Surprise Relocation to CALIFORNIA

SURPRISE!!! I am now in Etna California!

Etna!

The Sister that was serving here received her visa to go to Australia and is heading out, so I was moved down here. I NEVER thought I would actually serve in Cali. Happy, Christian? Let me tell you about Etna. If you googled it, nothing would come up. Just kidding, I'm not allowed to google so I wouldn't know. Our area is HUGE! It reminds me of Morgan Utah, surrounded in mountains and very farmy. Everyone here either works in the hay fields (It's cuttin' season right now!), the local gas station, or the post office. We live in a little house on one of the members property. We are surrounded by fields and cows and we go running out on a dirt road every morning. LOVE IT! There are two horses next to our house that come up to the fence every evening we get home. We named one moose.  Everyone here owns ponies and llamas. Serious. They ask us all the time if we want to go riding on Pday and it breaks my heart every time. Satan tempts some missionaries with sleeping in and flirting with people, but he tempts me with riding ponies. Not cool. I'm still waiting to see if someone will offer to ride a llama. That offer I won't be able to pass up. ;) People here live in the middle of nowhere! We drive up and up and up the mountains just to get to one house. Find every lost sheep! But, because we go off-roading that requires A TRUCK!!!!! AAAAAAAAWWWWWW YYEEEEEEAAAAAH BABY!!! We got ourselves one handsome Chevy Colorado named Rod! Mission totally worth it. ;) But I can't tell you how painful it is to ride down the dirt roads by the farms in a truck and not listen to country music. The only thing I can compare it to is child birth.

My companion is Sister Neilsen. She and her previous companion worked in Ashland with Sister Clove and I, but they were over the YSA ward. We worked very close with them and ate dinner at members together often. So the switch was very easy, I love Sister Neilsen. She is a very hard worker and very easy going. She is from Sugar House and is an amazing seamstress. She was going to school before studying that. . . . Sewing stuff. . . So she is pretty much the best companion to have with how crazy I am with my clothes. :) 

Everyone here is very country. We have had homemade ice cream almost every night with fresh strawberries. They LOVE the sisters here; they never had any miussionaries before Sister Hadfield (the one I replaced) so I am second generation here in Etna. Most of them are in very humble situations. There is this one family that is living in a trailer out in the wild who has signed up to feed us 5 times the last 2 weeks. They are very very poor and the father is working only on Saturday and doesn't always have enough to feed the family. We keep trying to tell them they don't have to feed us, but they father told us, "The last 2 months we have had sisters here has been the biggest blessing for our family. Jobs for me have been coming out of nowhere, and I know it's because we have been serving you sisters. I will do whatever it takes to have servants of the Lord in my home." Such a humbling moment. 

In church there was a lady in Relief Society who told a story about her experience with faith and prayer. She said about a year ago they completely ran out of money. They had nothing. But the worst part is that they ran out of toilet paper! They had to cut up the rest of the paper towels into fourths the last the rest of the day. She prayed and prayed for help. Very late that night they heard some kids out front, and when they opened the door some neighborhood kids were Toilet Papering their house! When they saw them, they dropped the package of toilet paper and ran off down the street. This lady SWEARS up and down that was an answer to her prayers. :) See Mom? I was just answering prayers! ;) 

This week for pioneer day our mission president has put forth a challenge for the mission. we are going on a "Trek". Each companionship is to tract 10 hours this week. In doing so, we have a standard of 20 Books of mormon handed out, 20 Restoration pamphlets, and 60mormon.org cards. We are expected to have 10 new investigators. Being in Etna, that is a little rough. We don't tract, we car Tract; drive to a house, get out, knock on the door, get back in the truck, drive a mile to the next house. :) It'll be hard, but Sister Neilsen and I are really excited to do it! We are going to fast on Tuesday for the ability to accomplish what president has asked of us. Pray for us! 

Don't worry about mail you have sent to my old address, I will be going to Ashland once a week for Distric meetings and Sister Clove can give me any mail that is sent to that old place. But my new address is 8909 Oro Fino Rd. Fort Jones, CA 96032.

Love you all!

Sister Orr II. 

P.S. We have to pump our own gas now. Wah wah. :(