Frog in the Shower

Well, everyone forgot me today but Christian and Sara. Sall good, sall good. 

We went to the doctors this week. Sister Nielsen has Platar fasciitis which causes her a lot of pain in her heel. She got a big ol' fatty shot of fire in her heel of cortisone and she can't run for three weeks. We had a lot of fun with the doctors tools when he went out of the room. He is a member from the Ashland ward, super nice. She busted it before her mission when she was on a zipline and decided she was done half way through and dropped twenty feet on to rocks. Ouch. But we waddle along. :)  This week has been fantastic! We have been doing a large amount of service (WAY more than our 4 hours a week that is expected), but we were able to get 3 new investigators who we are now teaching out of it! We have 3 others we are hoping to transfer over to lessons. I have a BIG testimony of service. We have been painting for 3 people, weeding for 2, cleaning out our british ladies garage, and we cleaned some ladies kitchen last week. It's what works here in Etna. It is super exhausting and I feel very drained spiritually and physically at the end of the day, but we are seeing miracles and I am very happy we are seeing results. I am glad I have a good set of gloves and leatherman to get the jobs done properly. :)  We also have been getting into houses through music. Every night after dinner we sing "I'll go where you want me to go" on my Ukelele, and the members LOVE it! Twice now they have said, "My neighbor would love to hear you sing that!" So I tell them to call them right now and we will go over! We have been to 4 nonmembers homes just by singing, then we have gospel discussions with them after. They want us to come back and sing more for them. I feel I am being blessed for being obedient to the instrument rule. It's hard to not play the popular songs I know or play during lunch, but I promised to be obedient and play only church music and play ONLY during a lesson or P-day. And know I am being blessed to bless others! Super cool. big fan.

WE HAVE A SENIOR COUPLE IN OUR DISTRICT!! They are sooooo cool. I LOVE them. Mom and Dad, you are going to be the coolest senior couple when you go. Start getting ready! They take very good care of us, they are from Logan Utah. Boo ya!

This last week our british lady came to church! YAY! we are always nervous to bring them to testimony meeting, but I think the spirit smoothed over the weird testimonies. But during the sacrament we were sitting there and she and I were reading the sacrament hymn when Sister Nielsen reached over to grad the tray, and knocked it with the back of her hand. Bread went flying like she was feeding pigeons. She turned all bright red and I cried trying to hold back my laughter. She won't forget that first testimony meeting!

The youth here are doing a cool project for mutual. They are taking photos of graves and entering them onto some website for family history. Super cool! I am so jelly fish I can't work on family history regularly. We get to go to the temple on the 17 of this month! YAY!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!! Everyone keeps telling me how much they have loved going as of late. hint. hint. ;)

Thanks for the love! Today we are going to have a picnic with a member at Kangaroo lake!

Peace out, S. Orr

As a wise handicapped man said in testimony meeting, "When things get hard, I just sing my favorite hymn in my head - 'hit the road, Satan! and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more. '"

Sister's Conference

IT HAS COME ONCE AGAIN!!! Another P-day! 

We have seen miracles this week! We are teaching a british lady who has over 60 cars on her property left from her husband, and she agreed to start taking the lessons. It sounds so simple, but it is huge, we love this lady! BECAUSE SHE IS NORMAL! We gave her a Book of Mormon and then we went back this week and she said she is on chapter 11 and says "If it's true, God will tell me. I will give it a fair chance." I can hear the water filling up the font! 

Last week we played dodge-ball with the zone and we had SO much fun! They all made fun of me before because I have was home schooled and never played before, but they stopped making fun after we started playing. We had about twelve on each team and one round came down to me against 4 elders on the other side. I ran across the court and pegged out three of them on my first try, then it was one on one. Que the western music. He was a scary dude, he threw pretty fast. I dodged the first two throws, then on his third I CAUGHT IT BETWEEN MY HAND (holding a ball) AND MY HEAD! Everyone freaked out. It's probably a good thing I didn't go to school, I would have been a dodge-ball bully. 

This last week we went to Eugene for sisters conference. SO COOOL!! The spirit was VERY strong as all the sisters in the mission gathered together. Over lunch, President came and sat at our table. As we were talking about the mission home I asked where it was. One sister was surprised I have never been there. Then President said, "Oh, you will soon. We take all the new trainers there for the night before they start training." . . . . O_o Training? "Wait," I replied, "Do all sisters train?" He replied, "No, but you will." AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I feel all sorts of excitement/anxiety. We will see what happens. Transfers aren't until the Monday before my birthday. We have 38 Sisters in  the mission, but president said he just got permission from church head quarters to have 88. He stressed the importance in hastening our learning because the work.

Random stuff - gardens here are in bounty. Everyone is giving us cucumbers tomatoes and zuchinni. After church yesterday we found a whole watermelon in the bed of our truck, so for dinner we cut it in half and ate our own. :) All the primary kids LOVE us and attack us at church. One of them was introducing me to one of her friends and said "This is Sister Orr. She isn't from this country." I asked what she was talking about. She thinks I am Hispanic. Serious? I hope you are happy, Kierra.  

We helped a lady with her garden this last week. Turns out she is a write for the news paper in Scott valley and Sister Neilsen and I are famous now. WOOT! 

That's all for now. Love you! 

S. Orr II

Me and Moose in our front yard! THIS VERY MORNING! Love the fog, not smoke. 

I'M STAYING IN ETNA! Called it.

This last week was a good one. Also, people keep asking me if I am home sick. The answer is: heck-to-the-freaking-NO! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I haven't been homesick once. I am doing the greatest thing in the world (besides all you mommies out there- fist pump!). 

This week there was a house that burned down in downtown Etna. The man that lived there ran back inside to save his cats and died. Moral of the story? Don't own cats. They arrested the girl that was living downstairs. No one knows the whole story, but it's the local gossip. Not a lot to talk about here besides the crazy fires we are still having and the dead cat guy. It's much different than Utah, especially the upkeep of teeth. I never realized how big of a deal that is in Utah, then you get out here and it's not the highest priority. I keep having dreams that I lose mine. . . shudder. . 


This last week we were teaching a gentleman with a mustache the first lesson, talking about priesthood and prophets when the member we brought with us said, "Mohammad Ali was a prophet, ya know. And the Koran is a form of scripture" . . . . . . . What?!?! That took our lesson for a turn. We moved on and the rest of the lesson went well. People love the fact that we have info about the Indians previous to Christopher Columbus. 


Cool thing I learned in studies this week. I was reading about Christ being baptized and how he came to John. I opened up to map 11 in the back of the scriptures to see how far away he was from him, HE TRAVELED 90 MILES TO BE BAPTIZED! Holy pancakes! He could have told John to high-tale it up to Galilee, but he didn't. He went all the way down to John. CLEARLY baptism is important. Super cool. I love studying in the morning, I look forward to it. I get ready for the day as fast as I can just to have an extra twenty minutes or so to read the Book of Mormon. I LOVE THIS BOOK! I am in the beginning of Alma right now and I am still trying to get over Abinadi's death. So sad. :(
Love ya like a love song!  ew. . . Did I really just quote Selena Gomez?
Sister Orr
Quote of the week from Etna - "My neighbors are THOSE kinds of people. Ya know, they do vitamins. . and. . Computers and taxes and stuff. . . . THOSE kinds of people. "

Smokin' Hot!

Ya'll heard about the fires? Yeah, we are getting smoked out BIG time here. They are allll around us; up in grants pass, down in Calihan, everywhere. Over 70. President has asked the missionaries to do light proselyting and to wear masks when outside. The smoke isn't as bad here in Etna as it is in Medford and Ashland. They can't see 3 blocks in front of them! Pretty nutso. 

I forgot to tell you the totals for the trek here in the OEM! 

Total Hours Tracting - 789
New Investigators - 287
Copies of the Book of Mormon passed out - 859
Restoration Pamphlets passed out - 1024
Mormon .org cards passed out - 3199

All in ONE WEEK! I love this mission. 

This last week we were helping a family move a whole shed of wood to their new house. As we were all moving back and forth, on the the kids by the shed exclaimed, "IS THAT FLUFFY?!?!?" The father walks over, "Yup. . That's fluffy all right!" We found a previous pet chicken that had been smwashed by an avalanche of wood. Funniest moment ever. Poor fluffy. Sure smelled bad. 

We were tracting down a street in Courts Valley (Indian Reservation! BOO-YEAH!) and one of the homes there had pet wolves. No. Joke. When we were talking with a neighbor they all started howling together and I got chills down my back. SO AWESOME! Top 2 favorite things - Lightning and Thunder, Howling wolves. The lady we were talking to agreed to let us come back and help her get her yard ready for a wedding that was going to take place there in a few weeks. While she was shong us around, a little lizard ran across the path. "That's my little buddy Gerald. He hangs around with me in the garden. There are also 3 snakes. Don't worry, they are king snakes so you'll be fine." . . . O_o. . . No. No I won't be fine. If I come across a snake this Tuesday, THERE WILL BE BLOOD SPILLED IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN! I DON'T DO SNAKES! 

Transfer calls are this Saturday. I wouldn't fret it too much, I'm sure I'll stay here. Today Sister Nielsen is going to cut my hair, I haven't done it since April and it feels super dead. It will be a new experience for both of us. :) Still can't find any pocket knifes or leathermans. 

This last week we have had really great lessons. We are teaching a catholic family that has agreed to come to church this Sunday AND our Jewish buddy came last Sunday! HAPPY HAPPY DAY! He LOVED it and kept connecting our meetings with historical bible stuff that I don't even know about. He is a hard core historian that knows his stuff. This last week we gave a lesson JUST on faith. He has a hard time with that; having faith and not having all the logical evidence. he is VERY logical. Then the spirit said, "Talk about Jesus walking on the water!" I have NEVER read this story, nor thought about using it in a lesson, but I explained how Jesus asks us to walk on the water and come to him. Does it make sense? NO! There is NO logical explanation to be able to do that! But it happens as we obey and look to him. Miracles can happen in our life if we have faith. COOLEST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE! 

Second coolest experience of my life, eating a strawberry jelly and cheese sandwich. For reals though, it was good. Try it before you mock. 

That's all for this week. Thanks for the letters and prayers. They are totally working.  

Love, 

Sister Orr II,

Jelly and cheese supporter. 

My Pioneer Peeps!

Hey y'all! 

First off,  I heard about Josh Burton from mom's letter on Saturday. It broke my heart, I cried and cried that night. My prayers go out to the family and friends. I wonder about the other missionaries, are they okay? Are many injured? Those poor families. I am glad I wrote him while he was on his mission before I left on mine and got to know him better. Sad sad news. 

As for this week, it was INCREDIBLE! We saw many many miracles.
We tracted 13 hours and gave out 14 Books of Mormon. In Etna, this is a miracle. We spent a LOT of time car tracting. We keep a solid supply of Peach-o's in the glove box to keep us going. One day we worked for three hours going door to door. Most people are nice. One lady has a pet deer with only three legs. Much different from your normal ferret in Ashland. We also have a different door approach than in Ashland. There we would say, "Hi, we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and as representatives of him we are out offering a prayer on peoples homes and families." or "and we are out offering free copies of the book of mormon!" or "we were in the neighborhood and wanted to drop in to meet you". But that doesn't work here. "Hi! We are missionaries and we drove 4 miles off the main road into the mountain just to get out and be eaten by your 3 vicious dogs just to have a prayer with you then leave!" people think we are crazy and suspicious. But it is going well. Most people live where they do to get away from people. I am thinking we need a new tactic and bring cookies. 

We have 3 new investigators and one of them is a very VERY kind Jewish man. He LOVES what we are teaching. Man, we need to teach more Jews because it matches what they have so well! I have never had more powerful lessons than we have had with him. We will be talking about how the gospel blesses families and he will say, "Wait, so you are saying our families are symbolic of the spiritual family of God?" Oh. My. Gosh. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN MY WHOLE MISSION?!?

This last week my companion punched me in the face. She said it's her natural instinct when she is scared. I guess she doesn't like being woken up with someone 2 inches away from her face yelling, "I'M DONE SHOWERING!" :) I love Sister Neilsen, so much. :)

Yay for Pioneer day! The speakers in church were talking about their experiences at trek and It reminds me of what Mikey said to me last time I went to trek - "Didn't the pioneers do it so we didn't have to?!? It's like sending a Jew back to a concentration camp!" I sure like that guy. Our President has given us time every week to do family history so that we can be familiar with it to help gators, and boy am I hooked! We are also finding a name to take through the temple for when our zone goes this transfer. I figured out that one of our great grandmas Pheobe (on the Markham side) has a daughter that doesn't have any information or work done for her! Her name is Hatti and I am going to hunt her down and do her ordinances for her! The spirit of Elijah is soooooo cool. I am hooked. 

Speaking of dead people, they just found 3 dead bodies in a shed in Yreka (said Why-Reek-uh) and they think the killer is on the run toward this town. Crazy! "Lock your doors and don't take candy from strangers!" Thought you would love that bit of information, mom. ;) 

We went to the hardware store here in Etna, and they don't carry leathermans. There is no hope. What kind of hardware store doesn't carry leathermans or pocket knifes?! Okay, my rant is over. On Tuesday we are teaching primary kids how to be missionaries! It's a cool activity they are doing, a mini MTC for the kiddos! They all received mission callls in the mail and are FREAKING OUT excited for this! Some little kids actually thought they were flying out to Japan! So cute. I love working with little kids. We will teach them how to knock on doors and we will have strangers behind them! Scary/exciting! 

We also had interviews with President Young this last week. It was really amazing. He said "Sister Orr, you are so confident and yourself, there is no guile about you. You're not trying to be anyone but yourself. You MUST have incredible parents and an amazing family!" That I do. :)

Love you all! Thanks for the letters and packages. I am one happy missionary! 

Sister Orr II,

Peach-o consumer

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. :(

Are you doing YOUR missionary work?

Hope y'all are doing your missionary work, because you are going to get a chastising! Just kiddin. :) .  . . . But really. 

This week we were in Eugene Tuesday and Wednesday for meetings. He had been preparing the whole week what he wanted to teach us, then the spirit told him one hour before what we needed. The focus was helping the members in our ward to make a family mission plan, and also to focus on working with the youth. YAAAAY!!! I LOVE THE YOUTH!!! So every night we have a dinner message after someone feeds us, and we have them commit to pray about a date they should have someone in their home to be taught by the missionaries. "As you pray about a date, " I say like a wise person, "you are putting forth faith! The Lord will bring someone to you, or you will think of someone you know, who will be ready by that date." Pretty powerful stuff. 

That is actually a promise Elder Neil L. Anderson gives in his last conference talk. We will also start going to BYC to talk with the youth about who we can help with. Something I never realized before is that it is the job of the members to share the gospel! If we truly want to be like the Savior we need to share the gospel! It is the missionaries job to assist us! SO GET ON IT! Missionary work isn't another "to-do" on our list, it is just being Christ like; have charity and love for others, serving, etc. That's all for my soap-box. . . . . .But seriously, do it.

On Tuesday we went on exchanges and I got to be with sister Phillips!!! We were in the MTC together and I LOVE THIS GIRL!!! We had sooooo much success and fun that day. But crazy story. First off, this is the companion that had the weird seizures in the MTC; her brain disconnects and she just shuts off. Well, we were out tracting and talking with someone on the street when I looked over and she squints her eyes and pinches her nose with hand (the sign she is going into one). She had one earlier that morning, but I didn't think she would have one right in the middle of a street lesson! So, I stepped right in front of her and distracted the man until she came back. It was weird, I didn't feel panic like I did earlier that day when she went into one. She was out about 40 seconds. That's quite a good amount of time. Believe it or not I kept a good conversation with the man, he didn't even notice what happened. She was grateful I was with her when that happened, it never happened in a lesson before. CRAZY! 

We also bucked about 80 bails of hay. You would be proud, daddy. :) And we are having a big focus on family history; we are being trained on Tuesday for 2 hours how to do it better. Thanks Sara for taking me to Roots-tec (sp?) before I left! my companion and I also taught in Zone Training Meeting, it was really really awesome. President Young was there for that, pretty exciting/intimidating. :)

Dang gina, never enough time. Y'all should write me hand written letters so I have more time to write these.
LOVE YOU ALL! Thanks for the words 'n stuff. 

Sister Orr II

Our Mormon.org Booth

Just just acknowledge the elephant in the room and say it is so dang hot. I heard y'all are suffering in Utah with 111 degree weather and so on. We are topping out at 100 now and then. I LOVE IT! I'm starting to look like the black person I am. Baha. Just kidding. 

4th of July was super awesome. We had this booth downtown Ashland and saw a TON of people, handed out a bunch of cards and books. There were quite a few anti's, though. It's funny, you can tell they all look at the same anti website because they go down a list of points that are all the same. So sad. Why should they believe them any more than they should believe us? But hey, it's always fun to see what we have to prepare for. I brought my uke and all of us missionaries sang hymns when the Jewish crew next to us put away their instruments. They were cool. When Sister Clove and I were walking around we heard someone say to his friend, "Look! It's the mormon wiving booth!" We looked back and realized it was 4 of us sisters and our ward mission president. BAHA! We called the elders in pretty quick. We had Jews on our left, some religion handing out "WARNING! THE MORMONS AND JEHOVAS WITNESSES ARE FAKE!" pamphlets kiddy corner of our tent, and the gay rights across from us. Way more booths than that, those were just the closest to ours. I am so happy for religious freedom! That night we watched the fireworks from our apartment and ate smores. Mmmmmm Good stuff. 

OH MY LANTA! I almost forgot! A member here invited us to come to their sealing and president gave us permission! It was SOOOO cool! I have never been to a sealing before, and this one was very powerful. They were both converted and baptized a year ago. Such a long cool story, but they were sealed to their little baby boy this last week. It's out of the ordinary for President Young to let us do this, but I'm thinking we are his favorites. ;) I feel very blessed. 

We got bikes! Yee-haw! It's going to be SO MUCH FUN. But it will be hard. It's very very hilly here (that sounds like some book title) and it will be toasty. Shopping for lighter clothes will commence soon. 

Monday we picked up the new sisters to serve in Ashland here with us and brought them back to our apartment to have dinner. We had a Canadian feast! You would be proud, Daddy. :) To my surprise, one if the sisters, Sister Dardun, is from Calgary. BAHA! We have a lot of fun talking about weird things like Poutine and ketchup chips. 

Last week Sister Clove and I were talking about waiting for missionaries and that awful song from Saturdays Warrior popped in my head. I smiled remembering the late night party the night before I left when Rache made me watch that movie clip by clip on youtube. Brandon made us pizza that Hope picked up (by her lonesome) from Walmart at 11:00PM. :) It's a good thing Mom and Dad went to bed early.

Not a lot of stories, most of our investigators were out of town for the holiday. Hip hip cheerio.

Sister Orr II  

Happy Canada Day!!!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!!! Boy oh boy, tonight my companion and I are going to have an authentic feast of poutine and beans on toast with Canada dry! 

Our house in Ashland. And some Granola. 

I would like all of you to know I had granola with a hippy for breakfast this morning. It is official. Speaking of, I was reading in Timothy for some odd reason, and I found the COOLEST scripture that is so written for this time. It's Timothy 4:1-3. Check it out, I laughed. The biggest thing we are coming across here is the "mountain" theory. When we ask about their religious background they say, "you know, life is like a mountain and God is at the top. There are many paths you can take to get the the top, it doesn't matter which church you join because you will still get to the top." uhmmmmm. . . . no. Little do they know there is an electric barbed wire fence around the middle of the mountain and the gate to get through is baptism. SURPRISE!! One path. Other cool things about Ashland are the animals. The deer roam free through the streets and there are blue jays EVERYWHERE that scream at you like little flying banshees. The same ones that tormented Tux at home. Kinda fun. 

So, remember how we all thought Oregon doesn't see the sun? Well, ashland doesn't see rain. This last week has been in the 90's-100. So. Dang. Hot. But it reminds me of Utah, so it's all coo'. Today we are picking up sisters to serve here in the YSA ward, but there will be a slight change. We are doing a car share with them. dun DUN DUUUUUNN!!! That means we get it half the week, and they get it the other half. So, we are going to probably ask the ward for bikes pretty soon. Yay! So, I am really going to need my backpack. . . and I will probably need to go get different skirts. uhg. Our area is pretty big so we will have to be smart about planning.

AH!! 4th of JULY!!! I have never been away from home on the 4th before, I will miss the parades. BUT! We are doing the coolest thing in all of the Oregon Eugene Mission. Most missionaries will be doing "light proselyting all day until 7pm then weekly planning" BUT our ward got a booth downtown during the big festival that my companion and I will be at ALL DAY LONG talking with TONS of people. I am super excited. Almost as excited as when I held a baby skunk this last week. THAT'S RIGHT!!! there is a homeschool family here who owns a baby skunk. They are going to get the stinko sack surgically removed and then keep it. It was cute. I want one. 

We also went back to the family who owned the ferrets. She asked me if I wanted to hold them again. Being smarter I said, "Does she smell bad?" which she replied, "She is actually at her best right now" *hands the fuzzy snake to me* "yeah, they just love rolling around in their litter box. So she smells good like the sand!" No. . . . No she did not. . It was not sand I was smelling on this creature. BUT we got to teach her the plan of salvation. Sacrifices must be made. GO TEAM!

Now fur the spiritual stuff. This last week I have been studying Faith, Hope and Grace in depth. The worlds view of grace it sooooo twisted. I always thought it meant mercy, but it is waaaay different. It is power. It is the strength that we can receive when we are abandoning the natural man in us and trying to be like christ. We would not be able to have the strength to change without Grace, or, the power of Christ. Still figuring it out,  but that really stuck out to me. More to come later! 

The baptism this week was really powerful. I love this little girl. :) I love the restored gospel. As a very wise older black lady said this last week, "Jo Smith was a coo' dude!"

SISTER ORR II

A Wedding/Baptism!

I'M STAYING HERE IN ASHLAND!!!!!!! Holy Pancakes, I am so happy. I love this area! This is the first time my trainer has stayed with a companion longer than a transfer. So, for the next 7 weeks I will be at the same address. 

This last week I had my first baptism/wedding. It was so exciting! They were so happy and the food was so good. Go relief society! President Young has asked that when the person getting baptized is getting ready, the missionaries teach every one there the restoration. we had about 50 people there, a good amount of them nonmembers. I was SOOOO nervous! But I didn't tell my companion; instead I decided to completely have confidence in the Holy Ghost assisting me and smoothing over what I said so that everyone would undewrstand it. Even then I was nervous. When we got up there to teach I felt so excited to share this with everyone and I felt so much power as I stood there, like I had the whole attention of the room! After we sat down Sister Clove said, "You did SO good!" I was still getting over the adrenalin rush of it all, "Did I really? I don't really even remember what happened!" "Exactly!" she said, "That was the spirit! You taught with the spirit. I have never heard you teach that clearly before." And there, amigos, is the lesson to be learned. Have confidence in the spirit and everything will turn out better than you ever hoped it would! That is exactly what Elder Packer taught at leadership training meeting - WHICH, BY THE WAY, WAS AMAZING! Please tell me you all watched that! Guess what, Missionaries will get to be on facebook? WHAAAAAAAAA?!?! Not sure how I feel about that, but things will slowly work into place. Not really sure I want to, but if that's how the church wants to do it than I shall. 

Can I just say I love being a missionary? Of course I can, this my email. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I have waited my whole life to be one AND I AM BEING ONE RIGHT NOW!!! So cool. 

We have another baptism this weekend for a wee one of age 10. She is grand. Teaching is great, I am learning a ton. We teach average 23 lessons a week and sing probably twice that many songs. :) We see a lot of dogs and go through lint rollers like toilet paper. 

Well, today is P-day and we are going to medford to fix our car. Someone busted our mirror during a lesson and took off. Not really sure who, but Medford has a mall so I'm cool with it. :) 

I love you all! 

Sister Orr II

Crater Lake & Getting Ready for a Wedding!

Oh hey there. You are all probably wondering why I am writing late. Well, let me end your questions and searching. Today a member took us to CRATER LAKE!!! :D AHHHH!!! Yeah, it was amazing.

But first thing's first! President Young had a sisters conference last week on the phone and said there is going to be a mass transfer a week early. So, next Monday will be transfers instead of the end of the month. So, don't send anything past tuesday. this is the last transfer to see who will be in the Salem mission and who will be in the Eugene mission; pretty tense. I really really really really hope I stay here with Sister Clove. I love Ashland. So, stick with the normal mission home address (55 W 29th Ave. Ste. A Eugene OR, 97405).

This last week was the fastest one yet. Sister Clove and I have been working like DOGS! Remember our goal of three baptisms? Yeah, we have three set for this transfer!!! HALLELUJAH! It is a MIRACLE! When I got here, there was one baptism date set and 2 investigators. As of today, there are 5 baptism dates, and 6 progressing investigators (Not to mention we got ALL 6 to church this last week!). This last week we taught 28 lessons, standard of excellence is 20. BOOM BABY! I love teaching, it is sooooo different than what I use to do; it's personal now. The work is bigger . . .as am I. We are fed VERY well every night. :)

 This Saturday we have a baptism for a lady who has been living with her husband for over 13 years (he is a less active member)! BUT they are getting married before! WEDDING!!! YAY!!! And we have two baptisms next Saturday. I really really hope President doesn't move me now that the work is moving.

 A lady in our ward went to Portland last week and asked if she could get anything for us at Deseret Book (The only one in Oregon, 6 hours away). She got me a guitar hymn book!!! I take Oki (my uke) everywhere and we play for EVERYONE. It brings the spirit in faster than anything else right before a lesson. Music is awesome, it softens peoples hearts.

Well, that's all. Plus our church flooded this morning. Aaaaaaaand. . . . I am really good at recognizing the smell of pot. BOOM!

Love you!
Sister Orr II

The Language of the Holy Ghost

Get ready to hear the most amazing story of your life. Prepare yourself.

Two weeks ago when we went to Eugene and heard President Young talk, he said we have to have a fiery testimony of the Book of Mormon to teach. We have to receive one for ourselves. So I decided to do it. I have always known it was true, I have never questioned it once! But that being the case, I have never had a soul shaking witness either. But I heard once that President Eyering askes every now and then for another witness that the book is true. So I thought, "If an apostle does it, I can ask for one too"

So for the next two weeks I studied and prayed to have a strong fiery witness that it was true. I was getting a little frustrated that it was taking two weeks, but I still worked at it. Last week Sister Clove and I were going through the old records the elders left us and called a potential they talked with once. His name was Randy and said he would love to meet us. He called back later and said he had an agenda and a list of questions he would like to go over and he would like us to study them before we got there, "so that we can all learn from each other, because I am a bible scholar". AND he was going to bring a friend of his. 

So we took a couple from our ward with us who had recently returned from a mission. We got there and the friend of his was a Jehovah's Witness. Oh boy. Yeah, it was pretty much a trap. The older couple we took with us started having a heated debate with them right after the prayer. The questions they had were "where did we come from, why are we here, what is so important about the Book of Mormon" etc. Sister Clove and I didn't get anything in the first fifteen minutes. We got a little in about the plan of salvation, but then the friend of Randy's kept telling us to prove it in the bible. uhg. They didn't want to know more truths, they wanted see if we could prove out religion according to theirs. 

Then they started attacking the Book of Mormon, and I didn't like that. So I jumped in right then amongst the snarling between them and said, (smiling of course) "You know, that is what is so amazing about the Book of Mormon; it's so complex that scholars can study it but so simple that a child could understand the principles. My companion and I aren't perfect in any way, but I KNOW that the Book of Mormon is true and that it is from the mouths of God's prophet. I can testify that it is the word of God" and when I testified I felt FIRE IN MY SOUL! I have NEVER felt that much passion before! Bill (the friend) looked at me and said "Oh really? How." And I looked him in the eye and said (imagine me saying it like Elder Holland) "Because God told me!" "How." he replied quickly. "Through the power of the Holy Ghost" I said with firmness. And he couldn't say anything else. I almost started crying I was so happy!!! I have NEVER FELT SO PASSIONATE! And you all know I am a passionate person! He then changed the subject and used big works, but I felt so happy and at peace even though I was being attacked.

I can't tell you how happy it makes me to tell people at the end of lessons that I KNOW they can receive an answer if they read and pray with their whole heart about the book of mormon, or any answer at that!

One more story. We have this less active member. She is an older lady (80's) and is EXTREMELY stressed. Her children don't get along, she hasn't heard from her daughter in 5 years, and her son rarely comes around. She doesn't think God loves her anymore. This last week we went to see her and I played Nearer my God to Thee on the Uke and sang for her. She got all emotional and her husband sang with us (Who has NEVER been around for a lesson). He even stayed for the discussion. I didn't realize how rare this was until after the lesson. At the end of the discussion I talked about prayer. They both said they pray. I was then prompted to ask if they pray as a couple. They said they didn't. I told them, "If you pray as a couple you will grow closer and stronger as a couple" THEN! The spirit told me to say, "And if you pray together as a couple for your children, they will come back to you. I promise this as a representative of Jesus Christ. Will you pray tonight as a couple?" I FELT THE FIRE IN MY SOUL AGAIN! I have NEVER felt the spirit in so many different ways as I have here on my mission, especially telling me what words to say! AMAZING! They both agreed to do it.

I LOVE being a missionary. So much. The two things that make me the happiest is putting on my tag in the morning, and signing things as "Sister Orr II". I'm so proud of my older sister who went before me. :)

Love you all! You'll have to wait for the hippy stories for next week! Share this letter with as many people as possible, I want EVERYONE to know they can receive answers.

Sister Orr II

Second Week in Ashland!

THE TIME HAS COME!!! 

We will start with all the random facts I wrote down over the week then I will get to the crazy awesome spiritual stuff.

Here in Ashland there are only two fast food restaurants; Wendy’s and Taco Bell. Why you ask? Because the city passed a bill to prevent garbage food from ruining their community and they would have better food options in town. That resulted in a KFC, A&W, and Carls Jr. closing down. Yes, this is hippy land. Good thing they keep the mushroom and papa smokes stores here!

So! My trainer is apparently the mother trainer of this whole zone. She goes on exchanges and trains sister missionaries how to be better at doing missionary stuff. . . yeah. WELL! She called president Young this last week and he told her he would like her to start doing that. What heppens is she goes with one sister from another area and Iead the other one here in my area. He said  he felt completely confident that Sister Orr can handle herself, even thought this isn’t something you do with new sister missionaries. AAAAAWWW YEEEEEAAAHH!! . . . but I’m still a little nervous. . . But that is going to start up pretty soon. Tomorrow we are going to Eugene again for another training and I will be with Sister Frampton my MTC companion! Pretty funny! I’m excited to spend a day with her.

We have been crazy busy working with less-active members, most of them being very old. We were giving a lesson to one lady this past week and we asked her what experiences she has had with prayer. Her eyes got really big and she said, “My son owns 2 mountains in LA and she is going to sell one of them. Yup. Yup. She’s gonna sell one. mmmmm hmmmmm.” It took all we had to not bust up at that point. I love old people. This last week we got 7 people who haven’t come for a while to come to church! YEHAW!! That is HUGE!! 

We also had a big miracle. The standard for our mission is to have 1 baptism every transfer per companionship. We have a couple who committed to be married and then baptised the same day! YEAH YEAH YEAH! They are in there 40′s and they have lived together for the past 13 years! Crazy! But they are set for the 22nd. Can you live together and still obey the law of chastity? Still figuring that one out. They have kids too. Interesting situation. BUT! Even though the standard is 1 per transfer, Sister Clove and I decided (Spirit or enthusiasm? Not really sure) to shoot for 3. We have been working pretty hard towards it. Yesterday, after we taught Young women’s, the primary lady came up to us and introduced us to this little girl who is 10 and really wants to be baptised! HALLELUJAH!!! We are freaking out, I guess her parents are supportive even though they aren’t members. Such a miracle! That is 2 for our transfer so far, and this week we are going ask one of our progressing investigators. We shall see what happens. This week will consist of lots of Ukelele playing for lessons. Is there anything better? I think not.

Love you all!

Sister Orr II

Arriving in Ashland!

FAMILY FAMILY FAMILY!!!

I’M HERE NOW! Boy Am I all over the place! After we got in and put with our trainer we left Eugene at about 7-8ish and drove for 3 hours until we got into

ASHLAND! Long drive.

I said goodbye to my sisters from the MTC and that was surprisingly hard. I love those girls. Some are in Salem (which is being split next transfer. I won’t see those girls until after the mission) and some went to the coast. I LOVE Eugene! It was SOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL! Ashland is so so. I SMELLED MY FIRST MARIJUANA! It was . . . interesting. I still think it was skunk, but my trainer swears by it. 

My trainer is AWESOME! Her name is Sister Clove and she is from Enterprise UT. She is really good at piano and singing, and is a very hard worker. She’s very serious all the time so I do my best to push her buttons. We get along REALLY well. I figured this out last night when she told me she prayed for a companion that would be her friend. I told her I prayed for a companion that would kick my butt. We both win. 

I placed my first book of Mormon on the airplane over! To an African lady named Luul. She was Buddhist and VERY interested the Church. She is in Sister Framptions area (my MTC companion) so I gave the info to her. All the sisters were SUPER impressed I placed one. She was really great. EVERYONE HERE IS CRAZY!! I met a lady who’s first and middle name is Apple Candy. Really. We were tracting and we came to a drive way and I could smell Cat urine (say it like Rache does) INSTANTLY. we knocked on the door and talked with this old lady who rescued and owns 51 cats!!! Good thing she is rich and owns a big house. I tried my hardest to get  a return appointment. I WANNA SEE ALL THOSE CATS! Everyone here owns a pet, it’s just a given.

The ward I am serving in has 750 but only 225 come. We have A LOT of work cut out for us. Our boundaries are Ashland and Talent (for those of you who would like to google.). I am my trainers 3rd child, and two days ago when we were training (I was just being myself) she said “I don’t think I have had as much fun in the last 6 months as I have today” That made me really happy, even though I was thinking “Girl, just you wait until I get my finger paints out!” AH! the members feed us almost EVERY night! I LOVE IT! First night we had homemade lasagna and it was AMAZING! Everyone was amazed that I am from Utah and I have never had homemade lasagna. Weird. I do my best to eat good. I have a banana and oatmeal for breakfast, salad or chips and salsa for lunch, and as many veggies as I can get for dinner.

 

Everyone makes fun of me for being home school. I love it. First thing President Young said in our interview after I told him was home schooled was, “But you’re not shy at all! You sure you were home schooled?” Thanks President. My companion said THE SAME THING that night.  I’m glad I represent well. President Young is an AMAZING man. I love him, he is SO inspired.

 Last week I had my first mini break down. It was a good learning experience, I learned that I’m not as magnificent a teacher as I thought I was. I need to teach with meaning now. But I am doing my best to improve and I was fine in an hour or so. On Thursday I introduced myself to someone as Jill. Then I slapped my face. Ouch. Then I said I was Sister Orr.  My companion won’t let me live it down. But that’s okay, because she ran over a cat last week and I won’t let her live that down. Every time we talk with strangers I ALWAYS find a way to say, “Oh! Sister Clove here just LOVES cats.”

Weird things I am getting used to – Talking to EVERYONE on speaker phone and answering “Hi, this is Sister Orr and Sister Clove” (I keep saying Ove and Clorr. oops).

Leftover MTC stories – I met THE FIRST Vietnamese Sister missionary!! OH MY LANTA! SOOOOOO COOL! They haven’t opened the mission, but since she is Vietnamese she is going over.She isn’t allowed to wear her tag, so I’m not really sure what she will be doing, but SHE IS THE FIRST SISTER TO GO!! YAY HER! I got a picture with her because she is a super hero.

Well, more stories to come as I serve God’s hippies. LOVE IT!

Sister Orr IIP.S. I just read over my letter again, and I realized I use a lot of exclamation marks and I say LOVE IT a lot. he he he. Sorry for all you grammar nuts at home, BUT MY MISSION ROCKS!