Friday, June 8

So. I'm no longer in Birkenhead and the Wirral. We both got transferred (whitewashed again), but we are staying together and we whitewashed into our area. And you will never guess where we live now.... we live in.... wait for it... wait for it...... Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Wales. Yes that is actually the name. It's the longest name of a town. It is actually a whole sentence in Welsh about a church on a hill by the seaside or something. We are on the Isle of Anglesey. It is very spread out and it hasn't stopped raining since we arrived. They gave us a car though because the area would be impossible without one, but they didn't give us a GPS.... So here I was the first couple of days with my map while Sister Hoffman drove looking for signs for llanfairpwllgwyngyll when there are towns also called Llangefni, Llandegfan, and Llanglouister. It was ridiculous!  So we asked bishop last night if he might have a spare GPS that we could borrow until we get one. (I had already made a very stern phone call to president regarding the ridiculousness of not having a GPS.) So we are borrowing bishop's until next week when we should be getting one from the mission office.

Our other adventure thus far is that the phone we have has no service in our flat. None. So we can't make phone calls in our flat, in our parking lot, or anywhere near our complex. We had to drive out to a parking lot in the middle of nowhere on a hill to call President to tell him I was sick and staying in for the day. So that was our fun adventure yesterday, the joys of living on an island. I am sickly, but getting better. I've lost my voice and when I called President I sounded like a dying goose and he laughed and said with the tone of my voice he thought I was an elder calling him. I said that wasn't funny. So hopefully with lots of water and rest I will get better.

Oh, other adventure:  We got whitewashed into an area that was 3 days away from a baptism. So we've been rushing this way and that trying to make sure everything is prepared for this baptism that is happening tomorrow for an investigator we know nothing about! It is crazy!

Well we don't have much time to write and I still need to write president, but luckily I will get to write in a few days again, but thought I'd let you know I am alive and where we are at now.

Monday, May 28

Well, it has been another interesting week. I have been having problems with my knee for a couple of weeks... My District leader kept telling me to call the mission doctor. I ignored him, then on Tuesday we had our specialized training and I was wearing my ace bandage. President talked to me on the phone that night and told me to call the doctor. I said "yes", but I had no intention of doing so. Well, apparently God Smites you if you lie to the mission president. I woke up the next day with a spasm in my back that had me on the floor not moving. So we called president and he said to call the doctor about my knee and my back. So we did. His prescription was to take 600 mg of ibuprofen with each meal and 400 mg before bed. My thought was that he was going to have me overdose with ibuprofen--12 a day seems to be a bit excessive right? 

I followed doctors orders on Friday and woke up nauseous and vomiting on Saturday.  The mission president came to give me a blessing of comfort but ended up giving me an all encompassing blessing for health and comfort and counsel. It was good. They asked if we wanted to spend the day with them going to baptisms rather than just hanging around the flat. We decided that would be a day well spent, so we left our flat and went to Bolton, Chorley, Blackburn, and Preston for baptisms and got home after 9:30 in the evening. It was good! I got to know President and Sister Preston better and was able to allow my body some time to recooperate. The weather has been beautiful and hot here lately. Sister Hoffman got sunburned and I got a boot tan. Lovely.

Transfers are next week so we won't be emailing on Monday. Monday is also the Queen's Jubilee. So it is a big day of celebration and our ward is having a picnic event with the church across the street. So it will be a good day!

We haven't had any more problems with Sister Hoffman's stalker. I love how protective our District leader (Elder Cline) is of us. He forbade us from going back there and He hates hearing or even talking about the stalker. I brought the painting to specialized training with us to show people and tell the story and he looked me straight in the eye and said, "It's not funny, you should burn that." we laugh at him. I just joke about it now to see him react. Our goal this last week was tofind a fear each day to overcome. So one night I was reporting and I said that we had changed our fear for the day last minute and that as we were on the train we came across the stop that we got off to go see demonboy and I said we were inspired that we needed to overcome the fear of being afraid of going back and seeing him. There was a long pause on the other end of the phone... Elder Cline said, "Are you serious?..... for what reason?" we could just tell he was trying to maintain his cool so I was like, "I was just kidding." Another long pause.... "Okay. Good. I was about to go nuts over the phone." I don't think he appreciates me joking about it but I just think it is funny. Elder Cline goes home next week. We will miss him.

We got a dog! Just kidding. We were walking down the road the other day and this dog came bounding through the busy intersection and just came and stood by us. He had a leash on but we couldn't see anyone looking for him. We stood there for a second wondering what to do and we checked for a tag... nothing.... no one on the street. I called Elder Cline and he said to call President and ask for permission to keep it. ha ha! Finally this lady came up to us and asked us if we just found the dog. Apparently it was her neighbor's and her neighbor was drunk and lost it. So that was the extent of our having a dog. It was pretty funny!

So those are my adventures for the week. We are going to go do some clothes shopping today so I will have some warmer weather clothes. So that will be good.
There is a street near our flat called Wellington Road.  It is LINED with Wellington boots.  That is what these pictures are about:

 

Monday, May 21`

(I had inquired how the visit with the man followed by demons went.  This was her response.)

Ah...the man who called us and said he was being haunted by demons... that is a GREAT story! I have basically been telling everyone! We ended up going to see him on Thursday. We had called President and he had told us not to go without a member of the bishopric present. So we took Brother Davies and Brother Parker. We were very wary of going, but decided to just talk about Christ and how through Christ we can conquer anything.

So we get there. It is this man with tattoos EVERYWHERE. He is wearing a bandana and he is WASTED. He is completely drunk. So already I'm thinking, this will be fun! I am first into the flat. The place is covered in American flags. Covered, okay. So we sit down and start talking. And he starts to confess to us. He started talking about having ties into the middle east (and I have to be careful of how I phrase this so it doesn't send red flags up through the web) but he said he was a double agent and was supplying the FBI with information... right. So we refocused a bit to Christ and I asked him his belief in who God was and he briefly covered that and then started talking about the Devil and how the stigmata had appeared on his arm a while back.... yeah, basically it was more bizarre than scary to listen to him, but we told him about the Atonement and that if we pray and call upon Christ the devil can't harm us... We asked him if he'd read the Bible and he said he has only read the book of Revelations. So I'm thiking, GREAT he has probably only read the dragon chapters! Needless to say, he has in the past been into witchcraft and other things that have just not helped his situation. But here is the best part. He said that after talking to SIster Hoffman on the phone for the first time he had felt inspired to  paint Christ (because apparently he is an artist) So he donated this painting of Christ to us to hang in our chapel. It is a Picasso-style painting of Christ with a crown of thorns. It is ridiculous. So we were like yeah..eh... But yes, we have it. This man called us the day after we saw him (still drunken) and left a message about how he really enjoyed Sister Hoffman's company and that she is a "Very Beautiful woman" and that hopefully she will hang the painting in our flat to remember him. So yes she has a phone stalker now. I think it is hilarious, Brother Davies and I were dying laughing yesterday. I told our district leader about it and I was laughing hysterically and he said, "Sister Orr that is not funny." I was like oh come on! Have a sense of humour!... but we have been forbidden from seeing him again.... haha Sister Hoffman doesn't want the painting so I asked if I could keep it as a souvenir! haha! I still think it is hilarious! :)

So that is one adventure of the week. Next adventure. Friday we were out trying to talk to people on the street and it was shortly before we were going in for the night and we found this man maybe in his 40s.  We started to have a good conversation and we had a great discussion about God. Everything seemed relatively normal... UNTIL... he looked down the street and he saw his bus coming and said he had to run, then he turned to me and stroked my cheek and said, "You're beautiful" and lingered then he turned to Sister Hoffman and stroked her cheek for a second. We then handed him a pass a long card trying to maintain our composure and he turned to me again and stroked my cheek with the pass a long card and then turned to Sister Hoffman etc. then headed for his bus. I just stood there horrified not knowing quite how to react to that... it was interesting. There are weird people in the world.

Saturday morning we got a phone call from President Preston who said he would be in the area that day and wanted to drop by. So President and Sister Preston dropped by "just to chat" (I said they had to have a hidden agenda of some sort, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary). They brought us Baskin Robbins ice cream which was nice.

Something President said during his visit to us did hit me hard last night. I have come to a conclusion... I am going to start learning Chinese. Yup. President had said that in August we have 4 Sisters coming in that are called to speak Chinese and we will have no one in the area that will really be able to work with them. I was thinking about some other things last night and it kept coming into my head. When I got my mission call I was kind of surprised if you remember that I wasn't called to speak a different language because in my patriarchal blessing it says, "You will have the special blessing of teaching the gospel in the language of the people you are called to teach." That popped into my head last night in conjunction with President's comment and it just felt right. I prayed about it and I pondered it and as I lay in bed last night I just had a thought to reread the wording in my blessing for clarification. This morning I looked at it and I saw that it doesn't say that I will speak the language that I am called to but I will speak the language of the people that I am called to. The first area I was called to I was assigned to teach Chinese. So I will begin learning Chinese, hopefully. Yup.

So, that is what has been happening this week. Very interesting week.

Monday, May 14

(We were able to Skype with Kara on Mother's Day.  The video worked for a minute, then crashed.  When we re-placed the call, we could see her, but she couldn't see us.)

It was really good to talk to you yesterday! It was too bad that the video wasn't working incredibly well, but it's alright.

My companion and I forgot to tell our families this story--it probably isn't as funny in writing, but it will have to do. A while back we were talking to a less active member and a member of our bishopric. The less active was talking about how when she prays to God she feels his answers and hears His voice and she said, "I imagine His voice to be really low like this...'really low and deep' ", and the member of the bishopric said, "Well, yeah, it would just seem a bit ridiculous if it wasn't, do you think?" He went into a really high pitched voice and said, "Joseph..." And now Sister Hoffman and I can never think of the first vision the same again. Haha! It was pretty funny!

We have decided we need to make a cake for the family that let us skype at their home. It was really great of them to let us do that!

We had a phone call the other day from a young man who had met the elders when they used to be in the area. He said that he has demons following him and that he wants to meet with us to see if we can help him. We have an appointment to see him tomorrow, and we are desperately trying to find priesthood to come with us just in case. We may have our District Leader and his companion come if they are able.

Tuesday, May 8

This country has the weirdest placed holidays. Yesterday was a bank holiday apparently and so the library was closed so that's why I hadn't emailed! Why was it a bank holiday? no one knows... they happen quite a bit though.

We still don't know what is happening for calling on Mother's Day! We are trying to find people to let us call but it was a bit hard because we had stake conference this past weekend and it was hard to find members to ask. So we are still working it out, sorry to keep you up in the air on that!

Stake Conference was really good for us though. It was down in Wrexham (down in Wales). I wish I would have brought my camera to take pictures of all the road signs in Welch! We had Elder Reina of the... area seventy?... I think... He was really funny and a really great speaker. He is from Spain. Also, President and Sister Preston spoke. So that was good.

Tomorrow is "Sports Day" So 3 of the zones plus all the sisters are meeting in Manchester to play sports. I'm not so sure how I feel about it, but I am supposed to be in an interview with President for a bit of it anyway.

Life's been good. I am very tired. I slept for 3 hours of my PDay yesterday. Everyone says that the one thing that a missionary really can look forward to is sleeping for a week straight once they get back home. That is quite a ways away still. But time has flown by hasn't it? I've almost been out 4 months! It is flying!

We had an interesting experience last night. We were getting on the train and it is like the tube in London with it being underground. We got to the platform and it was us, a drunk man, and a young girl (about 17 maybe). We were at the other end from the young girl and the drunk and he was just talking to her and acting really weird and I just had a thought of We need to move down by her. I leaned over to Sister Hoffman and said, "I think he is drunk." To which she said, "I think we need to move down by her." And I was like Yup! So we went and stood by her. Nothing happened, but the drunk did walk away. I don't know if something would have happened had we not gone over by her, but I'm glad we were there.

I don't have much else to talk about. I'm just grateful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost, not just for my well being but for others as well.

Thursday, May 3

Kara had to e-mail late this week, and I have totally gotten out of wack with my posting!  So sorry!

Dear Madre and Padre,

We weren't sure we were even going to have time to write this week, but we are able to squeeze some time in now! Nothing really changed with Transfers except we lost Sister Spencer... and the car... I personally may be a bit more upset about the second. So Sister Hoffman and I are staying together in Birkenhead still... minus the car. They gave the car to another set of sisters who just got whitewashed into an area bigger than ours... but still. ha!

So it is back to walking and bus-ing and train-ing.

But I'm officially done being trained! two transfers are through and I am a fully trained missionary now! woot!

I was able to make it back to Liverpool last Saturday for the baptism of Mary. It was great! I actually went on splits to go! I discussed it with my companions and we had decided that maybe it would be better for Sister Hoffman and Spencer to stay in Birkenhead while I went to Liverpool. So we arranged for me to go with a member for a companion. I asked the member if we could go to Liverpool a wee bit early and we did, so I went and saw Ben and his mom. They were so happy to see me show up on their doorstep! So I had a little lesson with Ben before heading off to the baptism. It was really a great baptism! Mary was so happy to be getting baptised!

As for skyping on mother's day, we are supposed to find people in our area to allow us to use skype or the phone. Because our ward is more elderly people, there are not many who have skype and from what I hear it is really hard to get it to work well in this area, so it may just be a phone call but I am not yet sure.

I spoke in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. I spoke about Matthew 18 and the parable of the lost sheep. I talked about how verse 14 really took on new meaning for me on my mission, "it is not the will of your Father, which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." I talked about how yes, in the foot notes, it is talking about small children, but in the greater scheme of things aren't we all just little children? So I talked about how everyone that we meet we should see in this way. We wouldn't want God's children to dwindle and perish in unbelief just because we weren't willing to share the happiness that we find in the gospel. Apparently, I made people cry, or so I'm told.

Hmmm what else to say... I am tired, but life is good.

Monday, April 23

We had a baptism (British spelling) this last week! Bill was baptised and what a great day it was (also very stressful). Bill lost his leg to polio as a child and has an artificial leg. Well, that leg isn't waterproof naturally and so it had to come off. We couldn't really practice the baptism with him in advance with his one leg so as everyone looked on we had to have Bill enter the font and we could only pray for the best. He was struggling immensely as they tried to figure out the best way to perform it and I was so worried he was going to be miserable and embarassed. Also, his nonmember wife, June, was there and I thought she would think we were torturing him. In general everything that could go wrong did go wrong and I was so worried that he was
going to regret his decision.

As I talked to Brother Worthington after the baptism, however, he told me that once Bill came out of the water and the doors were closed, he just sat on the steps of the font in absolute awe and wonder and kept saying, "That was amazing." He really is an incredible man and such a sweetheart. June, his wife, who is wants absolute nothing to do with the church currently, has said for weeks that she wouldn't come to the Sunday service to see Bill receive the Holy Ghost, but after the baptism she asked me what time it would be happening and the next day we saw her seated in Sacrament meeting! It was so great! President Preston came to the baptism and apparently he said it was one of the most emotional baptisms he had eer been to.  It was good!

I received a call from the missionaries in Liverpool yesterday informing me that my investigator, Mary, is being baptised this coming Saturday. I immediately called President and asked for permission to go and he said he would be disappointed in me if I didn't go! So I am very excited about that as well!

It has been an interesting week. Sister Spencer finally took off her boot on her foot. So she is doing well and progressively getting better.

We helped with a service project on Saturday. It was set up by the ward to paint the toys at a local park. We arrived and there were maybe 8 people there helping. Two little boys who had come to the park to play volunteered to help paint (they were more of a hinderance than a help as we followed behind them repainting) but it was great of them to have that desire to help. They couldn't have been older than 11. They were nice.

Oh, one last random note. In Liverpool, apparently whenever there is something worth celebrating they have made a tradition to have a "giant's parade." they build these huge marionette/mechanical dolls that wander around the city for a few weeks.... weird? yes. So over in Liverpool right now there is a 100 foot tall man in scuba gear searching for his neice who is a 50 foot little girl with her dog who is just taller than the traffic lights. google it. it's wierd, yet intriguing....