Sister Emily Orr

Hi!  This is Emily's Dad.  Here's her first letter from the MTC!  Let me know if you want to be taken off of this mailing list -- I may have clicked some people by mistake! Otherwise -- enjoy!  Her address at the mission home in Boston for real letters is:
Sister Emily Orr
Massachusetts Boston Mission
182 West Central Street -- Suite 203
Native, MA 01760



Heya Hey!! :)
Honestly, I can't believe its been a week already and I'm going to be in Boston next Tuesday! Scary thought..! I absolutely love the MTC. Love it. I kinda maybe actually enjoy sitting in a classroom, learning about so many things and roleplaying the heck out of them! Role plays have helped me so much because I think before, I had a hard time getting my point across, I have the knowledge, I just don't know how to get it out ya know?! But even though thats not perfect and I still feel stupid when I sit there and don't know what I'm doing, it's getting better, and with the Lords help, I'll be fine!
Okay, for my plaque scripture I want it to be D&C 100:10. This scripture is so simple but it is so important and special to me. in the chapter, God is talking to Sidney Rigdon and Joseph. God gives Sidney the calling to be a spokesman unto his servant Joseph and then he says that Joseph will have power in testimony.  This reminds me of the little movie thingy "A Man Without Eloquence".  All he did was share his testimony and he brought someone to Christ. When I am trying to give a lesson, I feel like sometimes it doesn't make sense and I'm so worried about giving them the "doctrine" that I forget that  bearing simple testimony is sometimes the best way to bring the spirit. I've been learning to bear my testimony as much as I can and it's becoming more and more comfortable to share that!
One thing I realized the second day I got here... I Love Love! I absolutely love my District and Zone and all my investigators. The second day we got to teach as a group and the love I felt for the investigator was unreal! So that's pretty great I guess;) Wearing skirts everyday is pretty awful but it's something I'll get used to and I can always be a man in the gym:)
My companion! Sister O'Keeffe...oh Sister O'Keeffe.:) She is from England and she's about 4 foot nothin and is so amazing! At first it was SO HARD for me to get used to having a companion because Im usually a person that "does my own thing..." Haha we get up and "go to the loo" about every 45 minutes I swear! It has really taught me patience but I love her she is so fantastic! I think we teach together well but I also feel like sometimes I'm a little intimidating to her and I just run with everything so I can definitely do better at learning how to teach with a companion with me!
I also realize that one of my goals is going to be putting others before myself! Sooo...basically, I really like my gym time and I always wanna get there on time and do all that nice stuff in the gym and a couple days ago, my comp needed to get something from the store! So I said, "okay, as long as we run there!" Thing is, she has bad knees and it hurts to run and I totally knew that but I didn't really think about it! So I felt like a giant jerk! On the way back I told her not to run and I just ran in circles while we walked back to the gym:) Since then I have been focusing a lot on seeing others needs as more important than my own!
The Spirit is so strong here it is ridiculous! The 2nd day I got here, I just wanted to go to Boston already.
The Elders in our District are so amazing. It really shows how the spirit helps when he can turn a stupid 18 year old boy into a respectful man! At the end of the week they were concerned because I hadn't gotten a letter yet so they bought this Christmas card thing and they all wrote a little note to me! So nice! And at first it was tough for me with the other Sisters cuz I just get along better with male people better, but we all finally bonded and we love eachother so much and would do anything for eachother!
So this week was the coolest week of my life basically. I dragged my companion with me to go sing in the choir for our Sunday Devotional and we sang a beautiful arrangement of Nearer My God To Thee and Dallin H. Oaks came to speak to us! So incredibly cool. Then they announced that they were having a choir practice for Thanksgiving and we would be singing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing! My absolute favorite hymn. And guess what mom? It's the Mack Wilberg arrangement! I just about cried I was so excited! So we sang that today when ELDER BEDNAR came to give our devotional and it was the most powerful thing in the world! you can feel the Spirit so well through music! Elder Bednar gave an interesting devotional! They handed out hundreds of cell phones and we could text questions to his ipad and he would answer them! There were some amazing things he said, I wish I had time to say everything!
OH MY HECK! Sister Karli Belnap....is in my Zone! I about died. So we see eachother everyday and she tells me how nice my girly outfits look...even when they don't match sometimes ;) such a blessing to be here with her! And Elder Hubbard, and Sister Courtney Marshall. So great to see them here.
Teaching the investigators here is so real to me...! Some people are really bummed that they are fake but everyday I get so excited to teach them! I had a little minor meltdown the other day because we our teaching a girl named Nikki and she is very reserved and quiet and she wants to have faith but she just doesn't see how the gospel applies to her I guess? I keep trying to get her to see that EVERYTHING applies to her and she will be so much happier if she is able to come to Christ but she moves very slowly and that's hard for me...it's hard because I realized that I won't be able to help everyone I come in contact with. And I have to let it go! WHAT?! I just wanna sit there and keep shoving things in their face until they accept the gospel and get baptized! But obviously that's not gonna happen and that's not the way the Lord works or wants me to work!
So I'm doing really great and I would LOVE letters, but if ya'll don't have time, don't worry about it:) Thank you all for everything! It's because of all you lovely people that I'm here right now!
Love you so much!
SISTER Orr :)