Arrival and Departure Photos...

Brand NEWBIES!  July 2015

Homeward Bound!
From Boys 2 Men!

Last week in the field....

Last week in the field....

The Stutz Family

Elder Kofford, Me and Elder Fullmer

The Stokes family

Peace out everyone!

So this week we have been working really hard.....I mean I always do that, but yeah.

We have been working with Albert consistently. I am getting a bit nervous about him because he is really struggling with the word of wisdom. I really hope he can strengthen his faith because we feel that that is what he is lacking right now.

Please everyone pray for him!

We also found a new investigator! Well actually one of our members had invited her to church and we snagged her and asked her if we could teach her! We taught her on Wednesday. Her name is Jamie.  We had to teach really simply because she didn't even know very much about Christ. So obviously we pivoted and taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ instead. She even prayed at the end!  It was so awesome!

As you know, we are always working on finding new investigators. Well, we found an awesome potential this week named Terra. She is a Lutheran currently, but we are hoping that that is about to change. She accepted a Book of Mormon that we told her that she could borrow. We are hoping that by letting her "borrow" it, she will make it more of a priority to read it. We are going to stop by again this Friday!

We worked hard this week doing service for a lot of people.  We helped the May family move 650 pavers for there patio that they are making. That was a blast!  Love doing service!  We also helped Bro. Stokes dig out his septic tank.

We did Gospel ping pong with the Letham's this week. It is on facebook if you want to see the video.  The important thing is that the missionaries beat them and then they had to go share a scripture on the media! Oh yeah!

Peace out everyone!

Elder R.K. Northrup

FOREVER FISHING ... >C))>

The struggle for investigators continues......I feel like I am fishing with my bare hands. Since everyone is struggling with this Elder Tripp came up with an idea to do a FREE car wash service and then teach lessons on the spot for that. It's a great idea, but I doubt I will be here for that... which is a total bummer!

We were able to teach Albert this week. Which was a big lesson because it was on the Word of Wisdom. He read the entire pamphlet before we came by this week and we discussed it with him. While we were talking he just completely revealed his hidden concern to us. He talked about the reason he drinks is because of the death of his parents. He told us that drinks help numb the pain he is feeling. He also told us that he doesn't really like making very many friends because them dying would really irk him. We instantly started teaching him about the plan of salvation again. We testified of the blessing that the plan of salvation allows us to do, is see and live with our loved ones again. Then we bore testimony of how quitting these addictive vices that he has and replacing them with Scripture reading and praying and church attendance will bless him more than he knows. He accepted the invitation to live the Word of Wisdom and we will be stopping by to help him put together a plan for that with him.

We also helped this less active lady break into her car. That was a ton of fun. It took us about an hour and a half but we totally succeed without damaging the car too much! The less active lady even started to pray for the first time in a long time, to get the door unlocked! Man I love helping people.

I went on exchanges this week with Elder Oliva. I love that Hispanic man! He is so great. On our exchanges we got soaked by the rain. It was crazy well... not really because it happens all the time. We also got to teach Albert again. We shared with him these scriptures: 2 Nephi 32:2-4 (please read them).

We talked about how reading the scriptures would help Albert know exactly what to do to overcome his Word of Wisdom issues. It was an awesome lesson, I really hope Albert can overcome these obstacles. I believe he can do it, he just needs to believe he can.

Elder Oliva and me soaking wet!

We also taught our Iraqi friend Salih. We taught him at the Chapel because he did not want his family to see him cry and think he is weak. We taught him about the power of prayer and read from the scriptures to cry unto the heavens for everything that is needful. Spirit was so strong, I hope he realizes how true this gospel is that we are teaching him.

On Sunday, I went to my last mission devotional. I was crazy sad to be saying good-bye to so many of my favorite missionaries. I will see them when they return though. I said good-bye to Elder Mitton, Elder Perkins, Elder Higginson, Elder Latimer, Elder Stoker, Elder Payne, Elder Pinckney and plenty others. As we were singing the last song, I shed a few tears, in behalf of being able to serve the Lord and his people and being so grateful for that opportunity. I love missionary work, it is my favorite! 

Well I love you all and see you real soon.

Elder R.K. Northrup

The Mission Devotional Gang (Backseat: Elder Stoker and Elder Pinckney and Elder Steiner is driving.)

Elder Mitton and me... (basically the best duo.)

Entire Mission Photos with Elder Dube's on his Mission Tour

South Zones (Elder Northrup's back row... slightly right of center.)

North Zones

Tick Tock

Well, you know you are old in the mission when your old companions are counting how many days you have left for you. Thanks, I was thinking I would have to count them myself! (sarcasm)

Anyways this week has been really slow and its not just for us. Our entire zone seems to be under a famine of new investigators. It is getting really frustrating for all of us. We have been trying a lot of different tactics to find new investigators, but to no avail. This is where my extreme frustration comes in! Come on people don't you know that Elder R.K. Northrup is going home soon and you won't get to learn from me anymore? Man if that wasn't enough on top off that they are rejecting the only message that can bring them back to the Father. Human Race please open your eyes!! 

This week we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation to Albert (which happened Monday) and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He seems to really be learning and reading the book of Mormon with real intent which is exciting. However, he won't be getting baptized while I am in the mission because we weren't able to teach him the Word of Wisdom this week. Darn, total bummer! Oh well what's important is I truly believe he will get baptized in the future.

We have been trying to do more things to find new investigators like I talked about above. We decided to try setting up a booth with "Free Stuff" at our wards young woman's yard sale. Well we sat there ready to share with anyone who approached us! ................1 hour later no one approached us! What the crap! My disappointment towards the human race has heightened even more.

Lastly we talked to the old potential investigator named Joanne. She was really nice to us and asked a lot of good questions. The only problem is when we invited her to do something she would reply with "I will ask my pastor." 

Here is an example:

Will come to church? Joanna: "Let me ask my pastor. Okay?" Elder Northrups mind: (Stop having your pastor make your own choices!)

Ladies and gentleman this is someone who does not have REAL INTENT!

However, Elder Kofford set up a time for us to go back.

That was basically our week. It was long and annoying so I am praying that this next week will be better.

Elder R.K. Northrup

"Elder Northrup The Mighty" (per Elder Kofford)

(I got this hat from a member)... Photobombed!
"Don't look at me like that Eldar"

My silent rage/annoyed look.

Albert came to church!!!! The crowd went wild!

Wow this week has been really quite slow. Nobody seem to be wanting to have the door open! 

This continued until Thursday where we found this really nice lady named Jen Wilkerson. She is awesome and told us that she is looking for a church right now. We said,  "Awesome! We excel in that area of things!"  We were able to set up a time to meet with her on Wednesday, yeah for the gospel! What she does not realize is that she is about to learn the true and everlasting gospel that is the only true church in existence. To be continued!

We did some service with Bro. Stokes.  We put 4 panels of his fence up. It is looking really good and they just started his gate the other day. Fence building is a blast.  Super love service.

We met with Albert 4 times this weekend! Oh yeah! We taught the Restoration on Friday and he prayed to God at the end, which has previously been a struggle. His prayer was so genuine! The spirit was vibrant! He is a funny guy though because he knew he was feeling the spirit and wasn't sure what to do about it.  On Saturday we went to his house and we gave him a church tour of our building! That so good! He asked us a lot of great questions. We read him one of the sacrament prayers, and explained how church would work. So good!  On Sunday......................Albert came to church!!!!!!!!! The crowd went wild! It was awesome to see him at church and listen to the speakers. Man it was good to see someone progressing again.

On Monday we went by again and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome. He asks such good questions. You can truly see his real intent as he ponders what we teach. That is literally the best thing to see in someone.

Monday we also did a lot of service for people. That was basically how we spent our memorial day.

Also I have been reading Jesus the Christ every night before I go to bed! It is now one of my favorite books. If you have not read it then you are missing out and need to read it. I also have discovered my deep love for the ancient Apostles and all that they did after Christ's death.

I love you all.

Elder R.K. Northrup

Wow!  I must be pretty holy!

Me and Elder Mitton.  Probs the best of pals!

These pictures are of a destroyed lightsaber.  That is a sad day!

This is a chalk drawing of someone getting cut in half with a lightsaber.

Let go of the NUT!

Happy 20th Birthday Elder Northrup.  (Pictures compliments of Brother T.K. Stokes)
Thanks for feeding him Yakisoba!

Zone Conference (birthday) Lunch

Man this week was super good!  We worked hard to visit less actives and potential investigators. People are so exhausting!

We were finally able to teach Kurt this week.... except it was totally stupid!  He decided that he wanted to go straight into deep doctrine and ask us why we believe we think we can be Gods when there is nothing about it in the Bible that says that.  Well because, Kurt, being a God would be awesome and this church only has awesome things!  Just kidding, that's not what we said, but we tried to quickly address his concern by trying to get him to understand that God wants us to become like him.  He was having none of it though, so we then decided to redirect the focus on Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  We invited him to read and ponder the Book of Mormon.

Bible reference that says we will be Gods someday:  Psalms 82:6 (and many others).

On Saturday we had my last "Festival of Finding" day.  For the first part of it we went to Elk Plain with Elder Fullmer.  The first house we knocked on was this super annoying lady.  This is how the conversation went:

Lady:  You do not want to get into mormonism with me, I have already researched it.

Me:  Have you read the Book of Mormon?

Lady:  Nope, I refuse to read it!

Me:  Well then, you haven't researched it!

Lady:  Yes I have!

Me:  Nope! And you have a nice day.

Brothers and Sisters, the only way to receive a testimony and to continue the testimony you already have is by STUDYING the Book of Mormon.  Otherwise you will never come to know the truth or you will fall of the straight and narrow path.  Read your scriptures EVERYDAY!

The rest of the finding day was pretty slow from there.

On Sunday we had invited Albert to come to stake conference but he bailed at the last minute because he had to finish some paperwork from his job that had to be done!  Dang it again!

Stake Conference was so goo though.  It all evolved around missionary work.  Elder Dube' also spoke to us about this one time where a man wanted to catch a monkey.  He decided to put nuts in a box and put hole big enough for the monkey to slip it's hand through and grab one. However when the monkey tried to pull out his hand, having the nuts in his fist would kept him from being able to remove his hand from the box.  This made the capture of the monkey very easy!

Elder Dube' then exclaimed to the entire stake, while raising his fist into the air and pounding the podium, "LET GO OF THE NUT!"  He told us that our nuts in our lives are personal to us and it is up to us to let go of them before Satan captures us.  He then held up his phone and said, "This is a nut for some of you!  You need to get in, get what you need and get out!"

I love Elder Dube'.  He is one of my favorite General Authorities now.

That night we had my pre-day bday dinner at the Stutz home.  It was very good!  I love the Stutz family, they are awesome!  After dinner they then took us to the Federal Way Devotional, which was just as good as always.

On Monday we had a zone conference with Elder Dube'.  He taught so many good things.  I even got to practice teaching along side him.  It was an awesome experience to be with Elder Dube'.  He has a really great testimony and a wonderful personality.  I wish he could have actually come out with us, that would have been so cool!

That was our week.  Hope you feel my enjoyment of it!  I love the leaders of the church!

Elder R.K. Northrup

Only the 3rd time I cooked!

Sawyer Stutz on the left and Kylie one the right.  (we are teaching her, sorta.) We gave her a Book of Mormon.

I wish I could see what this frog looks like.

Yeah, we're cool!

Hail Mary, Full Court Press, Grand Slam!

The District

Man this week has been real good. We had our last district meeting with Hermana Huhem. She was a very good missionary and served with all her might, mind, and strength!

Anyways, we didn't quite make our goal for people committed for baptism, in fact we were 11 people off. However, it was really cool to see the whole Zone really focusing on baptism and bringing people into the fold. Keep those prayers a rollin' in for those prepared people, we definitely still need them.

We had exchanges this week. I was able to go over to Spanaway this week with Elder Oliva! I love that Elder. Anyways we worked really hard and we even got to go teach their super awesome investigator named Alla Marshall. I got to be there for her first lesson. It was a pass off lesson so we taught along side a senior missionary couple from Tacoma. Alla talked a lot about the struggles in her life and the hardships she has been through. In fact I think she talked most of the time we were there. We were able to slip in a few scriptures to bring the spirit more fully. Elder Oliva shared one and then I shared one. My scripture was on baptism. Found in 2 Nephi 31:17 after we read the scripture we invited her to be baptized right at that moment. She said she would and committed to a date! After we taught her she said the closing prayer she prayed to for God to help her be ready for her baptism! That was such a cool experience.

On the Firgrove side of things! We have an investigator commited for baptism! Albert is committed for June 24th. Amazing, he is a pretty difficult investigator but we were finally able to bring the spirit and get him on date! Wahoo! We also invited him to come to church this Sunday as well.

We also had dinner with the Martin's this week we invited them to come to Church, but they completely flopped on coming to church. Dang it again!

On Sunday we were super excited for Albert to attend church! We even waited outside for him, and freaking table flip he didn't come! Ugh what the crap. Albert just come to church it will be so good! We stopped at his later in the day but no one was home. I hope he makes it next week.

Lastly skyping the family this week was super sweet! It was so fun to see so many of you again! Especially with a bunch of my cousins there. Thanks a bunch Thayne fam, and both Grandma's and Grandpa's. Love all of you!

Have a wonder filled week! With many blessings to yuh all.

Elder R.K. Northrup

The drink that TRUE AMERICAN's drink.

I forgot to tell you guys but we are trying to teach this Iraqian, except he speaks very basic english so we are trying to learn Arabic... or find a translator. From what we understand though is he really likes the Book of Mormon and has been taking notes on it. He even fed us some Iraqian food....which then proceeded to wreck my system for the rest of the day. His name is Salih and he is a very prepared man! 

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