bruce? I hadn't heard of him but their family is crazy fit! The lady, Evelyn, is a personal trainer and has a gym in her garage! She said like, everyone she trains is mormon and she loves learning and is super interested!
Super exciting! Miracles are happing all the time!
LOVE Sister Erin Orr
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Grandma Banner, 4th of July, and the Power of Inviting
Another pic from the MTC that Erin just recently ran across :)
Hello my mom:)
Thanks for the update on grandma! (This is referring to her Grandma Banner, who has been serving a mission in England. She recently has had some health problems/symptoms and learned that she has a brain tumor. Just this week she returned from England and will see a doctor here in a few days to learn more specifics about the tumor and what the treatment plan will be.)
So glad to know she is happy to be home and that y'all are there to help her with whatever she needs! I was glad to have gotten a call from Sister Eaton, she suggested that I get a blessing for comfort which was a bomb idea, so I was going to ask my ward mission leader at our coordination at the end of the night, but close to the time we were supposed to go there, he texted and cancelled. So as I thought about who I could ask for a blessing on such short notice, cause we had to be home in like 20 minutes, my favorite dude ever - Brother Brady- drove past us, as he was just barely getting home from a YM's camp, and then instead of just driving by, he stopped and reversed back and asked how we were doing. I asked him for a blessing and it was PERFECT. Just what I needed! So that was one miracle of the week!
I'm so glad that Bob was there to do Jaden's man-bun on trek. That's probably the real reason Heavenly Father needed us move to Utah.
4th of July here is for sure an experience! People do fireworks like all week. The big ones! And they are loud! On the actual day of the 4th of July we were invited to a party at a members house that make the actual best food ever. The party started at 7 but the fireworks started at 8 and we wanted to be there for both so that we didn't miss the food at the beginning of the party cause that is the most important part. :) SO we pushed our lunch and dinner hours both back to the very end of the day. We packed snacks and worked all day long. The only thing was people didn't really schedule with us for the 4th AT ALL so we had no plans and no breaks from our no plans! We thought it might be brutal. BUT the spirit honestly led us to exactly where we needed to be all day long! It was a great day! We had a miracle lesson with a less active family, and with Phil, and I think we got to help our new friend color her Mount Everest mural (for the VBS she's in charge of) some more. It was so dang sweet! Great day! And I ate the actual best chocolate chip cookies of my life that night at the party. And ribs. And chicken. But mostly the chocolate chip cookies. And a bunch of people from my old wards were there, so that was fun!!
Transfers are today and Sister Jeffery is leaving! I'm so sad. I quite love her! She is going to be a Sister Training Leader for her last transfer ever! So fun for her! And I'm excited about my new companion, Sister Dolan! I'm sure we will have so much fun together!
Speak of the devil, Sister Jeffery cut my hair the other day... and gave me BANGS! Like the straight across Zoey Deschanel type! Those look good! BUT she also tried to give me a trim on the rest of my hair this morning which.... didn't go as planned... so as of now the back of my hair is pretty dang short and the sides are pretty untouched and a ward member is going to fix it TOMORROW. Thank goodness the half-up-half-down style makes this look semi normal. Holy smokes. And guess what! I haven't even cried! I would call that a success on my part!
We didn't have a baptism on Saturday. (I had thought she had one scheduled and had asked her about it) I don't remember if we had ever planned to, BUT an 8 year old was baptized and we brought an investigator and she thought it was swell! So that was good news! I love baptisms! I'm hoping to have quite a few this next transfer! Cameron, Crystal, Shayla, and Lexi are all so ready and want to be baptized! They just all need to come to church! And they could all use prayers. They are just amazing people that want to follow Christ and Satan isn't a fan. They all have such individual challenges which just shows that the Satan knows us pretty dang well and uses that knowledge to try to slip us up. My favorite prayer scripture is D&C 10 :5. Ye,p its scripture mastery, but I think it really just lets us know how powerful prayer really is. Prayer + faith = golden!
Thanks for all the pictures! Tell the Jovels I love them!
Love you so much!
Sister Erin Orr
Hey dad!
I'm so stoked to get your primary class's letters!
I loved that you talked about the spirit being our sword cause I studied about the Armor of God for a couple times this week. I love that everything God gives us pertaining to the armor is a protection for us: truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, etc. and our defense/weapon is the spirit. Modern day revelation! I cannot believe how many people think we don't need it!
This isn't exactly what you were asking for but my favorite kid ever Eric Beaird, had a missionary experience this week and he is like 9. So I wanted to share in case you wanted to share with your class. We were talking to him and his 14 year old sister, Lily, about inviting their friends to meet with us and then the doorbell rang and it was Eric's friend Johhny and the conversation went like this:
Johnny: Hey do you want to play?
Eric: Want to learn about the gospel from the missionaries?
Johnny: Can we jump on the tramp?
Eric: No
Johnny: OK bye.
Haha! Eric came back in the room and recounted and said "I didn't know if it was too soon! I just learned how to do this (inviting people to meet with us)!"
Truth is, though Johnny said no, Eric was totally a success at being a missionary! Because the success is in the invitaion!
Not everyone is prepared to receive the gospel, but we cant tell from the outside which are and which aren't. That's why we invite. So people have the option to learn. It really increases peoples agency!
Love you so much!
Sister Erin Orr
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