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!!