Date: July 7, 2014
Area: Valparaiso, Indiana
COmpanion: Sister Wells
Week 18 in Valpo
Hello Non-Hoosier!
So if anyone has favorite church songs you should totally make a CD for me or send me your favorites! Sister Wells and I are getting sorta tired of my CD's and we would really enjoy something new. :) ....just sayin
Last week of transfer 8!
It is official! Sister North will hit her year Mark in Valparaiso! Who knows what will happen next transfer! But I'm sure one of us will leave. It is a weird thought to think that my next area will most likely be my last seeing how I enjoy staying in my areas. :) I look forward to the adventures God has for me.
Being a missionary sure is a roller coaster!! It has been one of those weeks...sigh...needless to say we have no one, no longer on date. :( we have officially given Ryan to the Elders to teach.(felt it would be better) so he is still wanting to be baptized we just won't be teaching him so it still is exciting! :) and well Debbie in a nut shell pretty much dropped us. But Glenn is doing super awesome so that is good! And he came to church. :)
Letters this week from my Mommy and Elder Travis Wilkerson. And I got the letter I wrote Marissa..every time I get a letter from the mission it is them sending me back a letter...I hate when that happens! Ha! Oh well.
Monday
We had an awesome lesson with Glenn at the Watkins house! After having dinner with the Watkins, we watched the Restoration DVD and then talked about Joseph Smiths experience, a little about the Book of Mormon, and a lot more about recognizing the Holy Ghost. He recognizes the Holy Ghost a little, and described an experience that happened the other day where he had a tough day at work, and instead of having the thought to go get a beer, the thought came, "Man, I should go read some scriptures." It surprised him. He went home, read, and it calmed him down. After giving a soft invitation to be baptized, he said that after going to and watching the baptism on Saturday, he thought about baptism. He said the thought was kind of intimidating. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to
know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, to know if this is God's true church. He said he likes to open the Book of Mormon randomly and read to see what it says. He got to some war chapters, but still felt peace after reading from the scriptures. It was a cool experience to hear how the Holy Ghost is already working with him! At the end of the lesson it was was crazy lightening outside and when we were done it was still crazy so we waited a little bit for it to calm down. On our way home we almost hit a deer! I haven't almost hit deer in forever! Haha but we didn't hit it. Reminds me of the time being at school when I was the one driving to Mount Pleasent I almost always hit some kind of animal! Maybe it was preparing me for here haha. Oh the animals.
Came home had nightly planning and I finished writing letters then getting ready for bed. When all the sudden....
Sister Wells and I are brushing our teeth when we here the sirens go off...we pause stop brushing our teeth and then look at each other and are like huh? And we then go open the door and are like yep those are the sirens. So we text a ward member at 10:34pm asking her what is going on and she calls us right away. Needless to say I can now say
I've been in a tornado warning! Sister Wells
and I had a camp out in the kitchen and hall way just to be safe and we were up late and needless to say I slept terrible! Ha but no tornado for us!
Tuesday
We met with Dorothy and we also met her neighbor Josh, he's pretty cool.
We had Dinner with Blake's and Brother Blake's co-worker Tyson. Tyson isn't member he is a baseball coach and is working on his masters. We didn't really get to teach him tonight but we did talk about the gospel and he said he is interested in learning more. So that will be cool. He technically isn't in our area but we will start teaching him and make other missionaries happy in the future.
Wednesday
We stopped by the Vickers, and cute little Vickers is just getting lonely. She wants to be more involved in things. We had a good visit with her and we decided we will go see her weekly and uplift her. She is awesome!
We met with the Nickels with Sister Frymire today! We started teaching them how we lived with God before and just things about the pre-earth life. The kids are getting better at listening. Love them! Then we played the Book Of Mormon game! They loved it!
We ended the night visiting Sister Skeen and we got there and she gave us ice cream, YUM! And then we helped her move branches and one of them both Sister Wells and I had to do it together it was a big one and Sister Skeen even took pictures but turns out she didn't :( sad day but oh well we even cleaned up her neighbors yard a bit from all the big
branches it was good. Then we had a super awesome spiritual lesson with her on Prayer it was good. :)
Thursday
Super busy day! Not much of a planning day. Oh well.
We had brunch at Tate's with Dorothy, it was grand and then we went back to her house and had an awesome lesson on the Holy Ghost. It was super great! It is so great watching her faith grow!
We had a short lesson with Sister Jones just talking about how we can all come closer to Christ and that he is there for all of us.
So if anyone has favorite church songs you should totally make a CD for me or send me your favorites! Sister Wells and I are getting sorta tired of my CD's and we would really enjoy something new. :) ....just sayin
Last week of transfer 8!
It is official! Sister North will hit her year Mark in Valparaiso! Who knows what will happen next transfer! But I'm sure one of us will leave. It is a weird thought to think that my next area will most likely be my last seeing how I enjoy staying in my areas. :) I look forward to the adventures God has for me.
Being a missionary sure is a roller coaster!! It has been one of those weeks...sigh...needless to say we have no one, no longer on date. :( we have officially given Ryan to the Elders to teach.(felt it would be better) so he is still wanting to be baptized we just won't be teaching him so it still is exciting! :) and well Debbie in a nut shell pretty much dropped us. But Glenn is doing super awesome so that is good! And he came to church. :)
Letters this week from my Mommy and Elder Travis Wilkerson. And I got the letter I wrote Marissa..every time I get a letter from the mission it is them sending me back a letter...I hate when that happens! Ha! Oh well.
Monday
We had an awesome lesson with Glenn at the Watkins house! After having dinner with the Watkins, we watched the Restoration DVD and then talked about Joseph Smiths experience, a little about the Book of Mormon, and a lot more about recognizing the Holy Ghost. He recognizes the Holy Ghost a little, and described an experience that happened the other day where he had a tough day at work, and instead of having the thought to go get a beer, the thought came, "Man, I should go read some scriptures." It surprised him. He went home, read, and it calmed him down. After giving a soft invitation to be baptized, he said that after going to and watching the baptism on Saturday, he thought about baptism. He said the thought was kind of intimidating. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to
know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, to know if this is God's true church. He said he likes to open the Book of Mormon randomly and read to see what it says. He got to some war chapters, but still felt peace after reading from the scriptures. It was a cool experience to hear how the Holy Ghost is already working with him! At the end of the lesson it was was crazy lightening outside and when we were done it was still crazy so we waited a little bit for it to calm down. On our way home we almost hit a deer! I haven't almost hit deer in forever! Haha but we didn't hit it. Reminds me of the time being at school when I was the one driving to Mount Pleasent I almost always hit some kind of animal! Maybe it was preparing me for here haha. Oh the animals.
Came home had nightly planning and I finished writing letters then getting ready for bed. When all the sudden....
Sister Wells and I are brushing our teeth when we here the sirens go off...we pause stop brushing our teeth and then look at each other and are like huh? And we then go open the door and are like yep those are the sirens. So we text a ward member at 10:34pm asking her what is going on and she calls us right away. Needless to say I can now say
I've been in a tornado warning! Sister Wells
and I had a camp out in the kitchen and hall way just to be safe and we were up late and needless to say I slept terrible! Ha but no tornado for us!
Tuesday
We met with Dorothy and we also met her neighbor Josh, he's pretty cool.
We had Dinner with Blake's and Brother Blake's co-worker Tyson. Tyson isn't member he is a baseball coach and is working on his masters. We didn't really get to teach him tonight but we did talk about the gospel and he said he is interested in learning more. So that will be cool. He technically isn't in our area but we will start teaching him and make other missionaries happy in the future.
Wednesday
We stopped by the Vickers, and cute little Vickers is just getting lonely. She wants to be more involved in things. We had a good visit with her and we decided we will go see her weekly and uplift her. She is awesome!
We met with the Nickels with Sister Frymire today! We started teaching them how we lived with God before and just things about the pre-earth life. The kids are getting better at listening. Love them! Then we played the Book Of Mormon game! They loved it!
We ended the night visiting Sister Skeen and we got there and she gave us ice cream, YUM! And then we helped her move branches and one of them both Sister Wells and I had to do it together it was a big one and Sister Skeen even took pictures but turns out she didn't :( sad day but oh well we even cleaned up her neighbors yard a bit from all the big
branches it was good. Then we had a super awesome spiritual lesson with her on Prayer it was good. :)
Thursday
Super busy day! Not much of a planning day. Oh well.
We had brunch at Tate's with Dorothy, it was grand and then we went back to her house and had an awesome lesson on the Holy Ghost. It was super great! It is so great watching her faith grow!
We had a short lesson with Sister Jones just talking about how we can all come closer to Christ and that he is there for all of us.
We then went to the Tucker's and the traffic was terrible! But we finally got there and we helped them do some yard work and then had yummy tacos. We didn't have time to share much of a lesson with them so I shared 2 Nephi 22:2 (entire chapter is great) and shared my simple testimony with them. Man I love them! It was fun pulling weeds with the kiddos. But man there were these annoying tree things that didn't like to come out, but Sister Wells took care of them and I took care of the owie ones. I also let Ryan take pictures and I haves tons of selfies of him and a few fun videos haha. So mom you have that to look forward too once I get another SD card. :)
Our last two appointments canceled so we tried to go find Tom again and he was home! He isn't really interested but his friend Exvonte came out and we talked to him and he asked who we are so we told him who we are and what we do. Then he was still interested so we read the introduction of the Book of Mormon with him and he was still interested in learning. So hopefully he really does want to learn more and doesn't just think we are cute...
Friday
Happy Fourth of July!! :)
We woke up early so we could meet the Chesterton Sisters at 6:45 at their apartment so we could go to La Porte and finish the last things on the float. We had a sweet Temple float! It looked pretty great even more so for putting it together this week.
As we drove to the parade area from the church poor Angel Moroni was captured by the "Lamanite Trees" and was no longer on the Temple. It was so sad! And Sister Wells and I watched it happen we pretty much almost cried...okay not really but we were bummed and it broke our hearts, it also looked so good.
The Parade was fun! I loved saying "Do you want a Jesus picture?" And having two for people to choose from and letting them pick which one they wanted. The kids loved it and even parents wanted one. When I gave a few little girls a picture of the Temple one said "OOO, that's pretty!" I said yes it is. :) there was one boy I heard that said "Who is Jesus?" Oh that made me sad, I was like oh let me tell you! Of course we had some people not like us but for the most part everyone was nice and respectful. I also handed out family search cards and started inviting people to check it out to look up their family. It was fun!
So there were times where I got so busy talking to people and handing out cards then when I looked up I couldn't really see our float, or missionaries, which means I couldn't see my companion so I'm like oh snap gotta run and catch up. Oops. But I would be good and then it would happen again. There were so many people. I really hope people will check out the website :) and that those kids will keep there Jesus picture and one day when they are older will take the time too look up the website. That would be cool! :)
After we helped clean up and put everything away and as we cleaned up all of us missionaries energy just kept going
down with the lack of food but we pushed through and got everything cleaned up. After, all the Sisters went to Arby's and had a late lunch.
As we drove to the parade area from the church poor Angel Moroni was captured by the "Lamanite Trees" and was no longer on the Temple. It was so sad! And Sister Wells and I watched it happen we pretty much almost cried...okay not really but we were bummed and it broke our hearts, it also looked so good.
The Parade was fun! I loved saying "Do you want a Jesus picture?" And having two for people to choose from and letting them pick which one they wanted. The kids loved it and even parents wanted one. When I gave a few little girls a picture of the Temple one said "OOO, that's pretty!" I said yes it is. :) there was one boy I heard that said "Who is Jesus?" Oh that made me sad, I was like oh let me tell you! Of course we had some people not like us but for the most part everyone was nice and respectful. I also handed out family search cards and started inviting people to check it out to look up their family. It was fun!
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| Our district - Elder Northway and West, Sister Wells and North, Elder Berhow and Foster, Sister Watts and Racuia, Green and Edwards, and Elder Ruplinger and Erdman |
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After we helped clean up and put everything away and as we cleaned up all of us missionaries energy just kept going
down with the lack of food but we pushed through and got everything cleaned up. After, all the Sisters went to Arby's and had a late lunch.
Then an hour or so later we went to the Frymires and had dinner with them. We first helped them pick up sticks around the yard and we made a fire and we had a little cook out it was fun. Their little girls got marshmallows all over there hands, it was cute...and messy!
We had a lesson with Debbie but it got changed to Saturday and we were told to come in at 7pm, it was crazy to come in early and it to be alright! Sister Wells and I ended the night watching Legacy and all I have to say is I am grateful to be a missionary today and not a pioneer. I am so blessed to be able to share this amazing message and not have people trying to kill me. What a blessing! And then after that we just talked and relaxed and went to bed, I think I fell asleep around ten so yay for going to bed earlier! That never happens! :) it was a great day! :)
We had a lesson with Debbie but it got changed to Saturday and we were told to come in at 7pm, it was crazy to come in early and it to be alright! Sister Wells and I ended the night watching Legacy and all I have to say is I am grateful to be a missionary today and not a pioneer. I am so blessed to be able to share this amazing message and not have people trying to kill me. What a blessing! And then after that we just talked and relaxed and went to bed, I think I fell asleep around ten so yay for going to bed earlier! That never happens! :) it was a great day! :)
Most missions have the missionaries on lock down for things like the Fourth of July. So they are to go home, stay inside with the door lock. It is for their safty and to keep them out of trouble.
Saturday
Sigh...what a day. We started with setting goals for the month of July and for next week and started our planning. Ten or so minutes before lunch, I think I hear the "mail box man" so what do I do? Run to the window! And I am like oh it is a lady today! Sadly we check the mail and nothing. :( so sad and because of transfers we most likely won't get mail next week. :( sad day! We could get a letter Monday but the rest will most likely be the following Monday. At least that happened last time. On the bright side is I wrote everyone last week so that's exciting! If you haven't gotten a letter from me it means you haven't written this silly girl, so write me! :) I love hearing from you all! And feel free to write Sister Wells! She loves getting letters too. :)
Saturday
Sigh...what a day. We started with setting goals for the month of July and for next week and started our planning. Ten or so minutes before lunch, I think I hear the "mail box man" so what do I do? Run to the window! And I am like oh it is a lady today! Sadly we check the mail and nothing. :( so sad and because of transfers we most likely won't get mail next week. :( sad day! We could get a letter Monday but the rest will most likely be the following Monday. At least that happened last time. On the bright side is I wrote everyone last week so that's exciting! If you haven't gotten a letter from me it means you haven't written this silly girl, so write me! :) I love hearing from you all! And feel free to write Sister Wells! She loves getting letters too. :)
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| We took a wrong turn down a street but this is what we found. |
If you didn't get the hint WRITE HER! :)
After lunch we visited Sister Clark at home! She loves being home, she's such a sweet lady! And her husband is so nice. It was great to see her, we haven't visited her for a while. We shared a talk from the Ensign and talked about prayer.
We then went to the library to get on Facebook and man a lot to be done. I had four messages from people! It was crazy! And cool! It has been cool to use Facebook to talk to people in the ward and outside the ward. One person in our ward hasn't really had conversation with us since my first transfer here and we have started to talk to her a little bit more using Facebook this week so that has been nice I hope she keeps talking to us. :)
After that we had a lesson with Debbie and sigh...after the lesson I honestly got in the car and almost cried I did everything I could to not cry because well you can't cry while you drive. Pretty much we shared our hearts and testimonies with her and supported everything with scriptures from the Bible and The Book of Mormon and the spirit
was there to testify! Sister Wells and I prayed our hearts out to know how to help her. It all started out with me saying something about how crazy It's July and I asked her what next month is and she said August and we asked her what was in August and she said when her son died and we asked what else and she said her baptism and then said I think
we'll have to move it because I'm working all the time and can't go to church. We started talking about how [If] work was out of the picture what concerns does she have. And man I don't even know what to say. But it was hard to see someone I know and love who I have seen the gospel bless her and then see her reject it and the last few times just
see her light decrees and now it being just gone! I think it was hard because I thought we were friends and she doesn't even care about us either. It was really hard and sad. Definitely a hard thing about being a missionary. I can't even imagine how God feels. He sees us knowing what is best and then we reject him all the time, for what? Just something to think about. How are you helping God? How is He helping you? What are you doing to strengthen our relationship?
After lunch we visited Sister Clark at home! She loves being home, she's such a sweet lady! And her husband is so nice. It was great to see her, we haven't visited her for a while. We shared a talk from the Ensign and talked about prayer.
We then went to the library to get on Facebook and man a lot to be done. I had four messages from people! It was crazy! And cool! It has been cool to use Facebook to talk to people in the ward and outside the ward. One person in our ward hasn't really had conversation with us since my first transfer here and we have started to talk to her a little bit more using Facebook this week so that has been nice I hope she keeps talking to us. :)
After that we had a lesson with Debbie and sigh...after the lesson I honestly got in the car and almost cried I did everything I could to not cry because well you can't cry while you drive. Pretty much we shared our hearts and testimonies with her and supported everything with scriptures from the Bible and The Book of Mormon and the spirit
was there to testify! Sister Wells and I prayed our hearts out to know how to help her. It all started out with me saying something about how crazy It's July and I asked her what next month is and she said August and we asked her what was in August and she said when her son died and we asked what else and she said her baptism and then said I think
we'll have to move it because I'm working all the time and can't go to church. We started talking about how [If] work was out of the picture what concerns does she have. And man I don't even know what to say. But it was hard to see someone I know and love who I have seen the gospel bless her and then see her reject it and the last few times just
see her light decrees and now it being just gone! I think it was hard because I thought we were friends and she doesn't even care about us either. It was really hard and sad. Definitely a hard thing about being a missionary. I can't even imagine how God feels. He sees us knowing what is best and then we reject him all the time, for what? Just something to think about. How are you helping God? How is He helping you? What are you doing to strengthen our relationship?
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| Tan line on my feet! HAHA |
Sunday Boy Do I love Sundays!!
Church was Great! and Glenn came to church! Yay! and so did Ryan! Something that is cool that also helped us have a better day Saturday night was Glenn was asking us about fasting! What? how cool is that!?! It was pretty cool! and church was wonderful! We had a special fast for Brother Tucker and Sister Tucker and her cute three kids shared their Testimony and I just Loved it!! Something that is weird is I haven't shared my Testimony in church for two fast Sundays now....This ward is really good about sharing so that is awesome! :D
We had a great Lesson with the Sarver's and they read the Testimonies :D and said they would start reading the Book of Mormon together yay! Gary is starting to be so involved! It is awesome!! We have a praying system. When I say the opening Prayer Gary says the closing. And then when Sister Wells says the Opening MaryJo says the closing. It
is working pretty well!! and the Sarvers are like nope it is your turn haha :D But man MaryJo said such a sweet prayer! It was so wonderful! and they are happy we are staying! :D I sure do love them!
We had a great lesson with Sister Partlow and there was a inspired question asked and we had a great lesson! It was awesome! She is sweet! and I look forward to helping her on this journey! and we also played Legos with Chris.
What a crazy week! But I am so glad to be a Missionary! Thank you for all the prayers!!
I love you all so much!!!
I love you all so much!!!
Take care!
Love,
Sister North :)
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800 Waukegan Rd. #203
Glenview IL 60025
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
800 Waukegan Rd. #203
Glenview IL 60025
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