Ramadan

(I took these pictures off of the Georgia Atlanta Mission facebook page.)

This was a Ramadan dinner the Islamic community invited us to. It was fascinating to learn about their religion and eat their delicious food. They are wonderful, dedicated people.

Success in the Invite

On Pday we played some Ultimate Frisbee and I could really feel the 30 lbs that I've put on since I've been here. That plus the heat and humidity didn't make it super enjoyable but it was good nonetheless. 

On Tuesday we had a really interesting experience. We were visiting one of our investigators who owns a card store in the afternoonish and we started to talk to one of the guys in there. We got into a good conversation about Christ right up until we brought up the Book of Mormon. As we testified of the Book, the spirit was able to testify to the man that what we were saying was true. When we invited him to read the Book of Mormon he refused. He felt the spirit, but still didn't want it. That was frustrating in the moment, especially when he said that he was probably missing out on a lot by not reading it. Right as he walked out the door, another man walked in named John. We basically taught him the same thing, testified powerfully as well, and he accepted a Book of Mormon and said he would like to meet as well! It was crazy and interesting to have such opposite experiences, of rejecting and accepting the spirit at the same time! It was cool!

Wednesday we had a lesson in the morning with one of our older investigators named Gavyn. He is 18 y.o. and has a desire to be baptized and learn more. At the moment I am not entirely sure if it for a good reason but we will be playing it by ear, or should I say playing it by the spirit to discern. 

Later in the day we met with a guy named Ray Mcadoo!! He makes wooden flags for War Vet's and we wanted to go check up on him. We were sitting in their garage talking when his wife bolts out the door and hands us each a twenty dollar bill and just says thank you for all that you do for my husband. It astounds me how Christlike people are here in the South. She just said that she knew some mormons that went on missions and she knew what sort of stuff they sacrificed so she wanted to help in a little way. That was super nice. They are flying to Switzerland this week and Ray said he would bring the Book of Mormon along for the flight, so that's pretty awesome!! Please pray for them!!

Thursday was interesting. The most notable thing that happened was a guy that we gave a Book of Mormon to weeks ago called us up and asked if he could return it. When we asked why he said it reminded him too much of the King James Version and the way it is written out in the 'thee's and thou's.' In a nutshell he was just kinda lazy or there was another excuse that he just didn't want to tell us! 

Friday was pretty goodly! We found out that Steve at the Cardshop has started to read the Book of Mormon, so that's a big improvement since he has been in contact with Missionaries for 10+ years. Later in the night we met on the front porch with an older guy named Meco. We talked about the spirit and just about everything in life. The man felt the spirit hardcore, now hopefully he will act on the impressions he gets!! It was a powerful meeting!!

Saturday evening we had dinner with a part member family that we will be teaching here shortly. They are the St. Onge's and the only one that has been baptized is the mom. Her husband is a returned veteran from Afghanistan and he is super cool. Their kids are kinda crazy but I love them to death!! Overall they are just an incredible family! Please keep them in your prayers!!

On Sunday we had talks given from Pres. and Sister Foote!! Yesterday was their last Sunday in the mission so the ward also through them a little linger longer party. They had some powerful talks, I've learned a lot from those two over the course of these 10 months!! I am so grateful for them!!

Overall this week was great!! We didn't get a lot of success in the view of numbers, but I know we had success at inviting. And that is truly the success that is counted in Heaven!! 

I love yall tons

Elder Northrup

TODAY

I'm not exactly sure how long this is gonna be because we are about to go play Ultimate Frisbee with the Zone!! YEET!!

Last Pday was awesome!! Just a regular old day!!

apt. baseball not a good idea

Tuesday we were supposed to have a lesson with Floyd but when we got there he had to cancel!! Brother Okonkwo was our teamup (he is super enthusiastic and positive) so he was able to connect big time with Floyd!! Super cool to see!! Right before we left Bro. Okonkwo asked Floyd to watch his mormon message, so all yall need to watch it as well!! Just look up on lds.org, Nnamdi Okonkwo and it will come up!!

Later that night we got Antied again!! Same old same old trash!! Doesn't even matter anymore!! At this point I'm just saying, "Hey Satan, ya best be improving your game cuz your score be droppin." 

Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Whitewater Elders again!! At one point in the day, Elder Chiu and I were tracting down the street and another man was walking down the street towards us. Long story short we got talking and he started to talk about how our Church was false. He said, "Your Founder, uh what was his name...Juh Juh." And I said, "Oh ya Jesus Christ!!" HAHAA he got so mad!! I've never felt more proud in my life!! That made the mission worth it, just that one moment!

Hotlanta!

We had our last Zone Conference with Pres. and Sister Foote on Thursday!! It was another Temple Conference so super spiritual of course!! It lasted all the way up until 5pm so by the time we got back (with atlanta traffic and all) it was too late to do anything! So we just went to a members house for dinner and that was the day!

 ZONE CONFERENCE PICS

On Saturday the Whitewater Elders had a baptism for a kid named Jarell!! He is a good kid and we were able to attend!! The spirit was very strong and it pumped me up quite a bit!!

Jarell's Baptism

Later in the day we were biking to the trailer park which is a long hilly bike ride away, and it was hitting upwards of 90 and over plus humidity!! It was miserable up until a guy saw us about half way and gave us a ride. That is the first time ever on the mission that this has happened!! That was straight Godliness right there!!

While in the trailer park we visited Jason since it had been about a month since we had seen him, and although he was busy with work and such he still had us in for a little over an hour!! We talked about having a Church Tour on Monday morning (today) and he was pumped!! We just got back from it and it was awesome!! He is a live streamer so he recorded everything except the Chapel, while there were 7,000 other people watching!! He also told them to read the Book of Mormon along with other such things!! Miracles!!! Miracles I say!!!

Jason: Church Tour

Sunday was again, a really good day!! The AP's investigator named Charlie came to church for the first time and loved it!! They had a long lesson that night as well and now he has a baptismal date!! 

Had dinner that night with the Fancy Nelson's again!! This time we had Steak Sushi and Lobster!! Man it was the best!! 

nelsons fancy dinner: culinary torch for steak

While we were riding back, a Mosquito flew into my eye and stung it, and now I have an eye infection!! That was kinda hilarious actually because we weren't even 30ft from the members house before it happened!! It hurts real bad but its being treated well so that is good!! HAHA

Just a quick spiritual thought because we got to hit the asphalt....

Read or listen to the Talk titled, "Today" by Lance B. Wickman!! It talks all about the Atonement, and how we need to use it TODAY!! 

Love yall!!

Elder Northrup

Elder Ross before he goes home

Last Picture with "The Feet"

I know Elder Northrup is going to miss these two. They have truly blessed his life more than he can express!

"Cleansing of the Inner Vessel"

(Note from Mom) Every Sunday I look forward to getting a text from Sister Lester titled "Sunday Smiles". This week she sent this picture of Elders Northrup, Rankin, Jones, Ashcraft and her cute son!

Well, this was definitely one of the more successful weeks of the mission!! We got 5 new investigators and one on date for July 7th so that was pretty good!! I know numbers don't really mean anything, I'm just glad that the Lord see's our efforts and wanted to give us a pleasant surprise!

Tuesday was a real good day!! We had an awesome District meeting on Consecration and becoming Master Teachers/Ministers!! I had a feeling from the spirit to go on a bit of a surprise exchange with the Whitewater 1 Elders in their Area and it worked out really really well! Elder Chiu and I found a guy in their apartment complex named Ragu (yes like the pizza sauce). They are teaching him right now and he is progressing really well!! 

Wednesday was Arsome!! We found 3 new investigators and had really cool experience towards the end of the day! We felt bold and full of faith so we went to a more wealthy part of town and ended up finding a really cool guy named Floyd! He let us in his home and we taught him about the Book of Mormon! He is non-denom and hadn't attended church in a really long time! He said, "I feel right now, it would be really worth it to search out what yall believe in." We have an appointment with him tomorrow, please pray for him!

Thursday we had exchanges with the TT's!! I went with Elder Cranney for the last time (because he is dying in just a few weeks) and we had a real good time!! We were following up with potentials when we knocked into this lady named Brittany! We taught part of the Restoration on her porch and she said she would read the Book of Mormon ( one that she already had) so that was super awesome!! We are going back Thursday!!

Friday we painted a members deck for 4 hours so that was pretty exhilarating!! Later that night we were talking to some members after dinner about general conference talks! They brought up a talk that Pres. Packer did back in 2010 about how much the World needs cleansing, and about how the morals of the world would fall significantly in the coming years!! I think its called "Cleansing of the inner vessel." Go back and watch it!!

Saturday there was an event called Balloons at Fayetteville!! We tried to get many a missionaries there, but there wasn't a whole lot of success!! It was funny how many stares we were getting from people!! Man, I am really going to miss that when it's time to head home!!

Sunday was a gucci one!! It sounds as though us missionaries wont be allowed to be in Ward council any longer from here on out from the bishopric changes! That is just too bad, I wish people would understand that we are here to help, even if we just sat in for a few minutes!!

I invite yall to study that talk from Pres. Packer and what it tells us about the 2nd coming and how we can prepare for it!!

Love yall

Elder Northrup

Bro Okonkwo-favorite member in the ward (watch his mormon message)

The Lord Qualifies Those He Calls

Me and the Turtle I almost killed on my bike, his name is Larry

Well it is only five days since the last time I emailed...but there is still a lot of stuff that happened this week!!

The AP's were gone at interviews so we didn't do a whole lot for PDay!!

We went to dinner that night at a members house. He invited a less active over and we testified powerfully of the importance of Church attendance!! It was pretty awesome!!

On Thursday we weren't seeing any huge miracles until we decided to go visit a member!! I never visited him when I was with Elder Frandsen, and on top of that I barely knew the guy! I sent a text in the morning asking if we could come over and he said he would love it! When we got over that night he immediately said he wanted a blessing and some counsel! It was pretty cool to be able to be the Lords hands, everyday of course but especially that night!!

Friday we had exchanges with the ZL's! The first part of the day we were at the Mission Home moving furniture around for the contractors, so that was pretty cool I guess!!

Me and Elder Hansen saw a sort of Investigator that owns a store in our area! We got talking to him for a while and he actually said out loud that he kinda wanted to be a Mormon! Even if he doesn't become a member anytime soon, I know that the desire is deep in his heart! That was pretty flippin cool!!

Saturday was another Hot-lanta Day here in Georgia!! We were finding for most of the day, and even though we didn't actually find anyone, we were given 4 water bottles! So I do know that the Lord is watching over us through these wonderful southerners!!

We followed up with a guy named Udera afterwards! He and his family were heading out for the day but we were able to get a few words in! We explained that we believed in modern day prophets, and he seemed to really understand!! We invited him to church as well and he said he would come the following sunday!

In the night we went to a Ramadon celebration with twenty other missionaries including Pres. and Sister Foote!! They recognized us for all the white shirts and there a lot of people that were there that accepted us, at least for that night!! It was way cool!!

Yesterday (Sunday) was one of the best and worst days of my mission!! They released the Bishop of the Fayetteville Ward and none of us knew it was gonna happen!! It was super sad to see, and I even started to tear up a little bit when we gave him a vote of thanks!! He has done more for missionaries than any other person in any of the Wards!! I was talking to Elders Ashcraft and Elsholz and they both said he was their favorite bishop!! He is so full of Light!! I am so grateful I got to serve with him for a few months!!

There were many times during this week that Satan was doing all he could to get me down!! I know that on my own, I don't even qualify to 'loose the shoes on the Savior's feet', but how thankful I am to be a representative instead. No matter how much I mess up, he forgives. What a miracle! What a gift!!

Love yall

Elder Northrup

Twisted Taco 4 times in 3 Days

Many a Trees