Monday, February 20

Hello there! Can it be Monday again already? Time is flying by!

This last week has been busy. We've picked up a few new investigators and some of those we were teaching have decided they don't want to be taught anymore... so that's kind of sad.

We were asked to help out with the stake primary activity on Saturday. We were asked to do a workshop on how to be a good missionary. It was fun. I have never seen kids so well behaved! I actually told them to stand up and do a little dance to get some life into these kids (no one would get up and do a little dance). I was so surprised! It went well though.

(At church) there was a visitor from Colorado who had served his mission in Liverpool 30 years ago... He was asked to talk and he spoke of how Liverpool was his first area and he got really depressed while trying to understand what the people are saying here. Afterwords I went and talked to him and it was finally someone I could relate to. He told me that two weeks after arriving in Liverpool he went to the mission president, bags packed, and said, "If the whole darn ocean was froze over, I'd be out there on a pair of ice skates. I want to go home!" He said that he understands my struggles and said the first 6 months are the hardest.

I got a French Book of Mormon!  I told my mom that maybe I could learn a bit of French that way!

Week 4 - Characters!

Please note--Mum had to modify the new address--you have to add "Great Britain" at the bottom of it...duh.  This is an excerpt from Kara's latest e-mail:

     (Sunday) church was really good.  Our ward is about half the size of our ward at home.  (It's) got a bit of crazies in it, but what ward doesn't? We have a guy that is known as Edward the Pirate, because he lives on a boat 8 months out of the year and travels via boat up and down England trying to visit all the wards he can find....  We took (another sister) on an appointment the other day and that was kind of a bad idea! She speaks "scouse" (the Liverpool dialect) and we went to teach a guy from Yemen who speaks VERY little English (although he has lived here 4 years). So first off they couldn't understand each other at all. Secondly, she's not very reverent. She asked (our investigator) how many siblings he had and he responded telling her he has 8 brothers and 2 sisters. She got a shocked look on her face and said, "Ooo! You're parents been busy han't they?!".... and we carried on with the lesson. I was beginning to bear my testimony of Joseph Smith and I said, "Everytime I hear that story I get a bit emotional..." She interrupted with, "Just puts a lump in your throat don't it?!... sorry love, I forget, bad English, a lump in your throat, ya know, makes ya all sobby....Oh sorry love, you can keep talkin." Thanks... so she's a character.

     We are one of the busiest areas in England. Most areas are finding all the time with little teaching... we haven't been able to go finding yet. We run from appointment to appointment and rarely have time to stop and eat lunch.... My feet are swollen... they hurt, but I'm told I'll get used to it.

Week 3 - Into the Field!

This week Kara left the MTC and moved to her first assigned area--Liverpool, England.  Here is an excerpt from her latest letter:

Headed Out

                            
So... where am I? .... Liverpool. One of the largest cities in England. We don't have a car and run to catch the bus constantly, but I think it's growing on me. I think I'll survive.

My companion is Sister Chuo, She's from Taiwan. We left the stake center and got into Liverpool just in time to catch the bus to a dinner appointment. No rest for the weary. It was a lovely member family.

Yesterday was hectic. We are constantly running here or running there, and by running I don't mean just going constantly I mean quite literally running.

Because my companion speaks Chinese, she has taken it on herself to teach basically anyone who is Chinese. We've had at least 6 appointments and all of them were Chinese. I often just smile and nod
as they are all speaking in Chinese.

When we aren't speaking to the Chinese, we try to speak to the "English"... they don't speak English.
The Liverpool Dialect is so very thick that is extremely hard to understand them. Try saying out loud: AnenIdashtoastoangotmesomemil.  Any idea what they're saying?... Translation: And then I dashed to the
store and got me some milk. Yup. That's what I am dealing with currently.

Monday is my P Day now.  I am so fatigued, I just want to sleep all day Monday!

Week 2 - A Church History Tour +

It's been fairly uneventful since I last wrote. Sunday we went on a church history tour of the area. We saw where President Hinckley lived whilst he was on his mission here. We also saw the rivers that were the original baptismal sights of the first saints in the area. There were chunks of ice in the rivers and we all were very grateful for the fact that we have warm baptismal fonts today. We also got to see some snow on their one "mountain" in the area. I got to throw my first snowball in years.

We had to sing in the local ward as well on Sunday. It was interesting. when there's 11 sisters and 30 men, the melody can somewhat get lost....

 

This is hard work over here. We all are beginning to look like zombies. we head for breakfast at 7:30 AM and don't see our rooms again until 9:30 PM, from class to class, investigator to investigator. It's highly stressful at times. Sister Melander and I just had enough the other night, we were so easily distracted in class and the moment we were able to leave we went to the cafeteria for a late night snack of apple slices coated in Nutella. It is our new comfort food.

I get along well with my teachers though, I'm able to joke with them and our district is just basically the coolest. We quite literally are becoming more like family everyday.

New Mailing Address!

We received an e-mail from the MTC saying that Kara would be leaving the MTC soon and her mail should now be addressed to:

     Sister Kara Orr
     England Manchester Mission
     Spring Wood Suite G5
     Booths Park, Knutsford
     England WA16 8QZ
     United Kingdom

I'm sure she would love to hear from you.

Excerpt From January 24 e-mail

Note:  Kara has access to e-mail once a week, on Tuesdays.  She can only e-mail family, so I'm sharing a portion of the e-mail we received.  I'm sure she would appreciate any snail mail you care to send.  Her address was the first blog entry.

 

January 24:  Things are going great! It's been a great day! We just got back from the market a bit ago and it was fun having our first outing in England! Got some chocolate and a new skirt! We went to the temple this morning! It was beautiful! Just us missionaries! There's 41 of us total, 11 sisters and 30 elders!

 

My companion is Sister Milander! She's from Idaho Falls and went to ISU, we thought that was pretty interesting! There are 6 missionaries here from Idaho! All from Southeastern mostly!

 

The trip over here was interesting. At the Salt Lake airport I ran into some other missionaries and we just kept finding more. When we got on the plane we were 15 strong. We landed in the Paris Airport which is beautiful and we had no idea where we were going and most people didn't acknowledge being able to speak English. We finally got to the right spot and then we realized all the announcements were in French. SO we sat and listened really hard trying to hear the word "Manchester." We thought for sure we were going to miss it. We didn't though, but the plane was the squeakiest, sketchiest sounding plane... and everything, EVERYTHING was French and smelt of perfume. We got to Manchester and all my bags made it safely. We got picked up and driven about 45 minutes to Chorley. We were welcomed and quite literally THROWN into orientation... we were tired, all the sisters' makeup was botched, I was not happy to still have to be doing orientation and whatnot for 6 hours... but I survived.

 

We had a "Fire Drill" on Friday morning but it wasn't exactly a drill because no one knew it was going to happen and the alarm was actually triggered somehow in the attic. We had to rush outside at 7 AM when all of us were in the middle of getting dressed and had to wait for the fire department to give us the all clear. One of the elders in my district (Elder Barnett) ran out in his garment and a towel! Haha! President Walker gave him his suit jacket to look a little more covered!

 

We are all getting to know each other really well and we are all getting along really well! There's another sister here that went to BYUH and we have some chitchats about Hawaii every once in a while.

 

On Sunday, we had choir practice and we sang in small groups to get better acquainted with the singing capabilities of the group... afterwords, I was asked to sing a solo that night at the fireside and was asked if it was okay if they called on me often to do musical numbers... a bit of pressure.

 

Keep praying for me, and pray for my fellow elders and sisters, I know we are all struggling to find good footing to stand as we are being thrown into the work.

 

Arrived Safely

Kara arrived safely at the Missionary Training Center.  I am posting a picture of her arrival.  Note the cute hat!