....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

Humbling experiences make us stronger. :)

Hey You guys!! :)

Transfer 11 Week 3

Letters:

-Elder S. Rose

-Uncle Kenn

-Package Mom, loved it :)

-Package from Dad, thanks for the gloves :)

So a side note with the packages, will you send them to the mission office address, it is safer that way and I will still get them. :) thank you. :)

So this week was just a crazy week! And we did a ton of walking!mat the beginning of the week we "enjoyed" getting lost further on the south side. One was going to a dinner at Sister Amerisons who is new to the ward, and way adorable! I took us the wrong directions...ha and so we were an hour late...sigh...but she ended up taking her son to school and we got there at the same time..God works in mysterious ways! Ha and the other one we went to take someone's phone back but we rode the bus way too far and ended up walking ten blocks or so...but we now know how to get there! And that is grand. :)

On Tuesday Our alarm didn't go off...we woke up at 8! Oh my goodness! We slept in so late! We must have been tired! I'd say it is the latest I've slept in on my mission expect when I was sick. Something with the alarm has happened before but we tend to wake up at 7 or before. Then we called Misty at eight and she was like nothing would have woke me up at 7:30 (when we usually call her to read scriptures) and then she was like The Lord works in mysterious ways. Haha...but not going to lie it was a tender mercy from The Lord because we were so exhausted and that extra hour and a haft was really nice, but don't worry it hasn't happened again. 

We had a lot of great lessons and things are going great! We had a zone meeting this week which was of course awesome and stake conference! Which was wonderful! 

Oh oh oh So we taught Victoria this week and invited her to be baptized on November 22 and she said Yes!! Oh my Golly! I can't believe it! It is just so cool! The Lord sure is blessing us! 😇

So story time about a very humbling experience. This story has to do with JZ. Oh man this kid is so awesome and I feel so honored being able to teach him! Things are going well with him. But he is not getting baptized this weekend. So here is the story. We got everything all figured out and things were ready to go and then we had a lesson on Saturday and it was good but it just felt off and then he said he wasn't going to come to stake conference and we had a ward member also invite him and this ward member expressed his feelings that he is nervous about JZ being baptized if he isn't coming to church. We felt the same way and so we did a LOT of praying and we talked on the phone with JZ until 11pm...that night we were super tired but it was a good phone call and we were able to figure out a few of his concerns. We left him to read something in the Book of Mormon and pray about it and called him Sunday morning and he had a sweet experience with that. But he didn't come to church and we ended up skyping him last night and all decided to move his baptism back. It wasn't the easiest thing to do but Sister Lepule and I knew that would be the best thing for him and he felt good about it too. We are meeting with him tonight which will be great! 

Well we have a zone activity today and I want to play so I will talk to you all next week. 

Thank you for all you do!

I love you all!!

Love,

💕Sister North 🐒

✉️📫✉️📪✉️📬✉️📭✉️

800 Waukegan Rd. #203

Glenview IL 60025

Hyde Park is always an adventure!

Got a letter form my sister and it made my week!

Date:  October 13, 2014
Area:  Hyde Park, Chicago
Companion:  Sister Lepule

Transfer 11 Week 2

Random quotes from the week

-"Can I have your earrings?" -Crazy drunk girl

- "Do you want a mint? 'No' ..and she responded "Never refuse a mint because you never know why the person is asking" haha -Cute couple on the bus

-"I'm looking for a wife" -weirdo on the bus (we just informed his comment and we didn't give him our number....

Letters:

-Aunt Karoline

-Grandma Mary

-Sister Burr

-my Sister Taryn! When I got it I was like oh it's from Mom and then I saw my Sisters name! I was pretty excited! :) thanks Taryn! I love you! :)

Monday

We had Super awesome lesson with JZ with Brother Laney and Dasha and we finished talking about the Plan of Salvation and talked more about how the Holy Ghost works. It went really well. JZ is awesome to teach!

Then we had a Family Home Evening activity that we were in charge of and it was a success! :) yahoo! Thank you Mom for showing me how to plan parties and play games. We had a lesson on what a FHE (Family Home Evening) is and then we played minute to win it type games.  It was a lot of fun. We do wish more investigators and less actives came but ward members came and they all got to meet JZ and that was super awesome! :) We were really glad the activity went well, we were nervous that no one would come. 

Tuesday

We had district  meeting at the stake center and after that we watched Meet the Mormons! And it was super awesome! I invite ALL of you to check it out! They show six different families and there life and that Mormons are normal people. One of the families is in Napal and it made me think if my awesome neighbors from school, Tenzing and Tashi so that was super cool! Everyone should go watch it. :)

Here is a trailer for it:

http://lds.org/go/37N 

Got some new knives!

We ended up going over to Sister Larsen's to call this lady with her but that didn't work out so we shared a little message with her. Then we went and had dinner with Sister Elisian and her adorable baby August (Augie) it was tasty and we did her dishes, she told us it was fine but we, well actually Sister Lepule did them, I did help a little bit but she did all the work and I scooped the ice cream :) 

Then on the bus ride home I was by these ladies who spoke Spanish and man I don't understand 98% of what they say???I should know more with how many years of Spanish I have taken....maybe I should admit that but oh well. 

Wednesday

I can't remember what we did in the morning...so it must not been exciting but our member cancelled on us for our lesson with Chris so we stressed for a while to find a member but then Sister Drnec saved the day and the lesson was so amazing and she is a perfect fellowshipper and she is coming with us this week! Yay! 

Sunset

Then we had a lesson with JZ at the church and there was a relief society activity so everyone was busy with that and we had a Sister agree to join us but she got distracted but as they all came in everyone would say hi to him so that was great! And we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. JZ always has great questions and we laughed a lot it went well. JZ kept saying man you have like a secret meeting haha 

Then we ended the night at the Relief society activity and ate dinner, I didn't realize how hungry I was ha and got to talk to some of the members so that was good. 

Thursday

We met with Shawn and Rayna today with Sister Decker and it was so awesome! They are both really sweet but they told us they are fine right now so we don't know if we will still be teaching them. We will call them in a few weeks. We taught the Plan of Salvation which was good. Sister Decker spoke a lot of Chinese with them and man there was such a sweet spirit there! We didn't understand all that was being said but we had a good idea of it! It was pretty cool! Rayna really perked up more this time, I think just because she could understand it more. They are going to this Chinese church and they pretty much told them we are bad but I think we cleared that up and they know that we are good people. So hopefully they will have a desire to learn more later. They are so cool and I just love them.

We went and saw Theola and Leory.  Leory made us pizza! It was good and we were super hungry so a perfect combination. :) we sang them a song and they loved it and it was a good time and started helping make greens. 

Then on our way to scripture study we had an interesting experience at the bus stop...for awhile we had a great conversation with this lady and then a drunk lady came and sat in the middle and the our cool lady friend started talking and gave me reason to get up so I didn't have to smell the beer anymore..that stuff is so nasty! And another creepy person came and started talking about full moons and I don't even know...but it was weird. 

Elder Gillis - He knows Sister Attanasio!

But Scripture study was great and we had an awesome turn out! We talked about the 10 Commandments and Elder Christensen made yummy cookies. :)

Friday

We went and helped Christy and Billie do there laundry and we were there forever because the dryers decided to not work and only one of them did and we had four loads to dry...yea

h that wasn't fun. But we helped clean there apartment and it was still a fun time. They are great! 

Then we had a super awesome lesson with Chantelle and started talking about the Restoration that lead into Temples and Marriage and different things and we invited her to be baptized on December 6 and she said Yes!! Ahh we are so excited for her! She is super cool!  I met her my first day here by a miracle because she just moved and we didn't have her address and then we got it but we hadn't been able to meet for a while and we are meeting with her and she is even reading the Book of Mormon! So that is pretty cool. :)

Saturday

We spent the morning doing Stop bys and trying to contact all of our referrals. We get so much in is area it is so crazy. But it is fun! 

Then we had dinner with Theola and  Leory and ate some greens which is like spinach. Dad you would love it! And shared some scriptures from 3 Nephi. We also had a nice cream cone and then I made Theola another one! It was pretty cute. :) she was going to come to church but she wasn't feeling too good but hopefully soon. 

The food the Relief Society gave us.

And we ended the night Planning and that was awesome! And we are going to have a great week! :)

Sunday

Church of course was great! And the Crooks were awesome and brought us lunch! Yummy yummy! :) they brought Enchiladas and I've been wanting those things forever! So it was rather nice! We bought stuff to make some but haven't had time yet but maybe this week. :) 

JZ didn't come to church today because he was finishing a paper but we still had a great lesson with him at the Rudds and it was awesome. Ezra there cute little baby kept 

laughing and JZ was like "why are you laughing at me?" It was funny and cute haha. We taught JZ the Word of Wisdom and he is already following it! Yay! And we taught a little about the priesthood and blessings and it went really well the Rudds are awesome! :)

On our way to do some stop bys we had an awesome Pow wow at the bus stop where we got to talk to four people and one of the guys was like wait you are really from Utah? He was excited...usually it's just like yeah...I'm from Utah ha they were all super cool! And it was such a fun talk and the ten minutes waiting for the bus went by fast, I actually wanted more time to talk so we could of gotten there information but we left them with a card so hopefully they will look the church up. 

We ended the night with Misty and it actually went rather well we read from this months ensign on Nephi's now because that is where we are reading the Book of Mormon with her. Then she fed us dinner, which was tasty. 

love you all and I hope you have a super day! And a super awesome week!

Love,

💕Sister North 🐒

✉️📫✉️📪✉️📬✉️📭✉️

800 Waukegan Rd. #203

Glenview IL 60025

Sometimes people love us so much they kiss us.....

Date:  October 6, 2014
Area:  Hyde Park, Chicago
Companion:  Sister Lepule
Transfer 11 Week 1

Hello my wonderful family!

First things first...Happy Birthday to three of the most amazing people in my life!  First my wonderful Daddy who has been my hero in my life!  He has always been there to save me in my times of trouble!  Then my two brothers!  Bryen who will always make you laugh and Jered who will kill you with kindness!  Boy am I blessed to have the best family ever!  Happy Birthday!

Letters:
- Mom :)  ha when I got it I was like what is in it...hahah thanks for the airheads, the stickers and stamps!  And of course the note.  :)  You are the best!  I must point out that yes I noticed you sent me an orange one ;)  teehee I actually gave it to Sister Lepule and kept the blue one for myself because that's my favorite.  Remember that one time we were on vacation and you found out I love those things?  Ha good times!  :)

We had a good week, it was slow but good.

Monday:
Pretty much the day of meeting people everywhere we went.  I feel asleep, yup took a nice nap on Pday yay.  It was really nice!  Before we had dinner with the Weavers we helped the Gannaways move a mattress.  Then I helped do the dishes at the Weavers before Sister Weaver came home, and oh my goodness they are just super funny and I love them!

Tuesday:
Sister Lepule was still getting over being sick so we took it a little easy (sorta) we talked to Max at the library for awhile.  He is cool and interesting and we just tried to contact referrals but no one was home.  We ended the night with dinner with Alexis which was the best.

Wednesday:
We had District meeting and it went well.  Sister Lepule and I taught about talking to everyone and it went well.  Then we walked outside the church and we started contacting and met this cool guy named Robert.  Then this guy with tons of bags of groceries cam and then we helped him take his groceries to his house a half a block away.  It was awesome!  I finally got to help someone with groceries on my mission!  It is something I've always wanted to do but every time I have gotten rejected!  So it was a good moment!

We stopped by Lowanda and told her Happy Birthday.  She starts working today so that is super awesome.

We had a good lesson with Chrsitopher and talked about prophets and he is excited to come to conference!  Yay!

Then on our way to our next appointment this creepy man...kissed Sister Lepule's hand...it was rather weird.  We were walking to the bus stop and this guy from behind us in a car waves to us and we say hi, but then go on our way.  Then he comes to the bus stop, parks, and gets out and talks to us and we shake his hand goodbye and he kisses her hand...luckily he didn't kiss mine.

Can't help but think of Bubba every time I pass this stuff.

We had dinner with the Parker's and then taught the strong hold lesson.  They are super great!  :)

Thursday:
We did some planning, went over to Sister Dastrups house and talked to her about an English class and then helped Misty cook dinner.

On our way to the church I sat behind the cutest little girl and when I gave her a Jesus picture she was like "oh WOW!" in the cutest voice ever!  It pretty much just melted my heart.

Scripture study went well, Aboslo and JZ came and the Elders taught about prophets.  It was grand.

Friday:
We took Lowanda out for lunch at Red Lobster which is her favorite place.  She said that I love her because I don't like sea food.  HAAHA :)

We had a lesson with Abosolo with Sister Evens and one thing I have to say is teaching Abosolo is very humbling.  He is so smart and he thinks SO different from me.  I feel so inadequate.  The lesson went well, we read the Book of Mormon by Faith.  Where he opened up to Heleman 9 and we read and we kept praying that is would answer some of his questions and it did!  It was great to have Sister Evans there, she is smart and awesome!

Amari, Sister Lepule and I

Saturday and Sunday:
Wasn't conference just amazing????  I really loved Sunday mornings session and I felt it gave me a lot of direction for my life right now.

Way awkward moment was on Saturday morning.  Christopher is already at the church and we are like twenty minutes early.  So we give him a hand shake and next thing I know he is coming in for a hug...nope he ended up kissing my cheek!  Oh man can you say surprised!  Then Sister Lepule held out her hand and backed away and he was like ooo and the Elders died of laughter and after it was all over It was pretty funny but man I was in shock!  Before conference started we gave him a tour.  He enjoyed the session.  He is really cool, he is an older guy.

JZ watched the priesthood session, that is so wonderful.

When President Obama comes home they block the roads.

We had lunch at the church both days.  Saturday we had BBQ and Sunday I had noodles.  The church was freezing!  The weekend was so cold!  NO FUN!  I am not ready for it.  I have already had hot chocolate and I even bought some today.  Today is warmer, it is only in the 50's so that is nice.

We met with Alexis and had a really good lesson and talked about how she wants to quit smoking and ways we can help her.  She is super sweet and makes me laugh.  I hope she will see that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can help her conquer anything if she starts doing the things he asks of us.

It has been a good week!  I love listening to Conference, it is so uplifting.  I felt like it talked about following the Prophet and loving

everyone you meet.  It was the best!  It is crazy to think that next conference I will be home with you guys and not even at school!  It will be my first conference at home since high school.  I am looking forward to that and being a part of the traditions.  Man I love our traditions!  I do miss them and you!  You are just the best!  Thanks for loving me.  :_ and writing and emailing me.  They really are a highlight.

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

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,

💕Sister North 🐒

✉️📫✉️📪✉️📬✉️📭✉️

800 Waukegan Rd. #203

Glenview IL 60025

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. 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-09-016-wrong-roads?lang=eng

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,

💕Sister North 🐒

✉️📫✉️📪✉️📬✉️📭✉️

800 Waukegan Rd. #203

Glenview IL 60025

 

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 :)