Elder Northrup has gained the power of INVITATION

This week has been so good!

Here are some cool things that have happened this week.

Elder Polson, one of my favorite companions, came back to the zone!

Now for the rest of the news. This week we taught one of our potential investigators that we have been doing service for. We were teaching her the Restoration of Jesus Christ. The lesson went pretty smoothly with the spirit being present. When we finished giving the first vision, it was my turn to give the baptismal invite. Now at that moment I have never felt the spirit so strongly before ever, at least that I can recall. "Will you be baptized by someone holding the proper authority of God?" As I said those words it felt like the God had drenched that phrase with spirit-roids, bringing an increase of the feeling of the power of the Holy Ghost. That moment was incredible and I shed a few tears of joy. Even though she rejected the invitation. I realized in that moment that the invitations to act towards the goal of becoming like Christ, have the backing of the Holy Ghost. I love that. I will never hesitate again to invite someone to be baptized.

On Saturday this week Elder Polson and I were invited to a baptism for one of the investigators that we had been teaching when we were serving in Dash Point. Audrey Calder was baptized and will be receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost in two weeks. We congratulated her and then left for Tacoma. That was the Highlight of Saturday. I flippin' love it when people get baptized, because I know how much happiness it can bring them into their life.

On Sunday we went to Bellevue to visit one of our investigators, Yoon Jin Lock. He is awesome. He really wants to quit smoking. He said that if he does that he will get baptized. We are trying our hardest to help him through that trial. We are going to be giving him the ARP booklet. We are praying that that will help overcome this addiction. Pray for him.

Well thank you so much for your support, I love all of you.

Hallelujah!

Elder R.K. Northrup

Elder Moon, Audrey Calder and me at her Baptism!

Apparently nothing happened!

Prepare Yourself!

Here is the rice hat I bought, totally awesome!

"Prepare yourself!" -Ike from SuperSmash Bros. Brawl

This quote I think accurately describes the  experiences I had this week.

This week was very slow with not many interesting events going and with me just sitting in on lessons because I still can't understand Korean very well yet.

However, on Saturday morning we were able to teach a lesson to a Korean Jehovah Witness couple. We talk to them about God for about an hour. Elder Jeong told me what they said. They told him that God is the best which is basically true. Then they said that Jesus isn't important, he's a little bit important but not a lot, and the Holy Ghost is completely unimportant. Which made me exceedingly astonished even to the point that I completely forgot all of the Korean I had learned in that moment. Then they pulled out one of their pamphlets that they had been sticking in peoples doors and asked Elder Jeong if he had ever seen it before. That's when he flashed back to the story I told him about those pamphlets. He said, "yeah, my companion and .... never mind."  When he told me that I just busted up laughing. Then we had a prayer and said goodbye.

Later that day we were in Bellevue at the Lee Kay Won's house, where we were planning to go and seek referrals. Now here is why this is important that we go to that house. First, because a ton of the Korean Branch members were going to be there so we could get plenty of potential referrals. That is when the Bellevue Sisters decided to show up and totally ruin our plans.  One of our members told them not to come in so we could do what we had planned to do, but they stayed. Now that they were there we had to leave which was totally lame.

Later that night our member that told them not to come said that they just sat there and hung out with the members.  They didn't share a message or anything.  Knowing this made it even harder to turn the cheek. Oh well, we forgive them.

On Sunday was our most favorite day. We went to sacrament meeting and two members from the Dash Point Ward were there. They both spoke to the Korean Branch members on Prayer and Fasting. Both talks were amazing.

Then later that day we followed up with a referral form the Jovita Creek Elders. One of them scheduled a date for us to come and teach him. The other whose name is Roy Kim let us in on the spot and we were able to teach him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He listened to all that we had to say and in the end he accepted the invitation to be baptized! Hellen Keller Yea! I was so happy for him and was very thankful that God had prepared him to listen to his Gospel.  Pray for Roy Kim!

I know this is greatest work we can be involved in and if you aren't in it then strive to be because it will bless your life forever. 저는 이것이 참됨을 압니다, I know this to be true!

Elder R.K. Northrup

My Calendar on St. Patrick's Day

Me at our last dinner with Elder Tavo before he went home.

Elder Tavo and Elder Jeong

Elder Pratt and phantom Tavo.

This is a rarity where I am!  (Sunshine!)

Dash Point Elders (Elder Jolley and Elder Moon).

Two of my favorite Elders.  Elder Snook and Elder Stoker.

HOLY COW!

Holy Cow, this has been kind of a really dumb week, but with some miracles.

Our Korean Branch is slowly falling apart. We had one of members get called to be the Bishop of another ward. The Weisemillars are starting to go to there local ward, same with the Bjornsteads.  We might not have a Korean Branch soon. Which is kinda crazy since I've only just entered this area.

I am getting sick and tired of RAIN!

However, here is a cool experience that happened yesterday as we were driving back to our apartment. The sky was basically battling each other. On one side you had dark clouds with rain. While on the other side of us we had the power of the sun and the warmth that is brings. Now for the relation and significant gospel principle this has. On one side we have the strength of the Sun representing our Heavenly Father/or The Son, while we have Darkness and Misery which represents Satan. This is kinda lame how Satan is using even the weather to attack each of us. However the good thing is bad weather/Satan must always retreat. The Power of the Sun/God cannot lose. 

On the missionary work side of things. We have been stopping by members houses and giving them member inspires.  We are using the new Easter Initiative video. That video is awesome. It was amazing to see how really willing our members are to get involved with missionary work. They even gave us some referrals. Even though they were all American and we had to refer them to other missionaries, it was awesome to know that our Korean Branch members are really trying.

Hallelujah!!!

Elder R.K. Northrup

The Kim Family

The Woodards

SURPRISE!

I got a hand written letter from Reggie.  Rod pulled it out yesterday before church.  It was a pleasant surprise.  Thought I would share some of it here...

Hey Mom,

I have figured out why the Korean Branch is such a hard area.  It is very taxing.  It takes it's toll on missionaries pretty fast.  There are a few reasons it is so hard.  One... the branch is quite small and on top of that, members are slowly dwindling and going back to their local wards.  The other thing is it is almost impossible to plan because most of our members and investigators are either single sisters or their spouse is rarely home, which makes planning super difficult.  On top of that, President Eaton basically just took away us playing sports for morning workout.  Playing sports in the morning for that was really calming.  Plus, he told me the harder I work out in the morning is when I will feel the most awake during the day.  Well just lifting weights or doing push-ups really does not help me with being more awake.  I really don't know what to do now.  I am asking you and dad for advice on this situation.

On the other side of things, I am slowly learning how to read Korean.  Which is a pretty awesome miracle.  I have been having a lot better personal study time than I use to because I have been trying to apply the scriptures I read to certain situations where I could use that specific scripture.  It has been awesome to come to strengthen my testimony of personal study in the morning.  The 2 verses I was able to find were Alma 50:1 and Alma 62:5.  One is on being prepared and the other is on flocking to the standard which I related to coming to church.  Maybe you could have a FHE on those scriptures or something. 

Well, have a great week.

-Elder Northrup

Take that Jehovah W's

Some of the members of the zone having a sports day.

This week has been weird and awesome.

First off, Thursday are our weekly planning days.....yet for some reason we are always having to go and complete other tasks during that time. This week the sisters in our district wanted us to give them a blessing. We went over to their church house with the Spanish Elders. They told us before we gave them the blessing that a lot of there investigators are having heart attacks, strokes, and threatening to commit suicide. It is a little bit ridiculous. I gave Sister Young a blessing and spirit basically directed me to bless her with the Gift of discernment so that she will know how to best succor or help their investigators get through these tough moments. Elder Richards then gave Sister Ketchum a similar blessing. I love being able to give people blessings. I know there is an amazing special spirit when your able to serve and administer to people who are in need.

On Friday we went on a short exchange with Elder Pratt in the Dolloff Lake Ward. We went tracting for most of the time.  We knocked on this one guys house named Mike Stovell and he shared with us his experiences with trusting in God. Which I thought was awesome because earlier that day in my personal study I had been reading about the 2,000 stripling warriors and how in every battle they trusted that God would deliver them out of their enemies hands. I was then able to share with him one of those scriptures. I now have a huge testimony about morning studies. Therefore STUDY! After I shared that scripture with him he talked about how when God speaks to him it sounds like Shawn Conery. He says he hears it that way because his ancestors are from Scotland. Which I thought  was pretty funny and awesome. Afterward Elder Pratt and I went to another part of his area and tracted some more. That's when we found Jehovah Witness pamphlets in all of the doors of the houses we were tracting.  We couldn't have people reading false doctrine now could we? We decided that the best course of action was to remove all of those pamphlets from the doors of Christ's people. Take that JW's!

On Saturday I went on exchange with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Anderton to Redondo. We had tons of set appointments....that all fell through. Elder Anderton was somewhat astonished. I asked him if this usually happens. He replied with absolutely not. I just looked at him and said well it usually happens to me more often then not. That was basically our exchange the whole day. However, we were able to meet some pretty cool people and invite them to baptism, which was super awesome. The other thing I learned form Elder Anderton was how to make planning a more inspiring experience. 

Anyways our President said that sports proselyting is a no go. Which is honestly more of a hindrance to the missionary work in the Korean Branch but, Oh well!

Well you all have a nice week now and I love ya all.

Elder R.K. Northrup

so back in Nam....just kidding this is a turf burn while playing touch Rugby.