Lots of knocking but still seeing Miracles! :)

New study journal and the theme of my life right now.

Date:  June 16, 2014

Area:  Valparaiso, Indiana

Companion:  Sister Wells

Week 15 in Valpo

Hey Ya Peeps! :D

I'd have to say my favorite scripture right now is: Moroni 10:32

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God."

Think about what this scriptures says for you. How does this help you want to do better?

I love this scripture because it tells me how it is okay that you messed up, but He is here to help you become perfect to strive to do better and become like Him. I love how it is telling us to deny everything that is bad. I know God wants us to be happy! I know He is here to help us Be Happy and become perfect like Him. Everyday is a new day and we can all try again! Isn't that wonderful?

Letters:
I got two packages from three of my favorite people!! Thanks so much Mamma C, Nutty and Keagan! Made my Day! :)
-Grandma Mary (2) Grandma every time I get a letter from you I say, oh it is from my Grandma, She's my biggest fan! :) thank you for always writing me! You are the best and I love all your cards and fun notes!
Keep working hard! :)
-Hermana Jackson and Elder Jackson! I got there letters the same day!
It was fun! They must have sibling unity to make there letters come
the same day ;) haha
-Mom! Oh my goodness, so I opened your letter at zone conference and
ALL of us got a kick out of your jokes! You are the best! :)
-My Brother! Jered! Thanks bear! So great to hear from you! :)
-Marissa Laurence
-Elder Jimy Erekson

Sometimes on my mission I feel spoiled.  We went to our Zone meeting and first Sister Taggart hands me a stack of letters and Nut told me I should have a package.  Then I discovered I had TWO!!  Thank you Nutty and Mama C and Keagan!  You guys are the best and made me smile!!  :D  Enjoying the snacks.

Monday
Dinner with the Isacson! They sure are sweet! We taught the Plan of Salvation, we are teaching the lessons because there little boy is getting ready to be baptized in the fall. They are such sweet kids! Love them! :)

We ended the night with finding, nothing too exciting.

Tuesday
Zone conference! Amazing! And Sister Wells and I got the cleanest car award Ever! Yahoo!! :) we are proud of this fact! Elder Taggart was like "I think I have seen the cleanest car I've seen on my mission!" ...no big deal! :) just makes us happy and we got some trail mix for it! :) and Sister Taggart said "I was scared to get in the car because
I didn't want to get it dirty." It was pretty great! :)

It was such an amazing meeting we focused on the Spirit and how we can use it better! and I was going to share some of my thoughts about it but my journal is back at the apartment.  

But here is my advice.  If you have a feeling to do something do it!  If it leads you to do something good DO IT!! Just Do It! (Like Nike) And as you act upon those good thoughts you'll have more and you will be blessed!!

I love being a Missionary, it is like giving everyone a $100, this Message is truly so amazing and if people don't accept it, there is nothing I can do, it is between them and God.  But I am here to share His word and "give $100 to

all His Children" but I know this Gospel is much more than a 100 bucks! I love it! It makes me happy :D 

Wednesday
Can't believe tomorrow is already weekly planning day! We had a very fulling day...if we keep driving this much we will be in trouble with miles. But we had lessons all day! It was awesome!

We had a super awesome lesson with Debbie with Sister Lester and the spirit was so strong! She read ten more pages in the Book of Mormon and she is getting so much more out of the scriptures! It is so awesome! Debbie wants to be baptized! We told her as we have prayed we have felt like a date in July would be good or even August. We wanted to involve her in the date choosing and pray with her. As we read the dates she immediately said August 16 because the 17th is the passing of her son and she would receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost that day. We are very excited for her and know she will be ready for that date!  Let's just hope I stay here next a Transfer! :) it is crazy we are
already haft way through the transfer! Man time sure is going fast!  She even described feeling the Holy Ghost as a tingling feeling! So  great! She is recognizing the spirit in her life!

AHHH DEBBIE IS GETTING BAPTIZED in AUGUST!!! :D So excited for her!!! :D

Sometimes your breakfast looks really  cute so you have
to take a picture of it!

Our lesson with the Yaros went well and Gloria got a lot out of Alma 32 it was awesome! We taught the first haft of the Plan of Salvation and Brother Lester came with us and that went very well. Lindsey even joined us today and we re-invited her to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and to read at least one paragraph and write a few
words about it. She said she would. She is such a sweet girl! :) the lesson went well and there weren't to many distractions even being inside and that was nice! Sadly Brother Lester didn't get to meet Joe :( which is one of the reasons we wanted him to come. Joe isn't sure what to think about this all but he is super nice and I feel like he
is interested but he doesn't want to admit it.

We went over to the Sarvers and MaryJo was in the back so we went back there and talked for a little bit and then went inside. We had a super awesome lesson with them about Faith and we read parts Alma 32 and MaryJo went and got Gary's old Book of Mormon and she told us how she has never read it all the way through, so I asked her if she wants to.  She said YES!! How awesome! We told her we could help her with that!  It was a great lesson and guess what! Next time Gary is going to say the closing prayer and MaryJo said she'll say the closing prayer the next time! It was funny because Gary was like "Oh I have to see this!"  Haha we left them to read Alma 32, MaryJo is still more committed then  Gary but they both are coming along! I a, so excited for them! I love them so much! They are so awesome! :)

We had dinner at the Tucker's and the twins birthday was the day before but we had there birthday dinner with them. It was yummy! Man I sure do love this family! They are great! We talked about having courage and shared a little from a talk and then shared a short Mormon message on Ester and how she had so much courage!  :)

Then we went and had a lesson with Dorothy and she wanted to talk about D&C 76 so we did but we ended it with the Come Unto Christ video and Moroni 10:32 which was great because we found out some concerns, so hopefully we will be able to help her with those. :)

Thursday
Oh my goodness! Story Time! So we received a phone call but they hung up right away and I didn't get to answer it, so I waited five or ten minutes and I call this number back and I'm like hello, My name is Sister North and I'm a Missionary for the a Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day saints someone called me from this number. It is a black lady on the other line and was like oh I called the wrong number I was just trying to call my neighbor to see if he could come help me move my TV. I then responded we would love to come help you move your TV!  She said OH Really?! I need help moving it. I said yes! We love doing services! She asked us where are church is we said Valparaiso. And she
responded oh cool! She told us where she lives and I was like oh we have a church building in Grifith! (Near her) She's like I know where that is! We got her name and address and confirmed her number and called the Sisters and turns out she lives in the Elders area so they passed her along to them. But so cool! I hope she sees that this wasn't an accident. I look forward to following up with the Elders on Wednesday. But man so crazy! I am so grateful I call numbers back even though haft the time it is a lame number! I can say I will always be calling numbers back! Who knows I can get other missionaries involved!  It was supper cool! :)

We planned most the day and then had dinner with the Newmans and after we tried to find a referral but turns out I wrote the number wrong so we will go back tomorrow. (we have it now) and we met these two girls going for a run and they said we could come teach them more. They've never heard of us before and they both are fourteen. They seem sweet!
It is crazy to think that they are only a year older than my Sister...man my sisters need to just stop growing! ;) love ya Cearia, Taryn, Taylynne. :) I'm praying we will be able to teach them and that there family will want to hear this amazing message as well!  :)

Friday
And not just any Friday! Friday the 13th = My favorite day! Also know as my lucky day! :)  It started off a little slow but ended with a Bang! :) this morning we were going to help Sister Yuen clean out her garage but she cancelled so we tried to find Gail the referral but she wasn't home but we passed a old lady so we went and talked to her and she liked to contradict herself, she was nice but the conversation wasn't going anywhere. On the was back to the car I saw someone in the garage of Gail's house so I went and asked him if she was home. He said yes but she was getting ready for work and was in the shower. Hopefully we will finally meet her tomorrow! The Elders gave us her information
Tuesday night and since Wednesday we've been trying to get in contact with her. But I know we will soon. :) but it is nice to know she does live there. :)

Twenty minutes before our dinner appointment with the SAMs I thought I was going to a this one street to go see this one person and then I saw highway six so I just parked the car and said let's go find someone to teach. We said a prayer walked down the street a little and saw a tractor mail box(yes Brittany I did take a picture just for you...Brittany I am reminded of you everywhere! ;) hehe) and we go knock on the door and I see a sign on the ground that says welcome to my home in Spanish, and I was proud of myself to remember :) but The Lord has helped me a few times with my Spanish skills (which are none these days) a few times out here.

After Dinner we went and had a quick lesson with Ryan on the Sacrament with Sister Skeen, it went pretty well, I love having Sister Skeen there she is a great fellow shipper for Ryan!

Then we hurried to our next appointment with Ashley and Sister Wells really had to use the Bathroom...but we already where running late.  Well needles to say the appointment fell through so we went and found Sister Wells a Bathroom.

Sometimes you have to use the bathroom really bad
and so you can't leave without getting a treat!
This is Ashley she is super awesome and I love
her tons!!  :D

It was super funny though, Sister Wells was like I am going to pee in my skirt! ha! We frist stopped by I think Walgreens but they didn't have a bathroom that we could see so we ended up gong to Subway.  It was funny, Ashley was like I'm not choosing this time I was wrong haha but we made it! And we got a cookie! :D 

Then we went and stopped by Victor but he wasn't home, and the Martinez came in mind to go so.  Well that was a propting by the Spirit because we had the most amazing lesson with Julian! Man I love this kid!! We had a great Lesson on the Plan of Salvation! It was such a powerful lesson and Julian just has a big heart! He really wants to come to church but with his family it is hard.  But we are thinking he would really enjoy institute and even though he is a year younger we think we are going to invite him to it.  And see if He can come to young mens.

Saturday
Today was a rough day, we had an awesome day planned but sadly it was a day full of tracting :( but it was alright but we didn't find anyone. And that was a bummer.

But we ended the night having dinner at the Lester's and then having MCM. It was great! :) before we started I started making water mark spots with my cup and what does Elder Foster do? He starts doing it with me haha it was rather funny, we had fun.

There is some awesome things happening in the Valpo ward! The elders are on fire and

Sunday
I honestly can never get enough of meetings!! Sacrament was so amazing!!  To bad we didn't have any investigators there, it would have been a GREAT one for them to be at!! The thing I liked the most is it is up to us to be a Stranger

or to not be a Stranger.  So don't be a Stranger, go love the world and don't be afraid. 

After church we practice singing, I'm singing a duet next week with one of the young women in the ward.  We are practicing in a little bit which will be good! So hopefully it will go well.

We pretty much just tracted the rest of the day and we met Glenn he is 29 and he is hopefully coming to Institute on Tuesday! he is a nice guy, not really "into religion" but is willing to come and learn.  I have high hopes for him! I know this Gospel can help him! I hope he feels Gods love as he learns more and that he has a desire to learn more!!

It was funny as we tracted this street guess who drives up to us...Ryan! he was on his way home from his moms who I guess lives a few streets down from where we were.  So that was random.

Haha something else that is random is today at the store we saw someone that we  met yesterday while tracting that turned us away.  I hope he knows that it was God being like Hey you should really talk to these girls! haha 

Love,

Sister Amber North :)
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800 Waukegan Rd. #203
Glenview IL 60025