Revenge of the Satan

I am pretty sure Satan is working over time in Orting right now because things have gotten... well, annoying. We were just dropped by all of our investigators, except for one because of how prepared she is. Everyone else dropped us because they aren't being supported in getting baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On top of that everyone we have been talking to has been rejecting us when we are doing our finding.   One person while I was on exchanges straight up told me and Elder Nelson that he would be fine with not joining the Magic Underwear Church.  (As we both walked away we thought "why would you not want Magic Underwear?"). It is kind of upsetting, but oh well. I am still working hard and we are still praying for people to step into our path that are prepared to hear the restoration of the gospel. 

Wednesday.... (I think), Elder Clauson and I went down a rock strewn trail with our bikes so we could reach a part of Orting called the Buttes. While we were going we contacted someone named Ronda. She said, she was a little bit interested in our church and would be fine with going to a service. Please pray for her that she will feel the spirit. 

On Friday Elder Clauson and I went on those exchanges. I stayed in Orting and he went to Firgrove. My exchanges companion was Elder Nelson.  He is from Canada. Anyways I am still pretty new to running an area and figuring out what to plan for the next. I came to the conclusion that we need to start doing a lot of contacting and talk to everyone. This didn't sit well with Satan, so I am pretty sure he made sure he popped a hole in Elder Clauson's rear bike tire.  That forced me and Elder Nelson to walk everywhere. Anyways we walked to this neighborhood and we were contacting people but just kept getting rejected, which was disappointing.  We got to the point where we were going to give up and go home for the night, but the spirit pushed us to talk to this lady outside tending these dogs. We met her and she wasn't rude about us talking to her. Before we left we were able to set up a lesson for us to come teach her the restoration. That boosted me and Elder Nelson's confidence tenfold. The next day we contacted for three hours and even though we didn't find anybody, we were still happy that we tried. Later that night we re-exchanged and went to a church hosted activity where we met a lot of investigators from different parts of our zone. It was awesome to see how everyone was doing and the starting testimonies of those investigators.

Well that is all I have. Please pray for the Orting and Firgrove Elders to receive more solid investigators that are prepared to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Elder R.K. Northrup

 Double-sided light sabor

 Elder C's Light sabor

 FIRE!

Me in tired mode!

 
 Another Edition of MISSIONARY FOOD: Exhibit C - Ramen Noodles with taco sauce

Another week without Rain...

Well this week has been a week of exchanges and a couple other things. Plus the weather over  all is not even rainy at all, in fact its very sunny.

On Monday after emailing we went to a members house and they cut our hair.  I know, I was totally thinking I am going to be bald after this...but she did a pretty amazing job.  Anyways as I was getting my hair cut Elder Clauson got a phone call from the Zone Leaders telling him that an investigator is moving to Orting.  She has been getting the lessons and that we're pretty much having a baptism fall into our laps.   Awesome!  Elder Johnson said this blessing is like a football analogy: He said it was like the QB throws a pass to the WR and instead of running it in, he flips it back to the RB who then scores.  I thought that was a pretty funny analogy. Anyways her name is Hannah Ognoskie and she is solid. She has already read the Book of Mormon twice and a half. She is also super funny and is coming to church a lot. Her baptism is on Aug. 1. 

Tuesday we went on blitz with the Firgrove Elders.  We were able to get them a potential investigator that they are going to be meeting with soon. Thats about it on Tuesday.

There is only one problem with Orting. That is that everyone I have met so far has been a "Trekkie," which is nasty. It is sad to see them go down the wrong path, but at least they are following Heavenly Fathers plan and looking for something more to bring more light to their lives.

We had Zone meeting this week we learn a lot about the importance of following up with investigators and making sure they understood what they have been reading. This has made me want to focus a lot more on getting people to teach so I can share the gospel with them.

On Friday we did exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Elder Anderton and Elder Clauson went together in Orting and I went with Elder Johnson to Spanaway. We went and taught a lesson to a family who is super close to their baptismal date all they need to do is start following the word of wisdom and they will be golden. Later that night I found out Elder Johnson is a huge Star Wars fan! (Finally someone who speaks truth). We talked a lot about Star Wars together. The next day we went to Ethan Larez's baptism.  It was amazing!  Elder Clauson baptized him. Elder Anderton, Elder Johnson, and I taught the Restoration to Ethan's non-member mom while they were getting dressed. His mom was crying and I know she felt the spirit and I hope she starts taking the lessons. Then Elder Johnson and I left to finish out the exchange. We went and taught a guy named Larry White, I don't know much about him but he is really cool. The rest of the day I discovered that Elder Johnson reminds me a lot of Tim Pierson. They both say some the exact same things like "Yeah buddy" and "That's no bueno." Which made me laugh. When we re-exhanged we found out that Elder Anderton and Elder Clauson were able to get five potentials which is totally awesome. Hopefully some of them are ready and prepared to hear of God's gospel.

That basically all that happened this week. Sorry its not as epic as last week!

Elder R.K. Northrup

 Mt. Rainier

 Read the cups!

 Elder Nielson

 Elder Clauson and Ethan Larez (baptized July 18th 2015)

 Liam is showing his SKILZ!

Now for some falling!

Another edition of MISSIONARY FOOD:  Exhibit B - Eggo Waffle with Reeses Spread.

Training in the Absence of Rain

Well this week has been pretty eventful, I will tell those stories in a second.  The weird thing about this week is it hasn't rained at all until just yesterday, so its been pretty warm. We have super green trees with really brown grass because there is no rain right now.

So the beginning of the week we got in my area and have been just really going through the motions, if you don't know then just ask Dad, I guess. We have been doing a lot of contacting. We don't do tracting because it is really unproductive. Instead we do this thing called Street finding where we just talk to people who are outside there house and relaxing. Apparently the odds of finding investigators that way are a lot more than tracting. Maybe that's true, because we haven't found anybody yet who wants to hear the gospel. Most people reject in a nice manner, but other times we are sworn at or called things. For example just the other day we were riding our bikes on the bike trail and car drove past calling us "LOSERS". Oh well, people don't know what they are missing.

The Eventful parts of this week:

On Saturday in the morning we went over to an elderly couple to visit them. The Grandpa had just gone through stomach surgery and he had just gotten out of the hospital.  They started telling us that they were kicking out their 47-year-old son, because of how he was being disrespectful towards them and some other things. Here is where it gets interesting. I kept looking at the time thinking we need to leave soon if we are going to go give service to a non-member. That's when I had the feeling to start praying.  I had no idea why until a bit later. Elder Clauson also had a similar feeling to stay in that house. We decided to start reading the scriptures with the elderly couple. Soon after their son started coming in and out of the house moving his stuff to his car. A few verses in the scriptures later, the Grandpa asked his son to put the shotgun on his bed.   The son did not react well to being told what to do so he started yelling at his Dad, saying stuff like "don't even think about telling me what to do when you know you're just doing it to make me mad."  That's when the Dad stood up and walked over to the son. The son was yelling at him to stay outta his face. Once the Dad got over to his son, the son grabbed him and shoved him too the ground. Elder Clauson and I, stood up as quick as a bullet to help up the Dad. However, Elder Clauson saw that the son was about to jump on top of his Dad. Seeing this Elder Clauson intervened and went into offensive lineman on the son holding him back, and eventually calming him down enough that he just stormed outside. Right when I finished helping the Dad up I started praying again. At this point the Dad decided to call the cops and put a restraining order on his son. The miracle is that the Dads stomach didn't rip open during all of this.  The police arrived and Elder Clauson and I had to give a witness statement to the police officers.  Pretty crazy right!

Then we went and did service.

The next event was Sunday. During sacrament meeting we were trying to help a Chinese lady, get in contact with the Chinese speaking Elders and maybe get a Chinese Book of Mormon. She could barely speak any English and so I am pretty sure that the spirit was helping me understand what she was trying to say while Elder Clauson was on the phone trying to get a hold of the Chinese speaking Elders. It was pretty fun actually trying to understand her. Which increased my want to speak a different language.

Later in the day we were to visit the Johnson's (I am only giving their last name because there are many people in the world with the last name of Johnson) at 4:00. Now the whole week Elder Clauson had been telling me that Bro. Johnson was a cross-dresser and to not stare at him while we are teaching him the lesson. I am getting totally prepared for this and we go in and we are greeted at the door by a man in a long blonde haired wig, with a dress on, and some women leg pants. He told us a lot about this change in his life.  He told us that he was in the navy at this time. At this point I am trying to be polite and not stare at him rudely. Suddenly he just gets out of his chair and takes the wig off. He said that could not handle the heat anymore. I just looked at him like what the crap is going on?  That's when they told me that the whole thing was a complete joke. I just point my head into my hand as everyone started laughing at me because I had been fooled.

Well that's pretty much all of the interesting things that happened this week.  I hope that the coming weeks will be just as interesting. Remember everyone, choose the right, and come unto Christ. 

Elder R.K. Northrup

P.S. We are having a baptism this coming Saturday, for a 15-year-old kid named Ethan Larez. He is awesome and has a great testimony of this true church.

Elder Clauson's got SKILZ!

 Companion Selfies... E. Clauson and E. Northrup

 

 Excuse me?

It's a small world in the church (especially when we both come from Highland)!

Ummm... I think you can figure this one out yourselves!

First edition of "MISSIONARY FOOD" - Exhibit A - Block O'Chocolate

21 of the Army of Helaman! (WOW! Big group!)

This is a post from me, the Mom!  I just found a picture on Sister Eaton's family mission blog of the total group of missionaries that went to Federal Way from the MTC this transfer. Huge group!  Loved finding this!  Another email should arrive today to post here.

Front: Sister Young, Sis. & Pres. Eaton, Sisters Peterson and Edwards

Middle: Elders Knight, Kidwell, Steiner, Sirrine, Duncan, Samuels, Chance, Thurgood, and Northrup

Back: Elders White, Elzey, Lyon, Covington, Rex, Samuelsen, Ozburn, Rippstein, and Meads

President Eaton, Elder R.K. Northrup and Sister Eaton

AMAZING!

Ok, so I will start at my last day at the MTC. Nothing really happened until about 6:00 pm.  We did a whole district role play with Bro. McClain. He played a guy named Matt from his mission. We went in to teach but a couple minutes after we started he made us leave because we weren't unified. We left and made a gameplan of what we were going to do and what we were going to follow teaching him. After that we all started studying the scriptures personally just to bring the spirit and maybe for some revelation. After a bit one of the missionaries was asked by Bro. McClain to come meet with him. He was meeting with him for quite a while. That's when Bro. McClain came out and had me come into another room. He told me that this Elder was having a hard time and that he wanted a blessing and he wanted me to be apart of it. We went to the room he was in and we placed our hands upon his head.   Bro. McClain offered up a prayer the spirit in that room at that time was bursting like a stream, I was truly grateful for that opportunity to help my friend. Afterward we went back in with the rest of the Elders (which is 7 of us) and started to teach "Matt" a lesson on the restoration.  We taught him how to pray to Heavenly Father and that that is how he can be helped with finding to know if our church is true. I led the whole lesson and everyone of us put in our parts to make the experience so spiritual it was amazing. It was a double miracle.

Well we flew to the Seattle Airport and I was able to ride with President Eaton. (Huzzah) He taught me a ton in just a short time in the car. We ate lunch at his house and then his AP taught us a lot about street contacting, which is gonna be the hardest thing to pick up.

We then went to the stake center and got our trainers. My trainer is Elder Clauson who lives in Highland, UT not too far from us. When I heard that I was just like "wow, that is amazing!"  Well my area right now is called Orting. We have an amazing view of Mt. Rainier. It is pretty much in our backyard.

Well thats all I have.  Now the church is true so don't go astray!

Elder R.K. Northrup

Dang Right, I am a MISSIONARY

Well guys I know why Talmage does not send detailed letters... because there is almost no time. 

Here goes nothing.

On Tuesday we were given a devotional by Joseph W. Sitati. He is a member of the 70ty. He taught how we need to be warriors in God's army of missionaries. He was an awesome speaker.

Wednesday was pretty good.  We were in class all day though. We role played with Steven. Who is really Bro. McClain's alter ego. He is an actor, let me tell ya. We nailed our lesson though and committed him to pray on the spot. It was awesome. We switched the lesson to his needs.  His concern was that he didn't feel that God loved him and that's why he stopped praying. We taught that even when the Savior was going through pain he still prayed to the Father for strength and taught him that even when the Savior was praying for strength he still had to go through the trial of atoning for our sins.

We then taught Jaime Tyus. We failed in our first lesson because she just got confused. On next lesson we simplified the Restoration down. We taught with the power of the Spirit and then we committed her to read the scriptures and she accepted. Wahoo! We also just recently taught her another lesson on the Atonement and power of repentance. I gave my experience of repentance and sniffled and cried a bit. She then accepted are next commitment which was to pray to know what we have said is true.

My study of the scriptures has finally paid off because the Spirit has finally been starting to direct me to scriptures that I can use to explain and help people with their needs and concerns. I am so happy for the Spirit. I cannot wait to get out into the field. Washington here I come.

Sorry there wasn't much time, but here are some pictures.

Elder R.K. Northrup

                   

 My Companions... Elder Steiner from Kayesville UT (in the background).

Elder Kidwell from Show Low Arizona (in front).

                        

My MTC teachers...  Brother Kendall on the left and Brother McClain on the right. 

                    

 Comps

                    

 Hey the front 4 are my roomates (from left to right) Elders Kidwell, Northrup, Steiner, Knight, and Rippstein. Elders Johnson and Elder Ryan are in the back.

                   

Temple walk with my district.

                   

Elder Edwards from Lehi

                   

Elders Covington and Austin

                   

Momma's boy!

                   

Nightstand in a nutshell