HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOMMY!!! :D

our little fake growing fish

Date:  May 5, 2014
Area:  Valpo, Indiana

Companion:  Sister Wells

Valpo Week 9

Welcome To MAY My fellow friends and Family!!!

I am still in shock that it is MAY! I still feel like it is Feb! ha! ..yeah I am wrong!

The thought I want to share this week is: called A Mother's Hope.  I thought this would be perfect because this coming Sunday is a great day to remember our Sweet Moms :D

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2371781721001

I love the line "Faith overcame her Fear"  If we have Faith we can do anything!! :D 

Letters:
- Grandma and Grandpa North and Great Grandma Nielsen!
- Aunt Karoline
- Elder Shick
- Elder Deweese
- Grandma Maxine
- Elder Krogh
-Grandma Mary! Your card made me laugh! :) thanks! :)
- Elder Wilkinson

Man thank so so much for the letters everyone! It is super crazy and makes me feel beyond cool! :) I have a favor! Will you all write a Happy Birthday card to my companion Sister Tayla Wells. Her birthday is on the 25th of this month and here I am being spoiled with mail and she hasn't really gotten any. :( she would love to hear from you! She is super awesome! :) thanks guys. :)

So this morning we as we left I jumped in a puddle! Yay! But then I got my sock wet :( and I laughed! :) we vacuumed our car out too! The inside is all clean. :)

Elder Foster, Berhow, Angletti, Whitehead

Monday
We had an a zone activity today!! Yahoo! And we met at the church because it was all cloudy and rainy. We played volleyball, soccer(I even scored two points! It was cool!-Mookie and Taryn you should be proud of Me! :) and I played some basketball. At one point we did a barrow race and then I just had Sister Wells push my feet and I was like super women going across the floor! ha! I have been asked more in my life if I played sports and told I am a sportscy person here on my mission then anywhere! I had one Elder even tell me I was a Beast! I guess I have good endurance...or I'm just one of the only Sisters that really gets into the game! We played 'knock out' and I kept getting the Elders out and so the other Elders cheered me on! Yeah I felt cool not gonna lie! Ha! Zone activities are always a good time! :)

For dinner we ate at the Daubek's house and Debbie was going to join us but was still a little sick. So we go to the door and I ring the doorbell and I'm like did they have a doorbell last time? And we just shrug and wait, but no one answers. I remember sister Daubek saying something about softball practice so we thought hmm...maybe they are running late. So what do we do, put on our coats and wait a minute. As we walk down the driveway a car pulls up. In my head I'm like
hmm...maybe they invited one of their friends. We start talking to her and Sister Wells notices we are at the wrong door but we got her information and it was awesome! We then go next door to the Daubek's and tell them what just happened! It was awesome! Hopefully the Elders will be able to teach her soon(she is in there area). We had a great
dinner with them and played a game called 'Bee Attitude' and I just love the three kids, Hugh the youngest has so much energy and it just makes me smile and reminds me of being home! :) kids are wonderful!

Hermana Escabar, Me, Sister Wells, and H. Meinea

We got to visit the Edwards tonight, it was the first time I met her and she is great! We had a great lesson with her and her two kids. We shared the #BecauseofHim video and talked about how Christ can help us and it was just good. :)

Tuesday
My favorite part about today was visiting Mary Jo. She is starting to really open up to us. She is just wonderful! We shared the Humpty Dumpty poem with her and then she got a phone call and as she was on the phone guess what we discovered!?! A second haft to the poem! It was pretty funny considering Sister Wells has had this poem oh for
like seven years! Ha! But it was a perfect bonding moment for us all! :)


Wednesday - The Day full of adventures! :)
We had district meeting and the Zone leaders actually were there! Yay! (They take turns going to the other districts) and all I have to say is...my district can NOT sing! But man do I love them! :) haha we sang the opening song and Elder ...was singing with gusto! And pretty much everyone was singing on different notes and what do I do? I start
laughing! It honestly was so funny! And then I tried to sing and I sounded like a cow or something! The closing song was a little bit better!

Got up to 77 one day - that didn't last long

After that we had district lunch at a little Mexican restaurant, I think called Maria's. It was tasty! I have a great district! They make me laugh! One of the Elders asked hey 'Hey Sister North! We are thinking about starting a choir what do you think?' I just started laughing.... We had fun telling a few riddles and enjoying our food.  And seeing if Maria wanted a free copy of the Book of Mormon.

After lunch we met the Elders(foster&berhow) at a hospital because the Shellie's(a senior couple) wanted to join us for the day. So Sister Shellie came with us and Elder Shellie went with the Elders. Sister Shellie is awesome! Our first destination was trying to contact a referral but no one was home so we decided to knock some doors and then we met Eddie! He said he would read the introduction of the Book of Mormon! :) yay! And then we walked back to the car....in the rain.  Silly me didn't even have a jacket on.

Then we stopped by the Partlow's and Sister Partlow was home! Huge miracle! We got to share a brief message with her. Then we went to the apartment to change our cloths for service to go help the Yarros! We just helped them sort some things and then we started talking about the Book of Mormon and some different things. My favorite part is
Lindsay asked a question! I was trying to figure out how to get her more involved! So it was grand! We went back to the apartment to change back into normal cloths and then Sister Shellie was like is it dinner time yet? We said yes and
then when she found out we didn't have any plans she was super excited to take us out to dinner! It was super cute! :)

We ended the night with teaching Debbie! And Debbie thought it was cool that Sister Shellie is a missionary with her being older. We planned to teach the gospels but while we were there we felt like we should watch the Restoration DVD. Sister Shellie gave some awesome comments. It was great! :)

The little lake outside our apartment 

Thursday
Sometime you have those days where Satan knows exactly what you are trying to improve on and he is doing everything he can to take you down...down to the ground until you cry but we are NOT alone! He is there for you and I! So this is Sister North's wisdom for the day:  "God wants us to succeed, but it is up to us to listen to Him" so even
when things become hard with the Lords help we can do everything!  The End!

We had dinner with the Thomas (relief society pres. Fam) they are super awesome! We ate at Ci Ci's pizza. Then we got to talk with Sister Thomas for a little bit because the others had soccer practice and I guess our little message was perfect for her and she said she really needed it. So that was really cool! If we listen to the spirit we will truly be able to help those we come in contact with! It is awesome! :)

Friday
Today was an interesting day...we met with Sister Yuen today and we read from Joseph Smith history and talked some about his story and then we talked about how in the Bible it talks about the BOM and it was a short lesson that took a long time! BUT the cool thing is when we got there we had a few extra minutes and I was like let's go knock on this house. Well it wasn't me thinking that, because we went and knocked and got a PNI and gave our new friend J...a BOM it was pretty cool! Only door we knocked on today! That is my kind of tracting :)

We had a lesson with Cyndi and well I was glad we didn't have a member with us....it was a rather interesting teaching environment...so she takes care of an older couple and because it was kind of cold we were invited inside and Joan just walks around and Jim was watching the Big Bang Theory and it was super loud but we turned it down. It took a
little bit to get the lesson going and when the spirit was finally there before we got into the first vision we hear a car door and it turns out to be Diana her sister. So she comes in and she tells us her religious preference, and we talk for a little bit and then she dismisses us and is like you guys normally end with a prayer or something? We say yes, and I was the one that got to pray. So I asked her if there was anything I could pray about and she said yes and told us for about five minutes....and then I said a prayer...(just a little nervousness ha) but Sister Wells did tell me she felt the spirit
during the prayer so that is good. Before we left we offered our services and I think they'll actually take us up on it too!! :) yay! I also feel like with Diana we might be able to teach her more if we did service for them, because she seems to be he kind of lady that will ask us questions but won't really let us teach her....needless to say it was interesting!


After that we ended he night with going and seeing the Nickels family! I ended having a great lesson with Kayln the 12 year old while Sister Wells held down the fort with everyone else. Ha. Kayln and I had fun playing with a worm (we all were outside) and then we started talking about why we are here and I got to teach her a brief plan of salvation. She also asked a great question about Heavenly Father and Christ being one person and being called a God. And this is how I explained it to her: I said so at school you have and English teacher and a Math teacher, they teach you different things but they are both teachers. This is how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is,they both can be called God because they have the same purpose but they are two separate beings. Just like you have different teachers. (I thought it was cool) and she also understood it. We talked a little bit about Young Women's and she is interested in going so I am excited to help her come closer to our Savior! She is such a sweet girl! And Sister Wells went over the Ten Commandments with the other kids with Bro Nickels and Joe there uncle was even out too! :) I love this family!
They sure make me laugh! Oh and Paige the 9 year old I guess she is being defending God at school and is telling people who are taking the Lords name in vain "hey he doesn't like that! It is disrespectful!" She was also ready to come with us to go and do missionary work, she had her bag and tablet and everything ready to go. So cute! They are
learning more and more and it is super exciting! :)

Saturday
Man, all of our member presents keep not happening, it makes me sad.  We have had scheduled this week and they all have fallen through and so have our back ups. But The Lord knows what his children need and we will just keep trying.

We helped the Yarros do some yard work and they kept saying we could stop but Sister Wells and I kept going. Honestly we didn't do that much...they said we did but it was really nothing and it was enjoyable too! Yep I just said yard work was enjoyable ;) Gloria was laughing at me because I was getting all dirty and it didn't bug me one bit!

We shared with Joe the Because of Him video and then we talked about how we are all children of God and share the Child of God video. It went really well oh and we talked about the Atonement and there daughter Kelly was there and she is 13(she loves with her grandma).  Something that is cool is Gloria mentioned already how she wants to
stop smoking! Which is just awesome! So we are going to come up with a plan to help her out with that. :)

Sister Wells

Crazy story! As we are talking some how my birthday came up and that it was soon so Gloria asked when it was and I said May 18th and the way they reacted I just new it was some else's birthday. Yep it is Joe's birthday then she goes on saying that her birthday is May 25th and I just look at Sister Wells and I'm like that is her birthday! It was super crazy! So we have the same birthdays as them! Haha....crazy! It was pretty funny! :) they are a great family! We are teaching them, hopefully on Tuesday! :)

Sunday!
Oh how I love Sundays! They are just the best way to receive that spiritual strength and to start a new week! Church was wonderful. :) after church we went and saw Sister Clark and she is doing great! And then we went home and had our studies. :) and cooked a lasagna for dinner! It worked out because it takes more then an hour to cook so we
cooked it while we studied. It was yummy! And we had garlic bread too!

We had a great lesson tonight with Debbie on the Holy Ghost and what that is. It went really well and the spirit was there! Before we left we changed her light bulb. She was scared I was going to fall but it was real easy. Something that is funny, after church she said that she was on page nine in the Book of Mormon and I was like cool...then I
paused and then I was like wait! You were on page nine on Wednesday.  Well guess what page she was on when we came and taught her!?! ...43!  I was like what? Wow! You have almost caught up to us! I am in 2 Nephi
and Sister Wells isn't to far behind. So that was pretty crazy! And awesome! She is doing well, but not progressing as much as we would like, she is building faith but not that true conversation yet so her baptism might be pushed back but we will see. Hopefully she will do what we have asked her and will start to notice the spirit more in her life. She is so awesome! And I just love her! :)

Thank you so much for all you do!! I hope you all have a great week!! Work hard! and Remember! You can do anything and everything!! I love you all so much!! I know Christ loves you all so much!! Remember to keep Smiling!!!

Much Love,
Sister North :D

Sister Shellie took us out to dinner.

Sister North absolutely loves mail so drop her a line or a card, she would love to hear you.  PLUS it is her birthday on the 18th so that is an extra special reason to write.

Sister Amber North

Illinois Chicago Mission

800 Waukegan Rd #203

Glenview, Illinois 60025