The Labyrinth in our area!

This week we have been doing so good in the "achievement" part of missionary work! We have been able to see a ton of blessings this week!

We helped the Durhams move out of their apartment this week. It was super chaotic. I am so glad we helped them because they were struggling to get out of there! They are an awesome family though. I wish them luck in St. George!

We got back in touch with our investigator, Ember. We were able to teach her a lesson in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.....kinda, she mostly went off and had questions about the Word of Wisdom. We decided to veer off of our planned lesson and answer her questions. She was really impressed with our code of health that we follow. She agrees with most of it, but we think she is kinda shady on the weed part of things. It was awesome to feel our words being placed in our mouths of what to say. Plus, on top of that, we had Bro. Jordan with us and he is an awesome teacher and really knows how to bear a powerful testimony! We invited her to baptism....and she... drummmmmm roooooollllllll please............................. rejected the invitation. So close! She told us that she wasn't ready for that commitment right now. Brother Jordan then layed down one of the most solid testimonies about baptism ever! He being a convert himself, was just amazing to feel as he bore that testimony. I know Ember felt something, we will just have to see if she acts on it!

We also completed our second Festival of finding!! It was a blast! We did it on Christmas Eve and did another 7 hours! We did awesome the first two hours and found a family in the Hylebos area! So freak yeah! Then we went and had lunch at L&L and then suddenly I had a raging bloody nose and spilt aids all over my chicken, so I guess I wanted my chicken raw!!? 

After lunch we went down to the 308th building so we could start our next shift. This time I went up to Star Lakes area with Elder Jackson. We start tracting and the first house we knocked yelled at us and said that we were Soliciting for our Church. So I replied with, "I do not think that word means what you think it means!" 

They closed the door in our faces. A bit later I suddenly had the grievous urge to use the toilet, so we hightailed it to the car and told the other Elders, that we need to go now! They got back to the car and we flew to the church and I bolted inside and made it just in time. We swapped again for the last shift. This time I went with Elder Greenfield, we tracted about 5 houses and then I got another bloody nose! So that was a great day! 

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were both awesome. Lots of love felt and awesome food. Loved seeing the family!  That is always fun!

Love you all and have a great new years!

Elder R.K. Northrup

(Note from Mom... I may or may not have gotten carried away with taking pictures of Elder Northrup while skyping!)

He was describing his woes about the Washington Weather.  (Not a fan of the rain.)

Famly Photo December 25, 2016

See you next time!

Hiding and Finding

This week has been pretty good in the fact that we are doing a lot better at teaching on the spot. This makes me really happy because then it will allow us to find more people and get new investigators!

We went to Chateau Rainier this week. It is just a apartment complex in the bottom most part of area, which means we have to drive a quite a few miles. I hate wasting miles! Anyways we got there and were going through the potentials we had down there, when a miracle happened! We knocked on this potentials door whose name was Remi, but suddenly the person transformed before our eyes into this lady name Nita! We taught her about prayer, prayed with her, and we got a return appointment! We totally were blessed with a new investigator!

We also did a thing that President Rasmussen has called the Frigid Fabulous Federal Way Festival of Finding. It was really good! We went finding/contacting/tracting from 10am to 5pm! My first shift I went with Elder Mortenson to Jovita Creek. We went finding and got 4 potentials for the Jovita Creek Elders! Afterward I went to Dash Point alongside Elder Jolley and we lived it up, but sadly didn't find anyone. Then my last shift I went with Elder Jones! He and I had some great adventures while we were together and Elder Jones was laughing the whole time. Low and behold we were able to find a new investigator for the Dolloff Lake Elders! It was a great success. The only downside was nobody was found for our area so that was a little disappointing. Oh well though, we just need to be patient!

Well that was the jest of our week. I love you all and know this church is true. Study and read the scriptures because they are what brings us to a knowledge of the truth.

See ya later!

Elder R.K. Northrup

Elder Jackson and I on exchanges last week.... Sorry, I look a bit... preoccupied!

Christmas Caroling with most of the district.  Top to bottom, left to right...
Elders Jackson, Mortensen, Delp and Northrup.  Hermanas Jorgensen and Yost

Temples

This week has been totally bunk. We did work hard but we weren't able to get very many teaching appointments. 

We did teach a lot of members though and that was a blast, and kinda of weird. Let me tell you about the weird lesson we had. 

So we had dinner with a member family. The Brother is a complete Savage! He is super funny. I am not sure what to think of his wife though. Anyways we had dinner with them and I was eating dessert. Meanwhile, Elder Delp was teaching them about the Temples and how Bishop Odom has invited everyone in the ward to be a Temple going people. Well, we challenged them to do that. The sister then told us (and I quote) "I don't really like the Temple." At that moment I just about spit the ice cream in my mouth all over the table, I was so astonished!!! My eyes were as wide as they could possibly go! We quickly bust out the blessings associated with going to the Temple. We re-extended the invitation to go to the Temple a little more this year. He accepted and she told us she would considerate it!

Alrighty then!

Sadly we weren't able to meet with Ember because she has been busy working. We are praying and hoping we will be able to catch her next week.

We did get to teach Brother Irby. He is so awesome!  He basically just talks and teaches himself when we are over with him. I love listening to him because he is a great guy that just wants to have a good life.

I also did an exchange with the Dolloff Lake Elders. I went with Elder Jackson. He is a studdly missionary. Love him to death. We got along really great! I laughed basically the entire exchange, plus we were able to teach two Less Actives. It was awesome. What I learned from him though is I need to do a lot better when I am saying my prayers.  When Elder Jackson was praying, it was with so much faith that it felt like we were going to be teaching people the rest of the day and all we had to do was step outside. So I have made it a goal to work on my prayers.

I also was able to do my first baptismal interview. It was really cool.

I've been reading Mosiah and I just finished the record of the people of Zeniff and their are so many interesting teachings in those chapters. I challenge you all to read them. 

Well, I love you all and to all a good night!

Elder R.K. Northrup

P.S.  Today my Grandpa and Grandma Thayne went into the MTC.  We now have 5 missionaries serving right now in our family.

Progression

Well this week has been super good. I am a little annoyed with the wet cold feeling right now, but that can't be helped.

Anyways, we were able to teach Ember twice this week. It was great!  We taught her the Book of Mormon (the first lesson) with Brother Clark and we challenged to read it everyday. She accepted and is currently reading it with her daughter as well. So Hooray!!!  We might be able to bring them both to the waters of baptism!

The second lesson we had was on Sunday, well we started running into some problems because we couldn't find anybody to come out with us........until like the last second we were able to recruit Thomas Perry to come with us. We were shouting for joy!!!! We had the lesson on the Plan of Salvation.  She ask a lot of questions and we answered them to the best we could and invited her to read the pamphlet that we gave her and asked her if she would come to church. She told us she would like to but, she works nights and doesn't even get home until around 7:30 in the morning. We did our best to tell her of the blessings associated with coming to church. However, we think it is going to be a lot easier when the times switch in January. We are currently working on inviting her to be baptized.  Pray for her and that invitation.

Other than that it has just been a week of us really working with the members. We had some council from Brother Angelo that maybe if we focused harder on the messages we give to members and custimize them to what they need.  We then might see more fruit in the future.

Well I love all of you, pray that we will be able to find more investigators!

Elder R.K. Northrup