Elder Northrup's Best 2 Years! "Preachin' to Peaches!": BOXING GLOVE HANDS IN JOE

Well, I'm here!! It is VERY different than Utah! I would venture to say it is a foreign mission cuz I can barely understand people, there are tree's literally everywhere so its almost impossible to know your way around (unless you have the southern 6th sense), and there are some really wack people down here!! But they are quite hilarious.

For the day of departure we woke up at 2:30 got done packing, clean our room, shower, etc. We then reported to the departure station at 3:50. Got on a bus that took us to front runner. From front runner we went to trax. From trax to the Airport.

The airplane ride was awesome! It was the most stable ride I have ever had and it was during the hurricane too. When we got off the airplane, we went straight to the temple and did baptisms which was awesome! It is a really pretty temple! Then we went back to the mission home, ate dinner then went to bed.

The next day we met our trainers. My comps name is Elder Lusko and he is basically an exact replica of me that lives in southern utah who looks like

Sid the sloth from ice age. It's so GREAT!!!

We went straight to work, knocking doors and doing service from the hurricane. I love being a missionary!!! It is so much fun!!

This is so great! On one such occasion when we were riding bikes/knocking doors we came across a very 'colorful' home. And I'm not being literal. When we approached an old man came out jibber jabbing! I couldn't understand a thing he was saying. We got off our bikes and went over to talk to him. We quickly found out that he was a hardcore racist with a very 'colorful' vocabulary. He just kept yelling something about how African American's shouldn't be allowed in the country. I can't quite remember. I just remember thinking this guys got some serious issues. He was ridiculous. But I can't say that I am surprised that happened.

The next few days were just full of proselyting and trying to find new investigators. It is so weird to be a missionary. I just think back to when I was a teeny kid looking up at all the missionaries and wishing I was one of them. And now I am. It's weird. But I am used to be called Elder Northrup now. It's pretty sick nasty!!

On Friday we went to an Investigators house to do some service after the hurricane blew a ton of their tree's over. We helped them repair their fences and chainsaw the fallen tree's. Now! This is actually hilarious!! (I'll try to make the most sense of this that I can) When we got done cutting the tree's we chucked them into the forest out of the way. But before we could do that some Elders on the other side of the fence had to chuck the wood over a fence so we could throw them into the forest. One of the logs that was chucked over the fence that I picked up just so happened to have a hornets nest inside....you can guess what happened next. The next few days I had swollen red boxing glove hands, hence the title. T'was pretty painful! But don't worry, they shrunk quite a bit!! I'm still laughing about it!! 1 week in and I already have a pretty dang good story!! Also this guys house was flippin weird man!! He had two giant spider pets that just roamed around his yard. One of them went missing after the hurricane, and one was just chillin on the side of his house like nobody's business. Now, if you know me, you know that I am super duper scared of spiders. They are so freaky. So when he said that one of them went missing in his forest, I really didn't want to do service anymore. I mean, just imagine a giant spider crawlin up your back when you reach down to grab another piece of wood or something. I unfortunately don't have a picture of them, but we are going back soon so maybe I can snap one. The one that was on the side of the house was as big as my hand, and the other one that got lost was apparently twice the size. Both my comp and another Elder said it was the biggest spider they had ever seen!!! AHHHHH! GOSH NASTINESS!!!!!!

It seems like the biggest thing that people have emailed me about is "have you gotten fat yet." I have been controlling myself. I could definitely eat more than what I am given, especially since we get fed my members constantly, but I always remember to cut down a bit! We also do some pretty narly work outs every morning. So I may gain some weight while I'm here, but I think most of it is going to be muscle.

Sunday was a fun time. We were expecting 13+ investigators to show up but none of them did, so we will be visiting them real soon.

Being out here on a mission has already been hard, but it is all worth it when I bring others unto Christ! On Thursday we were knocking doors in a place called forrest bend, where we were hoping to find at least 1 more investigator. We found a nice lady named Deloris Arthur. She has been looking for a church to join and we will be teaching her this coming Wednesday. Her mom is actually a Jehova's Witness so will see how it goes!!!

Anyway, I know that was a lot of stuff randomly jam packed into one email but it has been a crazy week!! Love y'all a good luck!!!!!

Elder Northrup

P.S. (From Mom... I asked him about his stings and this is what he said...) "Ya, I got 3 on one hand, 1 on the other arm that eventually spreaded to my hand, and one on my ear. It was hilarious but it also killed!!"