....I am in Double Digits!

Date:  October 27, 2014

Area:  Hyde Park, Chicago

Companion:  Sister Lepule

Transfer 11 Week 4

Hey everyone!

So we are just chilling at Giordanos so going to have deep dish pizza and this morning we went to the Willis Tower and checked out the sky deck! It was pretty fun! There are adventures everywhere we go. We had a pretty good week hopefully what I wrote is good ha...did it this morning. But I love you all!

Letters:

-Marissa Laurence

-Amy North 

Quotes:

-"He's like water to our stickers" -Sister Lepule

-"Everything is Awesome!" -the song they did the flash mob at the Halloween party but one day we came to the church and that song was blasting and we were rather confused haha

-"We must rely on the Atonement daily"

-"Sister North and Sister Lepule accompanied by Elders" talking to Brother Heaten who is in charge of the funeral and he said that with the musical number it was pretty funny. He is from Virginia. 

-"Hold the banister" -Sister Green

-"Scream!" ...because a stupid little mouse ran over Sister Lepule's foot and made its little noise! Eww! So gross! And the lady in front of us walking past us was like thanks for the warning haha...

MONDAY - 
We have the honor of being a part of a funeral and I'm looking forward to that. We assigned the Elders to give prayers and a talk and then all the missionaries are going to sing Be Still My soul. It should be pretty cool. :) If I remember right the last funeral I went to was Marissa Watkins and wow was that one of the hardest yet coolest things to be able to sing at her funeral. Words cannot describe that day but it will always be near to my heart. I am thankful to know that this life is not the end and I will see all those I love and care about again.

We had our zone activity and I played basketball with all the Elders while the other Sisters were lame and pretty much emailed or talked the entire time. We played ultimate football (ultimate frisbee just with a football) and Sister Lepule played. We also played dodge ball and I love that game! It is always so fun! I hadn't played it since my first area. It is free for all and it is always great when I am on a role getting all the Elders out and then the rest of them are like get Sister North...whaha :) it is grand. 

We met with Charles and then had an amazing lesson with JZ at the Rudds and we came out of the lesson receiving confirmation that we made the right choice waiting for him to be baptized. The spirit was there and all of us left uplifted. It was a good time and made us happy and reminded us why we are missionaries. :) I love my job.

TUESDAY - 

We road the bus to see Celeste but she wasn't there :( but we planned for that too. Because we brought her a card and some flowers and later she called us and told us thanks and that we were nuts it made our day. It is the most we have talked to her in a while so it was good. 

We visited the Greens and had dinner with them and helped around the house a little, like taking the dog out and the. But up a few Halloween decorations. 

WEDNESDAY-Exchanges

It is funny because even though I was on exchanges I still stayed in my area the entire time haha ;) I spent the day in the YSA branch with Sister Nielsen, we came out together and she is from Highland...or Alpine...well,I forgot but she went to UVU haha

We started out the morning with a lesson with Jackie and she is awesome! She is being baptized in December and her Mom is making her baptism dress which is just super cool! We taught her tithing and fasting and it went really well. We had a great lesson and laughed. :)

Then we had district meeting and oh my goodness it was so wonderful! It was the best district meeting I have had in a long time. And it wasn't even my district. Elder Martinez is a humble Elder and is a good district leader. We talked about how to begin teaching and we did some role plays and it was pretty great! And honestly I don't even like role plays. We were pared up with the Zone Leaders Elder Robbins and Elder Painter, we first taught and that went well and Elder Painter pretty much said that I can be serious with my goofy personality. Haha I guess I am silly in front of my zone leaders...hmm...oh well. And then when they taught us I was a little girl who had a babysitter (Sister Nielsen) and they started talking about Heavenly Father and that caught my attention to know that I had a Dad that was there because my parents weren't really there for me. The spirit during this role play was so sweet! I was so in awe by the thought and I really felt like it was the first time I had ever heard of this good news. It was a really cool role play! :) I love this Gospel! I know we are not alone! That we truly do have a Father in Heaven! And I know that he does answer our prayers! :)

After that we went Book of Mormon contacting with the Big Book of Mormon which went well and then, We ended the night doing service and had dinner. We started talking about family and I had a pro moment and was able to use family into the scripture of service we wanted to use. It was pretty grand and I got brownie points latter. And then I ended the night with a terrible headache...I felt bad because I get back with my companion and I just didn't want to talk or anything because it hurt so bad. But we planned for the next day and we both had a good time on exchanges. :)

THURSDAY - 

At the very end of companion study we were talking about how we are teaching scripture study and then I was like rats we need to bring something and luckily I had "bad bananas" as in some brown ones which I don't like but they sure make a tasty banana bread so I jumped to that and whipped that up  yay! And we did some planning. Then had lunch while I set off the fire alarm...which scared me because I was on the phone with the fedex people and I jump to my feet and open our back door and everything was fine but I guess my Tortions pizza wanted attention but don't worry the phone wasn't a real person but because it didn't know what I was saying I ended up talking to a real person haha. Oh the joys. :)

Then we went and helped Misty with her math homework but more like Sister Lepule did and I edited some things in our area book and planner. So it worked out and I still helped a little bit with the math. 

Then we had our appointment with Christpher and the Drnec's came which was awesome! They are such a sweet Fam! We are having dinner with them this week and I'm excited. 

We ended the night with scripture study which we taught on prayer and it actually went rather well and by the end we had a good turn out. :) the last ten minutes this guy named Jon came and he was a crack up...and weird...and made us all laugh and we just did our best to keep it on topic. I made banana bread which was a huge hit and everyone loved it. Glad I know how to make one thing ;) haha but the Jon guy was like are you married? I said no, and said kinda to The Lord right now and then he comes closer to me and says quietly "sometimes I'm The Lord" ...yeah I was slightly creeped out not gonna lie...but he is still cool. 

FRIDAY - 
We started off the day with a lesson with Zhoaxia And we had a great lesson on prayer. She is so amazing and loves the gospel. She knows it is true and wants to be baptized but her husband isn't for it right now. 

After we went to the church for English class which went well. Sister Dastrup taught it. Wei and Ling Ling were also there and then sister Decker and us. It was really good and fun and I look forward to helping out every week. :) and during this time Zhoaxia asked about the Temple and told us how she wanted to go, she remembers the temple from before summer started! I told you she is awesome! She is going to go see the grounds next month and when she is baptized she'll be there in a flash. She is the best!

We had a lesson with Abosolo and that was stressful, Brother Teasly and Karen were there and we did a lot of how to begin teaching and what our purpose is. Right now we can't do anything for Abosolo until he starts following through with his commitments. He said he might come to church on the 2nd of November so hopefully. We will just keep praying that his heart will be more softened. 

And then it was the Halloween party! Which was a huge hit! We had a ton of people come that we invited which was so awesome! Victoria and her son Chris came and she invited her friend Monica and her two kids so that was really cool and everyone seemed to have fun. It was fun! Ha I have a funny video of Sister Lepule, Regge(Zhoaxia's daughter), and I racing to eat a donut haha and they did a last mob that I recorded too so that was fun. We also helped clean up while everyone danced and it was a great way to serve the ward and I think helped build their trust in us. 

As we were leaving Sister Decker gave us the sweetest compliment and told us that we (S. L. And I) teach really well together and that we teach really well to the peoples needs, and that it's like the best she's seen. It was so sweet. 

SATURDAY - 

We started off the Morning helping the Green family finish decorations for Kiko's birthday party! It was so fun decorating for Halloween! And then we had lunch with them. We also met Chad Sister Green's husband and he is super cool! I look forward to getting to know him more. I also talked with Tori the daughter who is a sophomore and is in band and madrigals and I told her about Snow college and how is there music program is and later she asked more about it so that is cool. She is super cute! I like her! Sister Green is the only member and then they had

another daughter who goes to Valpo university, oh how I love that place! 

On our way home we decided to go see Georgia because she is back in the hospital and she is doing great and looking great! I love her! But before that we tried to see Liane and someone came in as we were going in and then the door person called her and she answered! Ahh we got to meet with her! And even set a return appointment and I think we are eating deep dish pizza oh YUM! We talked about prayer and it was swell 

Then off we had dinner and then went and stopped by Alexis and contacted a referral and went and bought cake at Treasure Island the most expensive place you'll ever shop to get a cake and we saw Brother Evans and Bishop so that was sweet. And then we called all the Elders telling them what was going on with the funeral and we did a lot of laughing. They are great. 

SUNDAY :) - 

Sundays just never get old! I just love them! And we had a great Sunday.:) church was splendid :) JZ is sick so he wasn't there, poor guy has the flu. But one thing that was way cool is Celeste a less active who we have been trying to meet with came to Sacrament meeting! Oh my goodness I was so floored to see her. And Brother Barnett gave a talk and he is our ward mission leader and it was superb! He is a great guy! :)

After church...and MCM..and Lunch with all the missionaries, we went and saw Theola and Leroy and there was this lady Marie there too, honestly not sure the relation. She is interesting to say the least but we talked about the atonement and read Alma 7 and ended up singing How Firm a Foundation and that is what brought the spirit. Something about singing just quiet people up. Haha 

Then we had dinner with Sister Brocius and she is so adorable! She is going to school for religion and is from American Fork and I met her husband at church for the first time because he is still working there. They have a daughter on a mission in Korea and I asked if I could write her a letter but I forgot the paper she wrote down her address so I'll have to get it later. So that will be cool. She has been out a year and I know how it is when you reach that point letters become less so I am going to write one to her. It came to mind so I better do it. :) 

I hope you all are doing well, drop a line or two and tell me how you are, I would LoVE to hear from you!!

Love Forever and Always,

Sister North

✉️✉️✉️✉️✉️✉️✉️✉️✉️✉️

800 Waukegan Rd. #203

Glenview IL 60025