Elder Northrup's Best 2 Years! "Preachin' to Peaches!": REJOICE

This week has been a pretty full one so I will try to cut to the chase...

We had exchanges again this week with the ZL's!! We already had them once this transfer, but they wanted to come and work with us again since Elder Reading was obviously going to be transferred out of Conyers. It's too bad, all of the people that make chair soccer really fun are leaving this wednesday, so I will try to film some of the game so yall know what I'm talking about!!

We had our very first lesson with Doc Peterson (the horse ranch lady that we have been doing service for) so that was awesome!! She calls herself a 'reformed catholic' because she hates Catholicisms. Everything we taught her she understood very clearly and the spirit was very strong!! It was a really great lesson!!

That same day I got the feeling that I should give Steven Pollock, one of our investigators that we have been teaching for a while a call. He told us that his mom and his moms friend (who lets them stay in the apartment) said that he couldn't talk to us anymore and that he needed to throw away this mormon thing. That was really sucky! For the rest of the day I was just angry at myself. I kept thinking that maybe there could've been something more that I should've done. It wasn't until the next day that I felt deep within me, a peace. That there wasn't anything that I could've done. That was a tender mercy.

We were able to tune in to Pres. Thomas S. Monson's funeral so that was great!! The spirit was strong as the speakers talked of our dearly beloved Prophet. He will be missed dearly.

We went tracting right after and found a few people. We also saw a group of kids playing some tag outside, so being the child hearted person I am asked if we could join. We played that ninja slap hand game with them and they really liked it. Afterwards I asked who would like a Jesus card, and all of them screamed "I DO!!" HAHA I love the South!!

Funny thing. Yesterday after our regional broadcast for stake conference, a member showed me a video of us tracting down that same street (camera on a doorbell). It recorded us coming up to the door, knocking and walking away. The thing that was stupid was the person that owns that camera that posted the video of us (on a neighborhood blog) said that we were trying to steal peoples mail. She also said that when I got to the door and saw that their was no mail on the porch, told my comp "ready to go." LAME!! Sometimes people can be the worst. The good part of it was that all the people that we talked to backed us up on the comments section saying "I know those guys. I know that they weren't trying to steal anything." Thank goodness for those people!!!

Yesterday we had our first lesson with Ezekiel. We taught the Restoration and it was Incredible!!! We will be going back next week!!

The scripture and thought for this week comes from Joseph Smith. While I was reading the Book of Mormon, in the Book of Mormon (LOL) I came across a quote from Joseph Smith and Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley in the B.O.M. Student Manual. It said...

"The Prophet Joseph Smith (1805–44) taught, “The word Mormon, means literally, more good” (History of the Church, 5:400).

"In an overview of Mormon’s life, President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) referred to the meaning associated with Mormon’s name, a name that has become a reference to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

“May I remind you for a moment of the greatness and of the goodness of this man Mormon. He lived on this American continent in the fourth century after Christ. When Mormon was a boy of ten, the historian of the people, whose name was Ammaron, described him as ‘a sober child, and … quick to observe’ (Mormon 1:2). Ammaron gave him a charge that when he reached the age of twenty-four, he was to take custody of the records of the generations who had preceded him."

I thought that was the coolest thing!! The Book of Mormon truly means the Book of 'More Good.' It also shows the effort that Mormon put into living up to his name. He was an upright man before the Lord and he always walked with Him. I have a testimony that this Book is the word of God and I love having the duty to declare the Word!!

Love yall

Elder Northrup