Christmas Car Crash

Well the title is exactly what it means. So here is the run down. We went to pick up Silver Lake on Tuesday for our Zones Christmas activity and well we were sitting at the apartment complex entrance, about to make a left turn onto 21st Ave. On the other side of the street a Dodge Durango was turning right on to 21st Ave. Now note this street is a two lane road. Well I make my turn into the left lane and the Dodge makes its turn into the right lane safely, making us basically parallel with each other. Well, I guess that other guy driving the Dodge had an amazing idea. Light bulb! Lets merge into the missionaries car. Smash! After that we pulled over into a parking lot. A Huge Black dude got out of the Dodge and all I could think was great now I am going to get beat up. Then he asks the worlds dumbest question in that very moment, "Did we bump?" As you all know I am pretty sarcastic person, so in my mind I was thinking "Oh of course not we only have these brand new scratches, dents, and lost hubcap because of Tokyo Drift." Obviously I didn't say that and we swapped insurances and all of that fun jazz.

Then we sang hymns at a old folks home and then headed to Sumner for our Christmas devotional. That was awesome! We got to see our version of a white Christmas which is just all of the baptismal pictures that happened that year. 

Then Christmas came along! Well that was a blast. I got to talk with my family and it was just so much fun! They are all pretty much exactly how I left them, just older and with Christmas gifts. I can't even remember half the things I said, but I did get to see my cousins Mitchell and Grayson. My family is the Greatest Ever!

Later in the week, everyone decided that it was time to be ridiculous to the missionaries. We had 5 or 6 canceled appointments all right in a row. It was just the biggest joke ever! I was just trying not to grab and flip the table in front of me. Luckily the Mauia family came through for us. We taught them a lesson using the video, "Wherefore didst thou doubt." Elder Moon connected it to how if we have the faith that we can give missionaries referrals, it is hard but possible. Plus it will all be worth while.

The third hour of church me and my companion have started teaching a Preach my Gospel class to the priests every 4th Sunday. I taught the first lesson on finding people to teach. We played a game where we split up into a couple groups and with people you were with you would choose an object in the room and try and have the other person relate it to the gospel. It was awesome, the ideas that some of the people in that room came up with. We then talked about how important it is to connect with potentials. I am still really bad at this but I am working on it. Bishop Dickson also related some of his experiences on his mission with what we taught it was just a super good lesson over all. Then I testified that I knew what we had taught was true and the spirit was so evident.

Well that is it for this week. I know this church is true. I know that Christ is our Savior. I know that we can strive to be like him, so start striving now.

Elder R. K. Northrup

Get in a car accident, well too bad, because no one can ruin our day when we have a Glove Box Pine-cone!

SKYPING for Christmas

This was what I (Mom speaking) have looked forward to since June, when Reggie went into the MTC.  I wasn't able to speak to him when he was at the airport, so I held out for this moment.  What a JOY it was to see him speaking and hear his voice.  Back in the olden days it was a phone call, but how lucky are we to be able to actually see our boy right in front of us.

The growth that has happened within him in only 6 months is amazing.  I was delighted with how focused he is on being EXACTLY OBEDIENT.  He was told by his mission president that the skyping could go from 30-40 minutes (which is what it says in the white handbook).  He gave us a 30 second warning and was out right at 40 minutes.  I wanted to show him his video that his friend Tim made of him heading off to the MTC.  He said, "Does it have the LDS logo on it?"  I said, "No, but it has the temple and the MTC in the background."  He said, "I better wait til I get home to see it."

He said the thing he has learned the most is that you can't do anything without the Spirit. He still has his "nerdy" ways and funny personality.  He is happy with his companion, Elder Moon, who also enjoys "nerdy" things.

Rod told him he seemed like he was settling in and has learned the gist of being a missionary.  Reggie agreed that he has the gist of it, but still has a lot to learn.

He was so excited to see his cousins Mitchell and Grayson.  They popped over for the last 5 minutes or so of the visit.  

Mitchell said, "I got so fat on my mission."  Reggie said, "Dude, I am so fat!  I haven't even gotten on the scale because I don't want to see the damage."  Mitchell informed Reggie that Talmage has gained 28 pounds.  Looks like that is the norm!

Mitchell shared with him some of the challenges he experienced in South Aftrica (hunger, employment, poverty etc.)  He mentioned that he was always a little jealous of the U.S.A. missionaries because they usually don't have to deal with that.  He asked Reggie what some of his challenges are.  Reggie said that he deals with homosexual marriages and "weed"...  "That stuff stinks so bad!"

Anyway, he is doing great.  We encouraged him to keep up the hard work.  Onward and upward.  This was definitely the highlight of our Christmas.  What a blessing and a gift it is to have a missionary out serving the Lord faithfully.

~Mom~ (Kandace)

Transfers and other super cool stuff you wouldn't understand

Well obviously transfers happened this week. I am staying in Dash Point as most of you probably already know. My new Companion is Elder Moon, he is actually from Kaysville, UT. Just like half of my previous companions. Anyways he is super cool, and does not live under a rock. He is a nerd and we talk about Star Wars, Yu-gi-oh, Skyrim, and a bunch of other cool stuff you wouldn't understand.

I heard Star Wars was pretty good so don't blow it for me! If you do then will unleash my power in the force.

On a more serious note. This week has been kinda lame. We have tried to set up lessons with basically all of our investigators and then right when we do. Guess what? Satan goes and says "time to cancel on the missionaries!" Which is just my most favorite thing ever. (Click,Click) That last part is an inside joke.

However on the flip side of things we are really working hard to have a bigger teaching pool. We haven't gotten anybody yet but we are really trying. We placed a Book of Mormon, with this Hispanic guy named Danny. (I know what some of you are thinking and it's not Danny Bailey.) He agreed to read it and pray about what he read to know if it is true. Pray for him!

Yesterday, (Sunday) we had a Recent Convert lesson with Ricardo. We taught the Restoration and without fail the spirit was brought into the room. We finished teaching him. He asked if he could share a story with us about what had happened earlier that day. He told us that he was driving back from Seattle and his tire blew out and he had to pull over. Since everyone is human, he was asking why this was happening to him. Right then a police officer came up to him. Ricardo was in dread and thought "great now what's wrong?" When the officer reached him, he asked Ricardo if he had a car jack which he didn't so he had Ricardo go to a car store and buy one, and he told him to leave his cars panic lights on. He did and rode his skateboard to where he could buy a car jack bought one and skated back to his car. When he had gotten to his car the lights were off. Meaning utter distruction in the eyes of Ricardo. Right about then he said a bit of a pray in his heart that he could figure this out and a few minutes later a guy pulled up behind him and asked if he need any assistance. Ricardo was just so happy. That guy helped him change his tire and gave him a jump for his car. He thanked the man and then thanked God for answering his prayer. It was such an amazing experience to see that Ricardo is already recognizing miracles from God.

After that story we chatted with Ricardo and Gabriella. When Gabriella asked us if we had been born in the church. I answer yes....and then said, "Well actually, I was born in a hospital, to be exact."  Everyone got a good kick out of that reply.

Well guys see ya next week and remember the Church is true.

Elder R.K. Northrup

 My new companion, Elder Moon.

Some old pictures before Elder Polson was transferred.

 Invisible Elder Polson!

He reappeared!

Federal Way Zone

I will try to get Reggie to tell me who everyone is.  Until then... of course, he is right in the middle of the pack!

False Gold, Satans Caveman, and Ripped pants

Bishop and Sister Dickson and two other guys

Well this week has been an experience!

It all started on the day we had exchanges with the Korean Branch. I stayed in Dash Point while Elder Polson went to the Korean Branch. We start off the day going to the street that me and Elder Kim were going to go contacting/tracting on. We arrived and started our trek down the street. We get a couple houses in when some events started slide our way. We start walking up this driveway to the front door. In between the door and us was this deck. I took my first step on it and discovered that it was pretty slick. I wrote that down in my mind for a mental note later. We make it the rest of the way to the door and start knocking. Nobody answered. We knocked again still no answer. At this point we decided to start heading to the next house. Well, as we turn to leave I was about to tell Elder Kim to be careful, when took a step down the wooden deck.  As soon as his foot touched the wood, his whole body decided that it had a different plan for him, and he collapsed to the ground. In doing so, it caused one of his feet to launch out from under him and kick this pot (that was on the deck) into some rocks and it broke. At that point, I could not hold myself together and started laughing so hard. (I am so mean!) We decided to go back later and tell the person living there what had happened. I was, you guessed it, still laughing at the whole thing. That was the first event.

Later in the night event #2 happened. We were going around helping the ward find out if there were any new move ins actually live where they say they live. Our first house we encounter has a sign on their door saying, "No religious queries." Gosh dang it people! After that house we started driving over to the next one. We got there and had a bit of trouble finding the house because at night everyone in Washington has sensor lights that turn on everytime someone walks by them, which means you get blinded for about 3 second, times however many lights you have. Eventually we found the house and we knocked on it. Well what happened next was totally lame. A lady decided that the proper apparel to answer the door in is with small towel on. I just whispered to Elder Kim the words, "Oh dear."  We hurried and asked her if she was the new move in and got out of there. Elder Kim just exclaims after that experience, "Thank you Bathsheba! That was totally the experience we needed tonight." 

After these experiences we went home for the night and slept.

Day 2 of the exchanges we went to the D.I. with the Silver Lake Elders who also happened to be on exchanges. About 2 hours later we finished our assistance at the D.I. and left for our apartments with the Silver Lake Elders. On our way back Elder Larsen told us about how Elder Snook had been seeing a Demon or Satan's Caveman in their closet and that weird stuff had been happening at in there apartment. We went to there apartment and Elder Kim and I felt like we had done something wrong when obviously we hadn't. So we decided to have them come to our apartment and Elder Larsen was a bit shaken up about the whole thing so we gave him a blessing. That blessing was just amazing. I anointed and Elder Tima blessed him. Ever since that day the Silver Lake apartment has been filled with the spirit!

Well now for the ripped pants story. First off I am just going to tell you guys that I felt like Spongebob the whole time during this event. We were doing service for a part member family and I was moving these massive logs. (Obviously I was doing it like I was Dwarf or He-man or something because I am a nerd!) Anyways when I bent over to pick up my 4th or 5th log. My muscles decided that I was too He-man to keep my pants together. Well as you can assume I just had to laugh at this whole thing and kept saying what Spongebob would say, "and its all because I ripped my pants."  

The down side of this week was that we were dropped by 2 investigators one of them being what I thought was our Golden Nugget, which apparently was actually False Gold.

On Sunday though, we taught Sister Calder's daughter and we were able to commit her to baptism.

Love ya all!

Elder R.K. Northrup

Oh and I am staying in Dash Point and my new comp is Elder Moon from Farmington, UT. (Who is Elder Polson's cousin!)  Elder Polson is going back to Graham.

 A couple more pictures from the Nativity Christmas event.  This is Ricardo (recent convert) and his wife Gabriella with Elder Polson and me.

 We did a Grinch Nativity play for our ward Christmas party.

 Us with the Jolly guy at the ward party.

 The Fields family made us Sunday dinner.  "Hand Meat Loaf" and "Kitty Litter Cake".  All of it tasted much better than it looked, very delicious!

The Golden Nugget

This just in.....I have just received great inspiration while praying this week and miracle's have manifested themselves!

I had been praying all week for us to gain a new investigator because Ricardo, as you all know, just got baptized. That means we need more solid investigators. Anyways I had been praying all week for us to find another gold nugget (investigator, for those of you who don't the missionary slang terms). I had prayed specifically for a person who was ready and prepared by God to hear the message of the restoration of Christ's church. Each night my prayers would get more and more lengthy as I prayed for this specific miracle. 

On Wednesday around 4:38 we tracted into this lady. That whole day I had been asking the question of "what is your favorite thing that Christ has done for you?" We got some amazing answers and blessings that people have seen in there lives, even though they didn't want to hear God's message, it was still interesting to hear from them. Back to this lady...we knock her house and she opens the door, looks at us quickly and starts to close the door.  Well, that's when I whipped out the question I had been using that day. She looks at me and opens the door and says, "Jesus Christ has done nothing for me....I am a Humanist, which means I am an Atheist, so I don't need God in my life." After that she slammed the door in our faces. I decided that she will eventually use her agency correctly and to just move on from there. As we start walking up the street we see another lady off to our right setting her house up for Christmas. We walk over to her and offer her assistance. She gratefully accepted and we went to work. While we were helping her set up her tree, she told us that she had been praying that people would come help her. I just thought in my mind "Dang right you did"! As soon as I had that thought she tells us that we can start teaching her while we work. Those words being said to any missionary is like the icing on the cake, the cat's meow, etc. We right then in there started teaching the Restoration. Plus she also wants to go back on Wednesday to keep teaching her. She is so golden. Her name is Denise Reed. All y'all need to pray for her.

Well sorry it is so short this week, but praying really helps and will never let you down especially when our Heavenly Father is on the receiving end of those prayers. Now guys go and pray always.

Elder R.K. Northrup 

 Me and Elder Polson giving gifts.

​Yeah I had the staff of moses...that was my gift to Jesus

 ​Left to Right: Elder Chugg, Elder Tima, Sister Dameron, Elder Northrup, Elder Polson

 These two pics were texted to me from Sister Petty.  I love these kinds of surprises!

 So we go to Buffalo Wild Wings and Elder Larsen (top right) decided that its a cheeseburger day!

 ​Elder Northrup, Elder Jeong, and Elder Palmer....still helping at the nativity

Basically the whole zone working on the Nativity.

Thanks.....for a baptism

Elder Polson, Ricardo Tanaka and Elder Northrup

November 28th, 2015

Well this week has been great and a bit disturbing.

Tuesday was a pretty average missionary day. That is it was up until around 7pm. That is because Elder Polson and I, had to go fill up our tires with air. Well, since you all know me that obviously didn't go to well. Here is why, I had previously voted on going and filling up our tires at place where the professionals could do it. Elder Polson decided against that idea. He had the final say in the disagreement. Which means we ended up going and doing ourselves. Anyways he gets out of the car with our tire pressure gauge to check the tires. As soon as he checked the first one the pressure gauge blow up in his face. I didn't discovered that this had happened until a few minutes later. That when I hear Elder Polson say, "Umm Elder Northrup......ummmm I broke it." "Broke what," I said. That's when he just lifts up his hand and shows me the pressure gauge....in disrepair. I could not help but saying "way to go REX." A bit later we bought a new one and were able to finally finish putting air in the tires. I definitely will never be doing that myself ever again.

Broken Tire Gauge

On Thursday we got to have extreme exercise time. We were able to go play sports from 9-12. I finally got to play Ultimate Frisbee for like the first time in for ever (pun intended). I was so much fun. My team destroyed the other team, it was pretty much NO CONTEST. I say that because we my team somehow picked all the people who had played in Utah on teams before their missions. 

Thanksgiving fun!  (Elders Steiner and Miller)

Later in the day we went and ate at the Sutton's they are really nice family and everything but it was different compared to our family's Thanksgivings. It was still a good dinner because they have a son named John who is just the funniest kid. Once we finished eating we left and went home for the night.

Last Saturday was also just so amazing and weird at the same time. We went and were able to set up for Ricardo's baptism. While we were there setting up. These random people came into the room. All I saw at first was Elder Polson face, which was just a face of surprise. I was a bit confused until one of the random people said, "We probably shouldn't be doing this right now." At that moment it hit me. Those people were Elder Polson's extended family. I was so awkward for Elder Polson because they aren't suppose to be there. He didn't even invite them either they just showed up and so that was the super weird part of it all. 

During the actual baptism though the spirit was flooding into the room. It was just so amazing the feeling that was present. Elder Polson baptized Ricardo and when they came back. Ricardo went up to the front and bore his Testimony in front of people for the first time. When he was speaking you could tell that the words he was saying were coming from his heart. It was just an amazing experience. The next day in Sacrament our Bishop confirmed him a member of the church of Jesus Christ and gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost. Wahoo another person has accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The sad and disturbing thing this week is I heard one of my friends from our Ultimate frisbee team passed away. His name was Deric Chenworth. He was a very great guy and an amazing friend. Keep his family in your prayers.

Elder R.K. Northrup

(Received this picture that Elder Polson's aunt texted during the baptism.)

 "Rainy days and Mondays  Always RARELY get me down!"

Weird Baptism Day Picture.

Elder Nelson, Me and Elder Polson

Thou Shalt Be Dunked!

Well guess what guys we finished planning for Ricardo's baptism for the 28th! It is going to be such an awesome experience for him. I am so happy that he has made the right decision to get baptized. He is going to be so beast mode in the gospel.

Elder Ha and I went on exchange this week. We didn't do much on them because we exchanged the night before Zone Conference. However, I learned from him how sacred the progress record paper is. I learned this when he rebuked the Tacoma WML for the Korean Branch, about how they don't just put anyone on that record and they only put people on the record who are progressing or have been prepared by God to receive the Restored Gospel. That experience was just amazing and I will never forget it. After that meeting we went and got Chick-fil-a. Now this moment was Elder Ha's first time eating Chick-fil-a. Right when he took his first bite, his face looked like he had just won 1 million dollars. I was just smiling at him the whole time. He is such a good Elder.

On another note we had zone conference this week. It was such a blast. I learned so much about prayer. I have learned that being more specific in your prayers will allow for those things to an exactness will happen. It has been flippin' amazing because we have found more potential investigators and more people to teach. One miracle was the other night we got a call from a guy named Oscar. He wanted to know if he could follow us and sit with us at Stake Conference. We just thought. What?! It was so amazing to have someone just want to come and listen about the teachings of the Gospel. We later found out that he has been taught since Spencer W. Kimball was the prophet. We found his teaching record in our area book and it almost 7 pages long, plus he has passed two baptismal interviews. The only thing that hasn't happened to him is getting baptized, so we are going to work with him to get baptized.

We had dinner with the Websters the other night. They are so great. They love teasing people and always can make people laugh. Sister Webster is the Relief Society President and does a fabulous job at it. She gave us so many people that have recently moved, that need visiting and could possible be solid investigators in the future. That family is just a powerhouse in missionary work.

Well sorry I didn't write as much as previous times but the church is true and it will be that for today, yesterday, and forever so don't you forget it!

Elder R.K. Northrup

A member of the Seventy and a blitz with the AP!

We have had some slight changes this week. In District meeting we now have the Hylebos Elders who consist of Elder Knight and Elder Fullmer, I came out with Elder Knight. We also said good-bye to Sister Mortensen and we brought in Sister Orr. Those are all if the changes to our district.

This week has been a rough week for teaching lessons but on the bright side I have a gained a love for tracting. This week we have gotten 2 potential just tracting. The first ones name is Ernie. All I could think of after we left his house was Harry Potter 3 when he gets a ride on the night bus and the drivers names is Ernie. Here are some quotes from that scene: Stan: "Take it away, Ernie." Shrunken Head: "Yeah, take it away Ernie. It's going to be a bumpy ride!"

Anyways this week we also helped Sister Dameron paint some cardboard cut-outs of Who's for our wards Christmas party. That was super fun. We are going to be helping her again some time this week.

On Saturday we went on a blitz with our AP. Elder Polson went with the new AP, Elder Mousser. While I went with Elder Berkheimer. Blitzing with them was so much fun. This is were I gained my love for tracting. We knocked a ton of doors together most people weren't home or didn't want to hear our message on the Restoration. However, this one house we found had this intercom system on there porch so instead of knocking we used that. We turned it on to talk and Elder Berkheimer said into it, "We are the missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and ...."  It was super fun. We got this girl in her twenties to come to the door. She told us that half of her family was already members of our Church, she also told us that she was a Jehovah's Witness. Elder Berkheimer and I encouraged her to read the Book of Mormon. All I could think of during our conversation was, "No, no, your doing it wrong!" Of course I couldn't tell that to her face. A few houses later we went back to our apartment to re-exchange. Elder Berkheimer is the one who taught me how much fun it can be to go tracting and I now look forward to that part of our day. Where before I practically dreaded it.

Oh and on Sunday we found out that Bro. Crawford was ordained a Seventy. I thought was super cool. This means if you ever see Elder Dan Crawford in General Conference just know that I knew him before he was a General Authority.

My ponderizing scripture this week is D&C 52:34.

Elder R. K. Northrup

WoW, Transfers, and Blessings!

Ok so this week has been jam packed with interesting events and upsets.

I think I told everyone last week that we would be having a baptism on the 7th, well it didn't happen because we found out that our investigator drank BEER! Ahhhh I wanted to drop kick a booing Dwarf when I found that out. Anyways we were able to get him back on track and he should be baptized on the last Saturday of this month. Pray for Ricardo not to break the Word of Wisdom again.

Then on Thursday night I went back over to the Korean Branch for an exchange. I am going to start off with, I pretty much love Asian food. We went to this house for dinner where they made these Korean noodles with some soup! It was so good I had about 2 1/2 bowls of it. We afterward went and taught this family called the Rushtons. The father has such an amazing testimony. He is also just so humble. He feels he doesn't deserve credit where he has earned it. He share with us some of his testimony building experiences.

On Saturday we got a random call from one of the ward members. It was the Websters. They called us for a blessing and we rushed over to give our assistance to them. They are a super tenderly Elderly couple and are just so nice. We gave them both a blessing of healing that there illnesses would stop bugging them. We then left them with a prayer and our best wishes that they would be ok.

We left and we started heading towards Browns Point Elementary school. That's where we saw two cars in the middle of the road. One of them just recently had slammed into the other car and they were just pulling their cars off to the side when we pulled up. We tried to help them but a member of our ward beat us to it. We prayed for them to be able to stay safe for the rest of the night and then talked to the member for a bit and left.

On Sunday after Church we went with Bro. Crawford and gave blessing to someone in this nursing home called Hallmark Manor. She was very receptive to us and the spirit that was there while we gave her the blessing was just amazing. I could not help but smile the whole time we were in her presence. When we were done we drove to a less active's house who also wanted a blessing. As we gave it to him the spirit was practically just carried over from the last blessing. It was so incredible. 

Later that night we went back to our apartment. My companion and I sat around the phone trembling in our pants as we sat there staring at the phone. Let me just tell you something, Transfers Night is one of the most stressful things ever. Anyways as we sat there I couldn't take it anymore so I went and played with my Ultimate Disc. Right then I heard excitement come out of my companions mouth yelling, "We aren't being transferred." We decided right then to do a victory dance and then we went to bed.

Well that was my week hope you enjoyed reading it. The Church is true and as Kingsley from Harry Potter says, "You may not like it President, but you cannot deny, Dash Points got style."

Elder R.K. Northrup

Panang Chicken Curry

Us with Silver Lake Elders, Christiansen and Larsen before E.Christiansen was transferred to Renton Zone!

A Week of Hard Work!

My Tag in Area #2 Dash Point Ward

This week has been great. Elder Polson and I have accomplished so much this week. I think that would be because we have a bigger drive since Elder Lawrence visited us last week. 40 baptisms here we come!

This week we had our last District meeting before transfers. I hope I stay in Dash Point though because I love this area. There are people who want to hear the gospel plus the members actually do missionary work in this ward. Which means we can actually do a lot more! Pray that I stay in this area! Anyways in district meeting, we had President Eaton come to it and he gave our district a lot of insight into some things to improve our teaching. He taught us how important it is to figure out how long it takes us to teach the whole entire Restoration lesson. We found that as we time ourselves as we teach then the less likely it is for the investigator to get bored plus he understands the more important parts a lot easier. We are going to start honing in on this skill.

On Wednesday, I went to the Korean Branch for an exchange with Elder Kim and Elder Ha went with Elder Polson to Dash Point. This was a pretty interesting switch considering Elder Kim knows very little of the Korean language. As you know I know nothing of the language. However, we had faith that we would still be able to teach with the power of the Holy Ghost. While I was on the exchange Elder Kim and I went to Tacoma for a couple lessons. We taught the Word of Wisdom both times and the spirit in the room the was bursting at the seams. I could only say in that moment what C3P-0 said after he had been lifted in the air by Luke Skywalker, "I didn't know I had it in me." For cereal there was such a good feeling in the room that I don't think anybody could deny the truth of what we were teaching and it was all with a language barrier. The Spirit is so AMAZING!

After we re-exhanged the next day, I found out that on the other end of the exchange also had a lot of success. They taught 2 member lessons and made our ward mission leader cry and increase his willingness to serve more in his calling. They also got 3 new potentials which was great and at least one of them is going to get baptized... because I have the faith.

On Saturday, which would have been Halloween we went on a blitz with the Zone Leaders in our area. I went with Elder Tali'uli and Elder Polson went with our recently released AP. During this blitz we found 2 new potentials and 1 new investigator so its really going to keep the ball in our court as we work for our mission's goal of 40 baptisms.

Anyways that's all for this week. Remember that the church is true no matter what you say or do!

Elder R.K. Northrup

Ponderize scripture of the week:  2 Timothy 4:7 "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

 "I hate you!"  Anakin Skywalker

Elder Lawrence of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy

Well this week Elder Lawrence of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy came with his wife and addressed our entire mission. His Wife gave an awesome talk on how missionaries are gathering the tribes of Israel as we speak, which I thought was just so incredible! We learned of how Patriarchs are starting give blessings to new members from the lost tribes. Then Elder Lawrence talked to us about our mission's goal for the month of November and ways we can start accomplishing it. Our goal is to have 40 Baptisms in the month of November. We have been starting to ask everyone we come in contact with to pray for us to complete our goal. If you guys could pray for that, that would be awesome. I know we can complete this goal and we are going to have a great time doing it. He also asked every missionary to sacrifice something. I am going to be kinder to the people I am in contact with. I think this will be a great goal. I also strongly believe that our mission will accomplish it.

On Sunday we obviously had church. We partook of the Sacrament and listen to the primary kids do their Primary Program it was pretty awesome to see little kids sing again. Afterward we went to Gospel Essentials class. Bro Crawford teaches the class and he is amazing at it. He gets everyone involved so well that it just makes the time in that class fly by! We talked yesterday about the Definition of a prophet. Which is "A prophet is called by God as his representative on earth."  We then talked about all of the talks that President Monson has given this year at both General Conferences. We talk a lot about his talk that he did about light. 

After church we went and ate dinner at Bishop Dickson's house. His wife looks like the human form of Elsa from Frozen. We talked a lot and they are total nerds! They've watched all of the movies I have seen, plus during dinner Sister Dickson quoted Star Wars. It was great! Elder Polson says that we were weird. I am pretty sure he was completely lost during that whole entire conversation. 

Anyways we will be teaching Ricardo and Pora this week and hopefully be baptizing Ricardo on Saturday.  Pray for them both right now! Ricardo is so prepared and Pora just needs to not cancel lessons.

Well the Church is true....always.

Elder R. K. Northrup