Monday, September 29, 2014

Miracles are in every Corner!

Date:  September 29, 2014
Area:  Hyde Park, Chicago
Companion:  Sister Lepule
Transfer 10 Week 6 

Hello to my amazing wonderful family and and non-Family :)

Fact:
-We survived transfers! We are staying! Yay! Weird to think I only have two more after this...we are going to keep working hard and watching even more miracles happen! :)
-Hyde Park is expensive! I need to budget a lot better after seeing the month pan out. 
-I've eaten more fried food this transfer then like my entire life and we are having fried food tonight and tomorrow for dinner. Ha :)

Spiritual Thought:
My thought this week has to do with testimonies! This week I had an interesting experience. We were at a less actives home and we had the wonderful opportunity to talk with the daughter who is ten. She came up to us right away and shared a scripture with us! It was great! At first she didn't know why she liked it and then she told us and it was so wonderful. Then we had her share it with the rest of her family and it was great! Well right before we left this older guy came in and the first thing he says to the little girl is "that's not scripture you should burn it" and she says no it is good. Well he went off on us with scriptures and just wanted to argue and the spirit was immediately gone as soon as he opened his mouth. He shared a few scriptures we told him we weren't going to argue and we testified and said we had to go. But then he follows the ten year old into the other room and she takes it and what does she do. Yells "I am a Mormon!!" And she was proud of it!  Man I am so proud of my sweet little friend, she showed great courage! She is an example to me! No matter how old or young you are, your testimony is powerful! Please share it! Stand up for what you believe! 

Cearia, Taryn, and Taylynne I want to give a special shout out to you. I've been thinking about you girls a lot lately. I love you so much! Keep working hard and stay strong! Stand up for what you believe! Stand up for each other! Just like we watched in the women's broadcast your light will take the darkness away. I know it to be true! Sometimes in my life I don't always think the spirit is with me until it leaves and boy is that the worst feeling ever! Please do everything you can to always have the Holy Ghost with you. And this goes to my entire family and everyone. Please read your scriptures and pray DAILY! This is so so important! We need the spirit to protect us from danger! Go to church weekly! And how lucky are we to have conference this coming weekend! Ahh so exciting. These things are what we must do to be happy and protected! 

So be like my sweet little friend and stand up for what you believe! I am proud to be a Mormon! And I love it! 

Letters
From my two biggest fans! My Mommy and my Grandma Mary! Thank you! I love you both so so much!! :) 

Monday
A member told us that they liked Hyde Park Produce and we went and it is great! The fruits and veggies are great price and that is where we will go always! I wish Aldi's was closer that would be nice. We need to go to that soon and bug the Sisters to take us. ;)

After P-Day ended we visited Lowanda at the Hospital, her Mom was still in recovery so we just shared a thought with her and then went to Misty's house. It actually was a really good lesson once we started! We shared the Mormon Message 'Good things to Come' and invited them to pray together as a family. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nczw6xHJ0I

On the way home the bus didn't like us so we walked for a while and then the bus comes and we got to run to it but we made it :) it is always fun running to buses. We got home late but we got things taken care of as we walked and confirmed our appointments and members for the next day so it all worked out. 

Tuesday
We had a lesson with Brandon who we met for the first time and both Sister Lepule and I expected him to be an older man at least in his forties and a bigger guy from talking to him on the phone. Well turns out he is this skinny black guy who is 30! It was pretty crazy! But we had a lesson with him with Sister Woodson and it went really well. 

We walked out of the church and Sister Lepule almost stepped on a Dead bird...ha

Oh man! We had an awesome lesson with Victoria who is just the sweetest person ever! And her eight year old son is super cool too! Sister Walley came with us and it was perfect because they both are similar in a way.  I have a testimony of the power of prayer when we pray for what members to come with us! We met Victoria from the car wash! So that is super cool! We were going to meet with her later in the week but she had to work but we will call her tomorrow. :)

Wednesday - Amazing!!

District meeting and everyone so happy and it was just so good! We finally are like a district family and it is changing, it's a bummer. But all will be well. We rushed home scarfed lunch and went on our way. 

We had a lesson with Liane on prayer, she is related to Misty some how and Misty was there too. It went well and her heart is sincere. She was planning on coming to the broadcast but wasn't feeling good so that was a bummer. 

We had an amazing lesson with JZ at the Larsen's and he is getting baptized on October 25th!! I am super excited for him!! :) It's gonna be awesome!  We then had a great lesson on the Restoration which he knows pretty well but we were able to go over the Apostasy better and fill in the missing pieces. It went really well! And when we invited him to be baptized he said yes! It is great!

Then Sister Larsen was so sweet and took us to our next lesson with Christopher and Dasha came with us and we taught the Plan if Salvation and he said he would come to the Saturday morning session of conference! Which is a HUgE deal! He is a cool guy! He has a learning disability so it will be slower with him but we invited him to be baptized but he hasn't accepted that yet but we are thinking December for him. He has been reading the Book of Mormon so that is really good. He is awesome! My favorite part in the lesson would be asking him about Adam and Eve and he was like well if they didn't partake of the fruit then we wouldn't be here! It was great! Not a lot of people feel that way. 
Sister Walton is going home.

We ended the night almost getting run over by two cars...one was my fault the other not...ha so I guess all explain. The first one my companion was running to the bus so we wouldn't miss it and runs across the street and it was green and I start following her and then notice the situation and if I kept going I would have gotten hurt. Then later walking across the street a guy didn't stop at the stop sign fully but he saw us. ...the next day when any cars came towards us we were like uh oh...ha so be smart and don't run across streets. 

Thursday
Had a Heart to heart with companion, learning each other's full story how we came on a mission, which is always a good time! So many things happen to help us prepare more than we will ever know. :)

We set up an appointment to give a referral a bible and then we got two new investigators! How cool!?! It was funny we got there and Xaun or his English name Shawn lets us in and takes us to his apartment and we are like hmm...okay and in my head this will be really brief and then praying that there would be a female there. Guess what! We walk in and then he introduces us to his wife Renia, I was thrilled!  We were able to teach them a little about the Book of Mormon and got to know them a little. They are the sweetest Chinese couple ever! They have been here for a month and they are going to this Chinese church, which is their first experience with religion. We met with them this week with Sister Larsen and that will be good because she speaks there language! We are super excited!  

After that we went to the hospital with the other missionaries and got to Sing to Goergia....it was an interesting and fun experience! Ha... So Sister Lepule and I get there early so we go up and visit her and she is asleep so we let her sleep for like ten minutes and then we decided to wake her up.  Well she wouldn't really wake up...that was fun...in the end we still got to sing to her. She was asleep for part of it but that night she called us and told us thank you and that is was the best thing ever! And she wants us to come back all together to sing to her when she is feeling better. 

On our way out I met the cutest 92 year old in the world! She was in the hallway of the hospital and she goes by Milly and I pretty much adore her!

Random: I was asked if I was Jewish today...that's a first 

Friday - A Day of Miracles!

Oh my goodness what amazing day!

We started off the day doing service for Billie and Cristy 

Then we ran home changed and made it to the bus stop just in time (and yes it was a red light) to the church for a lesson with Abosslo and then our member wasn't there and neither was he so we called him and said we would meet him at his school. Which worked out! Because We had a great lesson with him in a public place! ....whew...yay for following the rules! His school is a few blocks away. 
Spider on the bus - ewwe

Then we went to Mcdoanolds to meet with Rashid! He is alive! Yay but we didn't end up meeting with him because the lobby was going to close soon and it wouldn't of been the safest to meet outside somewhere but he said he would come to church! But he had to work...but we are finally in contact with him again so I'll keep you posted on that, we took him off date for right now. 

But I know we were suppose to go that way because we met Mark this awesome guy on the bus! We gave him our number but had to go :( but we have Faith he will call us. 

Then we saw Chantelle which we haven't been able to contact the entire transfer and we had a lesson with her and one of her daughters! Ahh! So cool!!! 

Then the bus didn't come so we walked home...

Saturday - Transfers = staying 
We started off the morning finally giving Prince his Book of Mormon in Tamil (he is from India) it was funny because I marked Moroni 10:3-5 for him and he was like do you know what that says and I just am like no...haha it is Moroni in English. It was great! We saw him the day before and he was like we think of you highly (with Abosolo, but they talk about us around the theology school) and he wants to take us out to Indian food! Yum! So that will be cool. Pretty much we are excited to see him! Because he is SO So excited to read the Book of Mormon! And he was like now I'll have questions! So it is pretty cool! He is so cool! 

Then we went off to the church and we get a call from Alexis asking if we can come over and have breakfast with her. We stopped by the church made sure they were good with the swap and went and had a yummy pork chop breakfast with potatoes and eggs. 
I polished my shoes and they look sooo much better

We helped out with the ward Swap where you bring things you don't want and take things you do want. I got a few things too so that was pretty great! :) 

On our way to JZ's lesson the bus comes and Sister Leuple discovers that she doesn't have her bus pass and guess what! The bus pass checker thingy wasn't working! God truly does work in mysterious ways!!

We had a great lesson with JZ at the Larsen's and before it started while we were waiting we got the information from this guy on the street! It was awesome! And then JZ comes up and he was like man you talk with everyone! And I guess when I asked the guy if he wanted to learn more JZ was shaking his head yes. So that is cool! Then we had a wonderful lesson on the first half of the Plan of Salvation! He had such great questions and it really was amazing! He is so great to teach! I learn so much from what he asks. It is great. 

Then we had the Women's Broadcast and all I have to say is it was so so amazing! Just loved it! Everyone should check it out. 

https://www.lds.org/church/events/september-2014-general-womens-meeting?lang=eng

Sunday
Okay so cool story! The other day a referral called us back and we ended up just meeting him at the Church on Sunday to give him his bible and he came! Feltus is super cool! He stayed for priesthood and Sunday school but he said he liked it and that he would be interested in meeting! Super amazing! 
Its stew, it was so yummy!

We had dinner at the Gannaways and they sure are so amazing! They are so willing to help. Sister Gannaway comes out with us all the time. They both are awesome! They have two boys and they are super cute! :)

We ended the night with some visits and it was a great day!

I sure do love it here! I am so excited for this next transfer! I can't believe I've already been here for a transfer! Man time sure is flying when you are having fun and working hard!! 

Sister Leuple made us some awesome curry dinner :) 

I love you all! Take care! Mom hope you enjoyed this long email even more so after my lame one last week hehe ;) but I know you still loved it. I love you all. :)

Love,

๐Ÿ’•Sister North ๐Ÿ’
✉️๐Ÿ“ซ✉️๐Ÿ“ช✉️๐Ÿ“ฌ✉️๐Ÿ“ญ✉️
800 Waukegan Rd. #203
Glenview IL 60025

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

I love you!

Date:  September 21, 2014
Area:  Hyde Park, Chicago
Companion:  Sister Lepule

Hello lovely ones!!

So sorry for the lameness of this email 

Transfer 10 Week 5 already?

Letters:
-Elder Jered North
- Diana White
-Grandma Mary (3)
-Mom(2)
 
- this morning Sister Lepule and and I vacuumed some fruit flys! They decided to do what Adam and Eve did and multiply! We didn't agree....
- we ate the best of food...and the worst food this week ha! We ate at a Less Active and she made us turkey burgers oh my goodness they where to die for!
- JZ came to church! And he is Mr. Popular! Ahh! So great! We are meeting with him on Wednesday at the Larsen's! Can't wait!
- During District Meeting as Sister Leuple and I were up front talking all the sudden a bee hits the ceiling and falls down in front of Elder Dela Cruz and he smashes it! It was pretty funny! We also had a powerful district meeting. :)
- We started reading scriptures with Misty every day at 7:30, and it is helping her read on her own! She read three days! It is a start!
- we wanted pizza ALL week and then Sunday a ward member brought us some! God sure is good! :)
- we had an awesome lesson with Abosolo! Our last two have been rough! It was really nice to have one go so well! And he really enjoyed scripture study too! 
- We had dinner with the Hammond family and they just make me laugh! It was so fun to get to know them! Her ten year old is super smart and making these cool videos and editing them!
- I was sore half the week....We had our zone activity and played ultimate! It was super fun! I sure love playing sports! :)
- Helped clean a messy house...meh...
- ...We had a potential call us back and told us he was in the mood to talk about God at 9:30pm he was like we are just a few doors down...he was like come on I won't tell! We couldn't believe it. He didn't want to meet another time.  We did not go.
- We walked passed where they were filming some show called Sirens..so that's cool.
- we sang at a baptism on Saturday and it was super fun! We are sing in the YSA ward on Sunday woot! :)

But on a spiritual note... I love this Mormon message so watch it! It is a great reminder that The Lord has a plan for us even when we don't know why. Sometimes he shows us or takes us on different paths so we can learn. I know God has a plan for all of us! We don't always understand but I am so grateful that he can mold us into who he wants us to be. 


I love you all! Keep the support coming! Nothing makes a missionary happier then opening the mail box and having something say their name on it. :) and feel free to write my gorgeous companion! :) but she is bad at writing but it would make her smile. :)

Love,
๐Ÿ’•Sister North ๐Ÿ’
✉️๐Ÿ“ซ✉️๐Ÿ“ช✉️๐Ÿ“ฌ✉️๐Ÿ“ญ✉️
800 Waukegan Rd. #203
Glenview IL 60025
 

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The week of Mission Tour :)

Date:  September 15, 2014
Area:  Hyde Park, Chicago
Companion:  Sister Lupule
Transfer 10 Week 4

Letters:
- Rachel Fishetau

The last few months or so I've been marking and studying in Preach My Gospel and this morning I finished!  So exciting!  I love accomplishing things.  There are so many amazing scriptures in Preach My Gospel and I sure do love the scriptures!

Monday:
We went to the Museum of Science and Industry and that was super awesome and HUGE!  Best part is it was free!  YAY!  So that was super fun.  We went with three other sets of missionaries.

Then for dinner we were invited to the Larsen's for their son Kimbol's birthday party.  We got to help finish with some last minute things like filling up the pinata.  There were other ward members there also and it was great to get to know them.  We bought him some sour gummy worms because the first time we were over we found out he likes them.  When he opened it he looked up and it was honestly the cutest face!  I was so glad we got them for him.
Museum of Science and Industry

Tuesday:
We spent the morning doing service and helped Billie do laundry and clean the house.  Her sister, who is the member, was at the doctors but oh my goodness is Billie funny!  She isn't really religious but we got her to sing a hymn with us and the spirit was there and I know she felt it.  I was so happy about that.

We had a lesson with this guy named Mark and something that is just super cool is he had a Jesus pass along card on his wall.  Come to find out he found it on the ground a few years ago and he is mind was blown that we hand them out.  We gave him two other Jesus pictures@  He put them on his wall.  He is cool.

Wednesday - Exchanges
The night before we exchanged and Sister Walton came to my area with me, it was soo great to get to know her better!  It is crazy that she goes home in a few weeks.  It was my first time leading the area and it went pretty well.  I feel like I don't know back up plans too well so that is hard but it went well and all worked out.

We visited Lowanda and talked about Testimonies and she told us she shared hers on Sunday.  She said it was scary but it made her feel good.  That is so exciting to hear.  We started reading Joseph Smith's testimony together and that went rather well.  She is doing so good!  She said she had a cigarette but she resisted the urge to smoke it and so she sold it for fifty cents!  I was so proud of her!  She told us how when she reads the Book of Mormon her urge to smoke goes away.  That is so powerful!

Something cool that happened is on the bus I met this lady Michelle, it was like my first week here.  She told me she wanted to meet, we were supposed to meet Sunday but we didn't have her address and she wasn't getting back to us.  So that was a bummer.  I pray we will be able to contact her.

Thursday:
The highlight of today was visiting Misty.  She is a sweet lady and it was great to get to know her son Tommy better.  He isn't a member but he is going to Seminary.  I got to practice Spanish with him and dude I actually members the basics of it!  Then we went over the first vision because it was a scripture mastery!  That was pretty cool!  He is a great kid.  I feel like he is going to change the world!
Theola and Leory, they are so great!

Friday = Mission tour
Best day ever!  Mission conference and then fireside to conclude the night!  So wonderful!

The morning started out with our Mission Conference!  It was so cool.  We had the entire mission together!  Ahh yay!  We even took a mission picture!  I look forward to seeing that.  It was such a great meeting and we were called to repentance!  The spirit was there and we learned a lot and recommitted ourselves!

After the meeting three other sets joined us in our area, one of the sets joined us for a lesson with Abosolo and honestly the lesson was such a struggle.  I felt so inadequate in teaching and man it was just sad.  Then the best thing happened.  At the fireside that night Elder Humula answered everyones questions, it was so incredible.  I was so grateful.

After our lesson I went into the Chapel and guess who I saw??  Glenn!!  Oh my goodness I honestly just wanted to give him a huge hug.  I was so excited to see him.  Then I remembered I was a missionary hahaha man I miss Valpo!  It was nice to see some familiar faces and some from Gurnee too.  Pretty sweet.

Saturday:
We had a car wash!  Thankfully the sun came out and it became more warm.  The days before were really cold, feels like October already.  :/  The car wash went well and we gave a few church tours and the Elders gave us the info and turns out four of them are in our area!  That's pretty exciting.  Looking forward to that.

We met with Theola and Leory and man they make me laugh.  We taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation.  Theola wasn't in the mood for cooking and we told her we could help.  They invited us to have dinner with them and we had friend pork chops.  I eat a lot more fired things here then ever before.  It is tasty!

We ended the night with Laura, Han, and Freddie with Sister Larsen.  They are from China and it was such a great lesson.  We talked about reading the scriptures and praying daily.  Then shared with them the daily bread video and they understood it rather well.  I am so excited to watch them progress.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-08-013-daily-bread-experience?lang=eng 

Our zone
Sunday:
Pretty much I think I ate more today than the entire week  HA!  Church was grand.  I gave the lesson on repentance in Sunday School and I think that went pretty well.  After church and our meeting we had lunch with all the missionaries and the Crooks (senior couple).  We had a pot luck type thing, it was the best.  And then after studies we had dinner with the Rudds!  YUM!  Then ended the night with Lowanda.  Speaking of Lowanda she helped us with the church tours and it was incredible.  She is a super star and everyone just loved her.

I love you all,
Sister Amber North :)

Monday, September 8, 2014

The Lord Provides! and helps us be on fire!

There is this art work everywhere
Date: September 8, 2014
Area:  Hyde Park, Chicago
Companion:  Sister Lepule
Transfer 10 Week 3

Spiritual thought:
I read this scripture this week and I loved it!  As I read this scripture I thought to myself that I want this to be me.  It is Alma 38:2
"And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that enureth to the end."


So trust in God and turn to him in everything and do as he asks!

Random facts:
- You know your on the South side when you feel weird being on the bus with a lot of white people.
- We had Eight Member's present this week.  AHHH, this is the most on my mission!
- Rashid said yes to baptism.
- ...Funny stories in this e-mail

Monday - 
We had dinner with the Larsen's and oh my do we adore and love them!  They have so much excitement for the work and it just makes us want to do even better!  We would totally be okay if Brother Larsen becomes our new ward mission leader!  They love missionary work!

We stopped by the church to use the bathroom and then we had the great oppurtunity to help the Gannaway's set up for seminary.  That was fun!  Crazy that school is up and going!  Time really is moving.

Tuesday - 
Started off the day visiting Georgia and Lawanda at the Hospital.  On the bus ride there I got to talk to Indigo who I met a week or so ago on the bus, so that was super cool.  We talked about what we want to do when we grow up and school and stuff.
Practicing for our choir performance
Lunch for Sister Lepule's birthday
Dasha in the ward came out with us from 3-8pm.  It was awesome!  We had a lesson planned but it fell through.  God blessed us with meeting this guy named Gilbert and we brought him some food.  It worked out, the lesson went well and Dasha is awesome and shared a powerful testimony!  I just hope he reads the scriptures because it will help him so much and bring him comfort.

Then on our way to another lesson we met with this guy that they've met before and we had a lesson on the curb.  It was hard to hear him but hopefully he comes to church.  :)

Then we got to McDonald's a half an hour late which was fine because Rashid wasn't there.  Then he wasn't answering his phone so we decided to leave.  Just as we got to the bus stop he answers and says he is coming.  So we went back and waited and he still didn't come so we texted him again.  He says that his mom is going to bring him in 20 minutes.  So we said ok and we bought ourselves a treat.  He finally came and we had an awesome lesson!  We taught him the Restoration and it was so amazing and we invited him to be baptized on October 4th and he said YES!  Ahh it was great.

Wednesday - Happy Birthday Sister Lepule!
We of course had an awesome District Meeting where we talked about using Preach My Gospel. Then we all went for Thai food at Thai 55.  It was a nice district lunch for Sister Lepule's birthday and it is her favorite.  We all enjoyed it.

Next we went to the bus stop and almost got attacked by a....drum roll....Squirrel!  I am not even lying!!!  We were walking across the street when we saw something flying towards us and we jumped and screamed and the squirrel hits the ground and runs off.  This guy stopped for us and started laughing and pointing and then he rolls down his window down and says, "was that a flying squirrel?"  It was the funniest thing ever!  My stomach hurt form laughing so hard!  Too bad it wasn't recorded because that would have won Americas Funniest Videos for sure.

We then went to an appointment that fell through but we met the persons neighbor named Jonathan and we talked to him for a few minutes and then he went and got his brother and he sang Sister Leuple  a Happy Birthday song.  It was pretty much wonderful!  I got it on camera, and oh yeah, he is a good singer!  He also added us on Facebook, YAY!
I love Preach My Gospel

After that we walked to Christopher's and Sister Larsen came with us.  We were waiting and I was like "hey that car's from Utah".  Then Sister Larsen was like that is my car...gotta love my "pineapple moments" (I'm blonde on the inside and brown on the outside).  Our lesson with Christopher was good, we talked about the Book of Mormon and what was really neat is we were able to talk to his brother on the phone and he said thanks for coming and visiting him.  That was cool!

For dinner we ate with Celeste which was the best!  Last week I was talking with Sister Lepule  and asking who she would like to have dinner with on her birthday and she said Celeste.  I texted her and set it up as a surprise.  When I told her she about died of excitement.  It was a good time!

We ended the night visiting Charles and singing a song and sharing a talk with him.  It was an amazing birthday day!  Glad everything worked out to make Sister Lepule's birthday a good one!
Museum of Science!

Thursday - 
We went and helped Lowanda get ready for a job interview and helped her with her hair.  Then we did some good ol planning and had lunch and I made banana bread!  I found out Sister Leuple loves banana bread.

Before scripture study we met one of the Elders investigators at the bus stop near here and she ended up being late but God had a plan for us all and we met this cool guy and gave the info to the Elders.

Scripture study went well.  We taught on baptism and JZ, and Terrence and Rasta were there which was wonderful!  Rasta was suppose to go to institute but joined us on accident.  He is cool and it was a good day!

Friday - 
We visited Misty and I tried my first Chicago Dog!  It was pretty good but sadly I didn't get a picture.

We had a lesson with Abosolo at the church and gave him a church tour and talked about baptisms and why infants don't need to be baptized.

Then we walked back to the apartment and met Phong from Mississippi and we are hopefully going to try to teach him soon!

But the best adventure and miracle was meeting with Jeanette.  Rebecca a young woman in the ward was going to an appointment with us but it got cancelled so we spent twenty minutes calling to see if we could meet with someone but we were not having any luck.  We did set up three appointments for next week, yay!  Right before we left we called our friend Jeanette and she said we could visit her but she was worried about us coming because it was raining.  We told her we would love to see her and if we didn't we would be out knocking on doors in the rain. She said okay.  This is a huge miracle because she is super hard to meet with.

Way funny thing, on the bus ride there we started talking to this lady Silvia.  She mentioned how her son likes rap and I was like I tried to write a rap once.  So I demonstrated it to her and she told me that I should stick to being a missionary.  It was pretty funny!  All of us were laughing! 

Our lesson went really great with Jeanette, so much better than our last one.  We watched the Restoration DVD and Rebecca connected really well with her.  The lesson was focused and I feel like we were all edified.  I am so grateful for that!

Sometimes no buses come and sometimes
three buses come!
Then on our way home we got to the bus stop and it says our wait is a half an hour.  So we start walking and it was grand, just talking and enjoying life when all the sudden one of them screams and latches onto me and I scram.  A dog, luckily behind a fence, tried to kill us!  It was scary!  Then these two men come running out because they heard us scream and one of them had a screw driver!  Nice weapon of choice.  It was pretty scary.  HAHHA  We walked along for awhile and then we waited for a bus because it said it was only seven minutes.  We hop on and our stop was the next block.  We were like man, we could have just walked the rest of the way.  Luckily our next bus didn't take too long to come so that was nice.  The night ended amazingly!

Saturday - 
On our way to Lawanda's a guy at the bus stopped and thanked us for wearing skirts passed our knees.  WOOT!  Modesty is surly the hottest!  We went to Red Lobster for lunch for Sister Lepule's birthday and Lawanda and I split the bill.  Greg our awesome waiter, hopefully will call us to set up a time to learn more!  He was super cool!

Dasha came out with us again to our appointment.  However the appointment didn't happen so we went and tried to find this referral and it was no where to be found.  We started going to do a stop by when I see someone moving a mattress and asked if we could help.  They said no, the boys are doing it but we asked her name.  It was Tori and I was like oh I have a really good friend with that name.  We started talking and found out that she has nine kids and the oldest is 24 or 25 and the youngest is 10!  I was like WOW that is close to my family!  She said she's heard great things about us (which is why it is important to be a good example always) and we invited her to church and she said she would come!  So cool!  She wasn't scared or freaked out about church being three hours!  Oh my goodness what a tender mercy from God!  So amazing!  :)

Next we stopped by by this Chinese family and they were home!  So great!  The moms English name is Laura and I told her that's my moms name.  She told us her real name, the husband gave us Chinese cake bite things which were yummy.  Freddie is turning 10 this month!  We went over his math homework and told him which two were wrong and he new the answers right away!  He is smart.  Then we read a book with him.  Now hopefully every Saturday at 7pm we will be able to go over there and do homework and share a message.  We read a scripture in Alma and had a great conversation and then Laura said the closing prayer.  It was beautiful.  It was so great to meet with them.

We traveled back to the apartment and I got mail!  YEAH  I finally got Nuts letter!  So great.  Man Nut so great to read it.  Felt like you were here telling me your stories!  Just picture me talking back to you! HAHA

I got your letter mom with the SD card, I'll start writing down on paper who is in the pictures but it might take a little bit of time and hopefully I can get more stamps so I can write everyone back.  I got your other letter and not having curtains is fine, we live in a pretty safe area.

Sunday - Best day ever!
We got on the bus to go to church and there were these nice ladies trying to convert us to be Jehovahs witness.  They gave us a hand out but wouldn't ttake ours..or touch it for that matter.  Oh well they are missing out.

Man I sure do love Sundays and I love this ward!  There are so many amazing people!  It is so wonderful!  I am really happy to be here.  Today Lowanda shared her testimony!  It was amazing!@ She was baptized in May and it was her first time.  It was honestly the best and I couldn't stop smiling.  SO GREAT!

We saw a less active on the bus the day before and we met with her today.  That went well and we are having dinner with her this coming week!  We ended the night with choir practice for our mission confrence with the entire mission Friday!  I am beyond excited.  It is going to be the best.  When we went home we got to the bus stop and I turned around and the bust was there.  So sweet!

I love you all so much!  Thanks for all the prayers and love.  Hopefully I can write the rest of you back and buy stamps so I can mail them to y'all.

Love,
Sister North
-----------------
800 Waukegan Rd #203
Glenview, IL 60025

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

You never know what will happen on a bus.

We got to drive to Gurnee
Date:  September 1, 2014
Area:  Hyde Park, Illinois
Companion:  Sister Lepule

Hey Hey Hey! :)

All I can say is riding the bus is an adventure! Sometimes you just talk people's ears off and they love it, others don't. Other times you don't talk to anyone for whatever reason. And sometimes it is just the missionaries and the bus driver. It is always an adventure! :)

Happy Thought :)

So this morning I read the story of Christ washing his disciples feet and I really loved these three verses.  The story is John 13:1-16

1- "He loved them unto the end"

15 - For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

16 - Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than
his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

I loved these verses and it was a great reminder to me that we are loved to the end and that we should follow Christ
's example and do as he did and remember that no one is better than anyone else. It is such a wonderful story and it touched my heart this morning. I know you all are loved. :)

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/john/13?lang=eng

Letters:
-Mom -Thanks for the postcard :) can't believe school is starting! Makes me want to go to school too! And Zaner sixth grade! Man! Yep "your babies are growing up" crazy!

All we have left in school is five kids and they are in 12th, 9th, 8th, 7th, and 6th.

Monday
The STL's gave us a ride to Aldi's so we didn't have to carry our groceries home, super thankful! And we ended the night helping a new family move in the ward, the Larsen's and I love them! I was glad we where able to help! :)

Tuesday
We of course start out the day running to the bus, but not too far so that was nice and we get on and the bus driver tells us:

"You guys should join the track team" we then asked why and then he said "Every time I see you, you are running for to the bus" I just respond well we don't want to miss it ha

It still makes me giggle because anyone who knows me knows that I HATE running haha
car wash


We visited Misty and had lunch with her and her two kids. Her ten year old daughter taught us how to make paper cranes, it was so cute and fun! :) Misty is a good cook we had fried biscuits (like scones) yummy potatoes, eggs, and this yummy meat concoction, not sure how she made it but it was tasty. We talked about the Tender Mercies of The
Lord, then we sang our "song" "Come Unto Jesus" it was good. :)

After we went and saw Georgia in the Hospital. We were going to meet the Elders there but they weren't feeling well so they couldn't come And Mom I put lotion on her foot! You should be proud of me! Ha I told her that she better know I love her because I hate feet. Then I told her how you where like "I know you'll really like a guy when you touch his feet" haha love ya Mom!

Made this mom smile, because yes she doesn't like feet.  She does love service though so it is not surprising she would put aside her own dislikes to serve this lady.

Then we had a nice long bus ride to an appointment that fell through :/ and then rode back to the apartment and dinner and off to do some stop bys. And oh my, we were on this one street and it was the street of "Give Mes" as in everyone was asking us to give them money and so I gave them Jesus pictures some didn't really care.

Random: sometimes you are walking down the street and you think the cat is dead....then right before you freak out it moves...ha

Wednesday
We saw our favorite bus driver...he was disappoint that we weren't 
Elder Pass, Curtis, DelaCruz, Holmes, West, Adams
Sister Lepule and North
running today haha :) he's cool, we need to figure out his name.

We had District meeting and Mom we took a picture! Yay :)

We met up with elder Curtis and Elder West at the Hospital and they were going to give Georgia a blessing but her medicine kicked in and she was tired. So that didn't happen.

We had a super awesome Lesson with Lawanda! We watched the Restoration DVD, and read Alma 30 with her and she understood it! It was so awesome! And on Sunday she really enjoyed church! And she even fasted
for the first time! Yay! :)

Thursday
The highlight of the day was Scripture study, we talked about Repentance and Rashid came! We found out he is 21 but we feel like we should start teaching him and get his family involved and then tell him more about the YSA ward. :) but man everyone loved him! It was awesome to see him! He is the kid that we met my first I think real day and he sang us a song.

An egg?  (She told me nothing about this)



Friday
We met with Georgia and the Elders were able to giver her a blessing this time and then we sang her a few songs! It was awesome! Elder Curtis chose the first song and then Georgia was like "I want to hear my other boyfriends song" it was pretty funny. :)

We had a lesson with a lady named Janet and she was an hour late...and it takes us like an hour to get there. The lesson was kinda lame but her grandson is super cool he is turning 11 soon. And she gave us a ride home so that was nice. She is cool we learned we need to just teach one simple point at a time. It will be good.

Sister Leuple vacuumed up our stretchy band ha, it was funny

Saturday
We prayed with a random lady on the side walk so that was fun. Then we went to Gurnee for a baptism. Man I miss that place. I wanted to go visit all these people. The baptism was for a guy named Jeff, I had met him a few times in the past. It was such a great experience and super powerful! So happy for him.


Sunday
This Sunday was so much better than last week! My first Sunday here was kinda rough and I could explain the details but no one wants to hear that.

So Rasta who we met last Sunday came to the YSA sacrament meeting! Yay! We finally talked to him the night before and told him how we have the family ward and the young single adult ward and how we felt like he'd really enjoy it and he said yeah that would be cool. And he
wasn't sure about the three hour thing but he came for the last hour which is Sacrament here and we introduced him to the other Missionaries. He was like are you like dropping me off? We said kinda we have to get back to our meeting haha. But we talked to him after and he really enjoyed it! I am super excited for him! Bummed I don't
get to teach him but oh well.

We had a super awesome lesson with his guy JZ at the Rudds home! We talked about Faith and praying to know that we are Gods children. He said he should be able to come to bible study on Thursday, yay! :)

Things have been hard being in a new area but it is getting better! 

Thank you for all your prayers! I love you all! :)

Love,
Sister North  :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
800 Waukegan Rd. #203
Glenview IL 60025

President Obama's spot of his first kiss with his wife.

A walk up window at Taco Bell????  Hmmm