Surprises everywhere :)

Date:  July 28, 2014
Area:   Valparisio, Indiana
Companion:  Sister Wells
Week 21 in Valpo

Hello World!

Gary, me, and MaryJo They gave us goodies and garden gloves

How is everyone? I am doing so great!  :) man it has been a wonderful week! So many surprises! I honestly feel so spoiled! And yesterday Ashley gave Sister Wells and I this little scrapbook full of love and Despicable Me! And Sister Wells is How to Train you Dragon and words of love for her. It was just so sweet! We are going to miss her! She has a three week break from school so we won't see her until the day before transfers :( so sad.

So pretty much I had like 20 friends come home from there missions! It is so crazy! Sisters and Elders! It is so weird! I suspect I will be hiding more these next few weeks as summer comes to a close. And what I mean by hiding is hiding them from my newsfeed on Facebook so I am
not distracted from the outside world. :)

Saw this and had to take a picture it is where Taylor is.

Letters:
-Sister Brittany Attansasio!
-Sister Tiffiany Rassmusen!
                   -Best roomies ever! Love you! Thought it was funny last time I got a kletter from
                     you both it was in the same week! Hehe :) I loved
the picture Tiffy!
-Sister Hone
-Hermana Alex Jackson
And then we check the mail today and I had five letters! Yay! :) thank you everyone! Keep them coming! They are a missionaries best friend! :)
-Grandma Mary! You are the best! I love your stories and your encouragement! :)
-Holden's :)
-Marissa Laurence
-Sister Mikaela Burr
-Elder S. Deweese

Monday! -Fact Sister North Needs a Social life to be happy!

So we had our awesome Zone activity and we played Frisbee and Sister Wells is an Animal and I'm the Beast! (Love nicknames from the Elders) So I'd say we make a pretty good team! :) yay! :) we played volleyball, kickball, more volleyball, and monkey in the middle, and just had fun and talked. Oh my goodness this is what Sister Wells and I needed! I still can't believe how much happier we both are ha! It was just so wonderful!  :)

We came home had a snack, wrote a note to Debbie and we went and visited her. It went well, it was great to see her. She is trying to figure out everything right now. We told her that it is up to her to
learn. It was interesting though because she didn't want us to leave, before we went in I prayed that she would feel the spirit and I know she did. We would wrap things up and then she would ask us another question, this kept happening even after we left her with a prayer. We didn't teach her anything but we told her it is her choice and to call us if she wanted to learn again. I think we both feel better about dropping her now, but it is still hard but I know she'll call when she is ready. We expect to see her no matter what at the end of the Transfer because we are pretty sure we won't survive the next transfer and we feel like we need to say goodbye to her. We will keep praying
for her but for now that is all we can do.

Oh yeah here is a funny! Sometimes you go to leave the library and you almost get ran over, so what do you do? Use it as a finding opportunity and give the a or on.org card ha!

Tuesday - Going strong!

We had three appointments for today which they all fell through :( sad day! It is a nice HOT day but still was great!  :)

We started out the morning visiting Sister Vickers but she wasn't feeling well so I asked her if we could sing her a song and she said yes!  :) she picked

Oh, May My Soul Commune with Thee : Hymns

1. Oh, may my soul commune with thee And find thy holy peace; From worldly care and pain of fear,
Please bring me sweet release.

2. Oh, bless me when I worship thee To keep my heart in tune, That I may hear thy still, small voice,
And, Lord, with thee commune.

3. Enfold me in thy quiet hour And gently guide my mind To seek thy will, to know thy ways,
And thy sweet Spirit find.

4. Lord, grant me thy abiding love And make my turmoil cease.  Oh, may my soul commune with thee And find thy holy peace.

And then we read Alma 37:36-37
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/37?lang=eng

36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and  whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

We stopped by the Archers and share a brief message with them. We caught them before they jumped in the pool. It was fun to visit with them again, it has been a while since they've been so busy with summer time.

We visited Edna and older lady, she doesn't want to come back to church but we visit her once in a while because well she's lonely. She was very talkative today and it was a good time. :) she even gave me stuff to put on my stupid but bite.  Oh my!mi had the worse bug but ever! It was on top of my foot so my shoes would rub it and well it was not a good thing! If it kept it up I thought I'd have to go to the store and by a new pair of shoes but it went by by!...mostly :)

Wednesday-Miracles happening everywhere!

We had District meeting today, it is still weird to me to have a new district leader but it is way great! We talked about being a better missionary and working harder.

We met with the Yaros today and taught the Restoration now that Joe is involved, we used Janga to explain it and it went really well. Joe seems to really be thinking of what we are teaching. It is awesome to see! I am so happy he is joining us! So grand! :) they have been looking at my copy of the Book of Mormon and Joe said he likes my notes, I told him he can still hold on to it. They both made a comment saying they've read my testimony that I've written so that is good. :) it was a good lesson, Joe seems to be wanting to know more than ever so that's exciting.

We had dinner with the Tucker's, and had a sweet lesson and talked about things that make us happy. :) I just love them! Always fun to spend time with them.

Ashley texted us saying she could come out with us so we said Yes! And she made us a cd ah yay!so exciting to have a new CD! And she wrote us a sweet note on it!

We had a great lesson with her with Glenn on Temples and teaching him about them because we new he had a lot of questions from institute the other day. It was such a great lesson! It was pretty deep but perfect! He is so ready! It was almost Nine but I just felt like we couldn't leave just yet. As we were talking I pretty much just asked him something like "okay I feel like something is hiding that we don't know about your concern for baptism" I'm not really sure what I said but I know it was blunt and then he tells us his concern!!  He told us how he is Feeling like it is true! Ahh yay! :) and told us how he wants to talk to his family about it! He said he feels like he is starting to get an answer! Oh my goodness!! He wants to pray about the date we invited him to. We are excited! He is progressing! He told us how he sees a difference when he reads the scriptures before work and when he doesn't. The only sad thing about the situation is his baptism will be next transfer...and we are 99.9% sure that we won't be together so hopefully everything will work out that we will be able to be there. :) I'm so excited for him! And so excited to go with him to the Temple! That will be super cool!  :) Glenn is the best! And is just so sincere! It is the best! He even asked if he would be ready by then. We said yes and that you are more ready then you think and we told him just think how much you have grown the last month, and just imagine how much you will grow in the next month and then after that?
It was pretty cool. :) It was a great lesson! We were cold!

Oh yeah! And we told him how he needs to go to a "Mormon Dance" baha! Yeah...we have fun during lessons...be jealous! ;)

Thursday Planning? I think Not! Ahh! Today is July 24th! I left to be a Missionary a year ago!

Usually Thursdays are our weekly planning days but needless to say lately they haven't been. And this week it won't be either! Yay Sister Conference! :) super excited! :)

We started off the morning going to a doctors appointment and Sister Wells had a great missionary moment! Yay! Go her! I just sat in the waiting room and well no one was there for a while but oh well.

We then met with the Martinez family and Ashley came with us! It was so great to meet with them! It has been forever! They are such a great family! I love how much they just love each other! They're great.

(After We had a late lunch and we used haft of it talking with Ashely, that was fun. :) we also had a funny moment with our neighbor)

We taught Kim! Yay! We haven't taught her in forever! We started teaching her the Plan of Salvation and we only taught haft of it and we would let her see the rest of the cut out. It was pretty great! We
left her with a cliffhanger! Whaha! And we called her last night to set up an appointment and her boy friend was with her and pretty much all three of us are going to teach him. So this could be super
awesome! Pretty excited! :)

We stopped by the Ortize family but we didn't get to teach anything. But they are so sweet just always busy.

Friday - Busy awesome day!

Started off the day with some good ol Facebook! And we started teaching a Former investigator! Super excited to see where it goes! He seems pretty cool.

We had a splendid time with the Sarvers talking about how they enjoyed Sacrament, Book of Mormon, and Preach My Gospel.  We are going to get them there own copy. At the end we got off topic and Gary was like okay lets pray so you can give them there present! Say what they had a
present for us? What? They gave us chocolates and gardening gloves! We have our own gardening gloves! Oh my goodness super sweet! Gary was laughing at how excited we got over gloves haha. It was just so nice! :)

Dinner was with the Daubeks and brother Daubek aka Chuck Norris burnt us some EFY CDs surprises everywhere! It is so weird to listen to music that I don't know the words to...it is rather nice! :) we had yummy tacos with them.

We then made a few stop bys and the last person we visited, well I guess you could say Ended the day with a bang or another surprise. We were teaching a lesson and as we leave the cops showed up....yeah that was interesting. Nothing bad happened but we won't be teaching that person anymore.

Saturday-Planning ending with a Bang! In a good way this time ha ;)

Sister North-"I should stop having photo shoots with myself" Sister Wells "You are going to have fun engagement photos" ha most likely, I'm a weirdo and I sure do love pictures! That will be one adventure! Baha! Don't have to worry about that for a long time! Then she tells me that my prosperity won't have to worry about what her Great something grandma looks like, I guess it works.

We tried to see Sister Vickers because we told her we would help her with her family history but she was asleep so we went to the library and got on Facebook, and I posted on the blog I just started. It was a productive time and Michael the former said he might be coming to church! Ahh yay! So cool to use Facebook! :) then we went back to Sister Vickers but she was still asleep, she might be getting over a cold.

Ahh!! Ended the day with a super duper amazing awesome lesson with the Yaros! Oh my goodness! Words can NOT describe! They read not only one chapter but both the chapters we gave them! It was such a peaceful lesson! Honestly I think both Sister Wells and I were shocked! I guess the best way to describe it is the other lessons have been kind of argumentative but not this time. It was so good and tangents still happened but more focused and not as long winded.  The spirit was there and there hearts are being softened! They all joined in it was just amazing!  :) I am so excited to teach them more than ever! :)

Something that was funny as we get there Jordan(8 year old) pulls out a big tree branch and puts it in the way so we can't drive pass and then he goes and runs away and hides behind a tree and we are like Jordan hi! Will you move it for us and he does and runs behind the tree and giggles. It was pretty cute! :)

Sunday - Always a Good day! :)
We were excited to see three less actives and one investigator at church today but sadly no one came. :( but it was still wonderful! For sacrament they asked all four of us missionaries to share our
testimonies on Joseph Smith but they only had Sister Wells and Elder Foster share. I was a little bummed because I love sharing my testimony! I haven't been able to in church for a long time. On fast Sundays our ward is awesome at sharing there testimonies and God hasn't made me go up, but maybe next time.

But because I didn't get to share my testimony with them I'll share it with you! I love Joseph Smith so much! He is such an amazing man! Sometimes when I feel like my days are so hard I just remember what he went through and suddenly it doesn't matter anymore, well my burden does feel lighter. I am beyond grateful for his dedication and courage and strength to keep going! I am so glad he pushed through and translated the Book of Mormon! The Book of Mormon changes peoples hearts! It has changed me so much! As Sister Wells likes to say "as you start studying the scriptures they start out as vegetables, they don't taste that good but the more you keep studying the more they become your favorite dessert! And the best part is, You can have as much as you would like! It is awesome!" I love my scriptures they are the best brownies in the world! ;) I know Joseph Smith was called of
God to restore this gospel! I know it to be true and I love it so much! :)

I hope you all are having a great day! Go out and serve someone! Write someone a note! Make them smile. :) you all are the best! I am praying for you!

Love always,
Sister Amber North :)

Ps. Mom I printed off pictures today so you will be getting a surprise! As in my SD card ha ;)

PPS: Happy Birthday to my bestest friend ever! I love you Nut! :) go have some Camba Juice and take pictures and send it to me and at the Temple! Even though I'm not there the tradition must still go on! :)

but we will go Feb. 2015! Can't wait! :)

...three words...Year Mark!...weird!

Me eating a snack and so I told
Sister Wells to smile.

Date:  July 21, 2014

Area:  Valparisio, Indiana

Companion:  Sister Wells

Week 20 in Valpo

Hey Mom! And everyone else! :)

What a crazy week, I feel like I say that a lot, every week is sure interesting in its own little ways. So much keeps happening even when I don't feel like anything happened ha! I was thinking about what happened this week and I was in awe that YES we did have a great week! :)

I want to first start out with a talk that brought me peace and comfort this week. These last few weeks have been rough personally, but I do know God loves us all! I wanted to find a talk to help me have more of a well I guess desire so I typed that in the gospel library and I came across this amazing talk! :)

The Hope of God’s Light
By President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/the-hope-of-gods-light?lang=eng

This entire talk is so so amazing! So you all should go read it! One of the parts I loved is this:

Light Overcomes Darkness

      "Yes, we will make mistakes.

        Yes, we will falter.

       But as we seek to increase our love for God and strive to love our neighbor, the light of  the gospel will surround and uplift us. The darkness will surely fade, because it cannot exist in the presence of light. As we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.6 And day by day, the hope of God’s light will grow within us, “brighter and brighter until the perfect day.”

      To all who feel they walk in darkness, I invite you to rely on this certain promise spoken      by the Savior of mankind: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”8
The Hope of God’s Light"

But for reals go read it! It will change your life! This Gospel changes life's! It is just the BEST!! :)

Letters:
-Mom (2) Mom I didn't print off pictures today so I'll do it next
week and then send you my card. :D Thanks for sending me a
new one. :D and I got your other card today and your PS made
me giggle.  I love you!! Thank you so much for writing me :D
-Aunt Marcia and Uncle Jim (LOVED the pictures!!!!)
-Grandma Mary (2)
-Sister Victora J! :)

Man I feel like Monday was like three weeks ago!...so weird..it has been a long week in a way just all these things happened and it feels like it was forever ago but surprise! It was this week!

Monday - It all goes up from here! :) (mostly)
So I've been in a crummy mood the last few days last week and I wasn't sure what all was going on and then I figured it out! Thanks to Sister Woodbury, sometimes as a Missionary people tell you everything and you become like a councilor or something and man it can be draining! And just a lot of stuff has happened and I didn't realize how much it
drained me but something she said was like oh yep there is your answer because I'd been wondering what has been up.

And I took the best nap ever and just relaxed and did nothing for like three hours! It was so wonderful and glorious! So that also helped me feel so much better! Not even kidding! I forgot how nice it is to take a nice nap once in a while.

Falin is moving, saying Goodbye, She rocks

We had Dinner with Summers and that was fun, we played the Godhead game and one of there little boys was just cute, He got a Heavenly Father card and was like that's God and just how he said it was adorable!

Then we drove to the church and had Interviews with President!! Ahh yay! I love That man! He is just so amazing! :) <3 :) I know he is suppose to be my Mission President! I am always learning from him! We had a great interview and I honestly think it was the longest interview I've had with him so that was cool. For some reason my interviews seem to last like five minutes, but this time it was longer. I honestly could talk to that man all day, he like knows my soul! At least I feel like he does ha! And he always knows what to say! I am so blessed to have him as my Mission President!

Tuesday
We had our awesome Zone meeting! Oh how I LOVE LOVE LOVE meetings! I wish they were everyday! :) we have a Sister Training Meeting on the 31st and I just can NOT wait! :) so exciting! :)

I am bummed I was blinking when they took it.  O well

After that we started our Exchanges and Sister Hone came with me here to the good ol Portage! :)

Sometimes I make something yummy and eat it
during study time.  Study time always goes too fast.

We had a super awesome lesson with the Sarvers, they are just wonderful! :) they have started reading the Book of Mormon! Yay! The Book of Mormon changes peoples life! We started talking about how God is such a loving Heavenly Father and then we talked about Sacrament and the importance of that and it was a really great lesson. Gary said
such a wonderful closing prayer! The longest one yet! :) it makes me smile :)


After dinner we went to Institute which was good and Glenn almost didn't come but he did! Yay! :) we even had a yummy donuts! It was so good! Today we talked about 'The Living Christ' and one of my favorite parts is this:
“I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was
slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (D&C 110:3–4).
The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles
http://www.lds.org/manual/the-living-christ-the-testimony-of-the-apostles/the-living-christ-the-testimony-of-the-apostles?lang=eng

Christ is our Advocate! He is right there with us. It is so wonderful and so awesome! :) ever since I had the chance to be a Student Body Advocate(Officer) at snow I have loved the word advocate. The reason why they changed it from officer to advocate is because we are not over the students we are right there with them, on the same playing fielded and we are there to help them. I loved that and just know that Christ is right there is us is just so wonderful! :)

Wednesday
Highlight of today is that we taught the Yaros and Joe joined in on the lesson!!! Ahh!! I am so excited to start teaching them! So exciting! :)

When we first got there only Gloria was home but as we started the lesson they came home from the park. Joe got some juice and took it outside but then he came back in and joined us at the table! It was crazy! Right now I can't even remember what we talked about but it was awesome! And Gloria even grabbed his hand, you could tell she was
excited to! We looked at the intro and my copy that I wrote in all the reference of Christ was on the table and that is what he used and he was looking through it at my writings so I left it with him. I wrote my Testimony in it when I finished so I hope this copy will help him because it means a lot to me. :) he seemed honored to take it, he said no at first and said he had his own. I said I know but I was like you can use it for now. And he smiled and said okay!  I look forward to
teaching them next week. I just know Joe is our key. So exciting! They are going to be able to learn together more fully! Yay! :)

We had an interesting lesson at the Jones, when we got there she was still asleep, but I finally met her husband! He's nice. We attempted to share a message with her daughter who is Less Active but she didn't really care, but it gave us enough time for Sister Jones to wake up and she was really happy we were still there, we shared parts of the
talk "Being Grateful in Your Circumstance" from this last conference.

Lunch- I tried something called Couscous, it's kinda weird ha! weird

We got to meet with the Nickels, and taught more of the Plan of Salvation and we will finish that up this week. They are good kids!

Then off to Chicago to exchange back, and then we went to a park in Valpo for a ward picnic it was super fun and then we had a great lesson on the sidewalk because the grass was wet with Ashley, Dustin, and Glenn and then Linda(Elders investigator) and her son joined in. We talked about receiving answers.  It was a great night! :) not gonna
lie I look forward to not being a missionary and being able to go to social events and play and stay for longer than about an hour and not feel bad, ha oh the life as a Missionary!

Thursday
A day of planning and hmmm...I don't remember what else we did. Oh yeah we just did some stop bys and got dropped by another person, which is chill because that means The Lord will bless is with someone else to teach that is excited to learn more! :)

Friday
Sigh....can I just say I wish I could just pause life and go to the Temple. I was thinking about the things I do at home when I get sad and I was like what do I do? And I'd go to the Temple. What a glorious place the Temple is! I love it so much! Even just walking on its grounds brings comfort to a lost soul! How awesome is that? So I invite all of you to go partake of the wonderful Temple! And if you can't go inside, go enjoy the Temple grounds! They all are so gorgeous and I know you will feel Gods love. :) I even enjoy looking at The Temple pictures! So breath taking! :) so go enjoy it for me.  :)

Today was a day full of stop bys and we got to meet with Sister Vickers and then the Ackleys who I love them both so much and we ended the night with a lesson with Dorothy talking about the Holy Ghost more and receiving answers.

Saturday
A day of finding ending with a great dinner at the Tucker's and a great lesson with Glenn while we got eaten alive by those silly skeeders.

We had a yummy dinner with the Tucker's and then we taught them the Plan of Salvation because we could use the practice and we asked what we could do better and it went well. When the twins are standing by each other I know who is who very well but it is a little tricky when they aren't but I'm getting better. :)

After that we went to the Park with Ashley to have a lesson with Glenn and on the way there we got stopped by the train so we guessed how many carts there would be Sister wells Said 53, I said 92, and Ashley said 95, needless to say we all where wrong because there was 138! Ha it was fun!

We taught Glenn the Plan of Salvation and he has such amazing questions! He is just so amazing! We invited him to pray about baptism, he feels like it is still good but is nervous about making that choice to be baptized. He is so ready, well we still have stuff to teach but man this kid is so sincere! It is amazing! :) I am so honored to teach him. He didn't come to church which I was bummed but we new he wasn't. He told us after the lesson, and when he makes up
his mind that is what he is going to do, which is a good thing. I hope he sees a difference when he does come and when he doesn't. He already sees a difference in his days when he doesn't read the scriptures and when he does! Which is so awesome! I know reading the scriptures daily bring you Power! And who doesn't want Super Power?

Sunday!!
Sundays are the best days ever!! Like for reals! Even more so because guess who came? the Sarvers! They came to Sacrament! Oh my goodness I was beyond happy!! I sure do love them! :) they enjoyed it! And they are still reading the Book of Mormon! And the roof didn't fall down. They would joke that when they would come we'd have to hold the roof

Sister Hagman came back for a visit

up because everyone would be so surprised to see them. And people were, but no worries the roof stayed up! They felt the love! It was such a beautiful experience :)

So the Cool thing about being able to use Facebook as a Missionary tool is things like this.  I love hearing other peoples Testimonies!! One of the Sisters in our Mission decided to have us all share stuff with the #TeamSmile and this what came to mind.  I love wearing my Marissa bracelet that says "Share a Smile" on it and I thought that was perfect for #TeamSmile :D 

For those of you who don't know who Marissa is, Marissa is one of my friends she was the pianist in the choir I was in at School and coming back from Spring break she died in a car crash.  It was a really hard experience for me but I learned so much more about the Atonement. I know that we are loved!!

For those who can Go share your Testimony on Facebook!! and you can even share it to My facebook wall!! How awesome is that?? Share something that makes you smile and hashtage it!! #TeamSmile!!

I love you all!! Work Hard!

I hope you all Have a GREAT week!! Love you all!! Write me Yes?? That would be just super duper Awesome!!

Love,

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

Transfer NINE already?? say What? That's almost two full hands!

Date:  July 14, 2014

Area:  Valparaiso, Indiana

Companion:  Sister Wells

Week 19 in Valpo

Hey Family and Friends,

Transfer NINE! Say what! Time sure is going fast more than it is going slow.

Letters:
-Karoline :) man oh man I love hearing about your sweet little family!  They sure are growing up! I love the story about the Holy Ghost and how true it is that He can't be there when we have contention. Thanks for your letter. Hope you got mine the other week. I love you! :)
-Rachel Fishetau!

Pretty much I don't feel like doing my normal set up of things so you get this :) enjoy.

Random Facts from the week:

-One sweet thing about a new Transfer and the start of the month is buying lots of food! Because you know for sure you are staying for another six weeks! It is great! :)

-I saw a Raccoon and it's babies!!!....Alive! ...I see a hand full of dead things here...it is sad.

-I got to weed a garden...I don't think I want one...I'm too lazy ha! Maybe my husband will like having a garden and he can do it...and I'll help him. But man it was hard to tell the difference between the potato plant and the "wanna be potato plant!" It was rather annoying! Ha

- So Sundays I never have my hair up. I always take time to do it and it is usually down curly or straight.  This week I did it all braided and cool looking  but honestly it was being a turd and I didn't like it.  It was time to go to ward council and so it was good enough but I got SO many comments about my hair at church it was pretty crazy!

- I am getting better at weed whacking! And Sister Wells is getting better at mowing the lawn!

-We got to help Sister Skeen's make a colorful cake!

- Mika from Ci Ci's pizza thought it was cool that I remembered his name. We left our Facebook information so maybe one of them will add us...that would be cool.

- after Institute I played with Rachel's son while he was in the car and the Elders talked with Rachel. Oh my goodness! I got him laughing!  He loves me now! He didn't before but I don't blame him, I met him when he woke up from a nap and we were moving his house so putting everything in boxes. I can't wait to play with kids again! :)

We made it onto the LDS Missionary page on Facebook

- ........I stole Sister Yuens phone........ha! So after we stopped by them we went to Sister Skeen's and was talking with her when next thing we know we hear music and then we found out it was coming from my purse! Baha! Super funny! What happened is we helped Sister Yuen clean up her yard and she handed me her phone so I put it in my bag so
I wouldn't drop it....well I forgot until later haha.

- Everyone in my district changed companionship expect for us.

- So one day we were singing in district meeting and then for whatever reason I stopped...then everyone else started singing off and couldn't sing and then I started laughing and couldn't sing and they are like Sister North we need you! Bahaha Mom my District still can't sing. I have never been the best singer in the group or have people depend on
me.....they all listen to me to hit the right note....oh boy!

- Our new district leader is pretty cool....And now when they text us there signature is "BringLetti" and I told them it sounds like Bring Spaghetti haha. It is Elder Bringhurst and Elder Angaletti

- We have dead frogs or toads in our parking lot.

-Sometimes at District Meeting we have a get to know you time and one of the questions is "Who would you have be your partner if a Zombie apocalypse came?" Both Sister Wells and I said Captain Moroni! He is Super Awesome and I said something about yeah, He is my Boyfriend in the Mission Unless you ask my Roommate than he is hers.  But I left my picture of him in my last apartment so they could admire him.  It was pretty funny.

Glenn:
We finally went to institute with Him yay! This is now is fourth time going! Which is so awesome!

We had an Awesome lesson with Glenn on Thursday at the Isacsons! It was so wonderful! We thought we were going to teach the Plan of Salvation but ended up teaching him about the priesthood! He is reading the Book of Mormon and was rather surprised that Nephi was commanded to kill Laban, he hadn't got to the reason why yet so we read it with him. Glenn is just super awesome! I am beyond grateful to have the opportunity to teach him! It was a great lesson! He even asked about what these lessons are about and we told him and he said okay and pretty much was like we will see what happens. He is praying about if it is true but still doesn't know but feels like it could be. :)

He also came to church! Yay! He seems to really enjoy it and is meeting more people. We sat with the Watkins during Sacrament so he sat with Dustin and that was good. We are having dinner and a lesson with him at Ashley's this week so that will be fun. :)

A members grape vinyard

Dorothy:
She is doing pretty good, she is recognizing the spirit! Yay! She says she feels he spirit more with coming to church. So that is exciting!...but sadly she didn't come this Sunday because she had a rough day before but still have high hopes for her.

Gena and Fam!
Oh my goodness can I just tell you how much I love this family!! God blessed us with meeting them, pretty much we are almost teaching the entire family! It is so amazing! :)

We stopped by Saturday morning after Facebook and they were home, yay! The kids where all doing stuff and playing and Gena and us talked for a little bit and then I asked the kids if they wanted to play a game.  They all got excited saying yes! So we played the Godhead game and we taught them about that. It was pretty awesome! They really loved it and we shared the Because of Him video with him. Gena really liked it.  It was a great lesson and Emma the eight year old even started reading the Book of Mormon! She didn't remember  much, but I was still excited to hear that she read it! She likes having her own copy!

Then Sunday night we stopped by again so we can give them the little kid version of the Book of Mormon. The littles were gone but Sierra and Gena were there. We started talking to Gena and then Sierra came and joined us so we got to get to know her she is fifteen and super awesome! Something funny is she gave the dog gum! And she just replied
his mouth stunk Haha it was pretty funny! :) before we left we shared the Courage video about Ester

....watch me....
http://www.mormonchannel.org/mormon-channel-daily/196?v=2221439363001

And they both really liked it. Sierra was like I didn't think I'd understand it so well or something. I love how this video brings in modern day life as well as this wonderful bible story. It is one of my favorite videos to share with others.

Sierra told us how she went to church with a friend once and that she would be interested in going to church sometime! So that is super cool! She is interested! So cool! :) she is super sweet! Man I love this family! We are starting to teach a Family!! Ahh! So amazing! So glad I am here to teach them! :) and we met Skylar the 13 year old! He was playing with his friend so he didn't join but he seems super cool! :)

Here are my answers Mom:  QUESTIONS FOR AMBER

At the library and made me think of Zane

Amber what is your favorite food to cook at your apartment?      Hmmm...my favorite food to cook? Would most likely be noodles and Alfredo and when I feel even less lazy I cook chicken with it. Ha

How are your shoes holding up?   My shoes are doing grand, I'm sure it helped that I wore boots all winter! I should be fine with shoes until I come home. In a few months or so I'll be back to wearing boots more often. But for now I'll enjoy the warm weather! I love the weather being in the 70's :)

Who are the missionaries in your district now and where is a picture?   I'll get a picture eventually :) we have a zone meeting tomorrow yay! :) but Elder Warner is now with Elder Foster, then Elder Angeletti's new comp and our new district leader is Elder Bringhurst, then Hermana Meana's is Hermana Whitney. And then it is us...and we stayed yay!

Are there sisters in the Chicago mission that are on bikes or are you all in cars?    There are Sisters who bike...and I really want to be one of those! I really want to use public transpiration! I'm hoping The Lord will agree with that when I leave here. I would love for the City to call my name. But during the winter they don't bike as much if any because they can't really so they ride the bus. 

Do you have anyone on date? Nope, no one is on date :( hopefully soon! :)

Love,

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

Real Roller Coasters are lots more fun :)

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.

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!

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

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.

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! :)

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. :)

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?

It is all up to us to build our relationship with him.  He is the one that WILL make us the most happy! I know that to be true!! I know God Lives! I know this IS His Gospel! No matter what people think! I have seen his hand work in my life so much and I have seen it change others! I love this gospel! It is the best!!

Tan line on my feet!  HAHA

The funny for the night is we texted Exvonte and he then asks what we are doing and well I just started laughing! We told him we couldn't hang out and that we had curfew at nine, he was bummed but we invited him to church...but he didn't come (yet) hopefully next week. 

And we found out we are staying YAY :D Sister Wells and I will be together at least another six weeks.

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!!!

Take care!

Love,

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