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!