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