Christlike Love

4th of July Parade

Another week come and gone!!

Last Pday we had a cool experience teaching a short lesson to a man named Dee!! That was basically the jist of what happened that day besides all the regular activities!!

We had a fantastic District Counsel on Tuesday !! I love my District, everyone is very Diligent so it makes it pretty easy to be a District Leader!!

Tuesday we taught Gavyn another lesson, and we read in the Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 31 about Baptism, the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end!! It went really well and at the end we invited him to pray about a Baptismal Date!! Please keep him in your prayers!!

Later that night we had dinner with the Waldorfs, the flippin best family in the Mission!!!!! Every time we have dinner with them, when its our turn to give the spiritual thought, they go around and tell us about their missionary experiences!! Not just the Parents, but all the kids going down to a 6 year old!! They are the best family!! When we shared our message we bore testimony of the Atonement and bringing others unto Christ, then everyone else in the family did the same!! I'm not much of a cryer when I feel the spirit, but while we were there I was straight balling my eyes out!! 

Cool Pic

Sons of Freedom Guy

Musket Shooting

On Wednesday we had the 4th of July Parade and it was a blast!! There were a 'full decent' amount of peep's there, and many were interested!! A lot more than I would think!! Later on in the middle of the day, there were some guys shooting some muskets at the town square so we ran over there and had a little 'Founding Fathers Devotional.' That was pretty sweet!! 

We had dinner with the Redneck Family in the ward!! They had their friends over as well, and the whole time each family was just roasting each other!! Elder Rankin and I just sat back and enjoyed the show!!

4th of July BBQ

Thursday was the 'Meet the New Mission President' Meeting!! It was our first look at just how 'loaded' Pres. Clayton really is!! We all knew he had money but apparently he has appeared in the Forbes magazine a couple of times!! At the meeting he dropped a couple grand on Chick-Fil-a gift cards like it was nothing!! We were all just dumbfounded!!

At the meeting I got to see my son (greenie) again for the first time in almost 6 months!! He hasn't changed a bit!!

We also had a District Leaders Expectations Meeting right after the other meeting and that went really well!! Each of us DL's gave a training on a Christlike attribute and I was given Charity!! The spirit was strong and we got some good plans for our districts!!

On Friday we went up to Ray Mcadoo's house to see if he had gotten back from his vacation in Europe!! We had a very long talk about his trip, then we dived into a spiritual lesson!! At the end we said a prayer and he came up crying from the strong spirit that was there!! He told us we were some of his best friends, and we said the same to him!! He is a really good man!! :)

On Saturday while we were eating some Burger King (I know, shame on us) a guy named bill walked up to our table and said, "This might be my only chance so I need to ask yall....what is the difference between mormons and every other Christian Church?" I was struck dumb for a second, that was the first time anybody ever approached me!! So of course we told him about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and Priesthood Authority!! We will be having an appointment sometime this week so keep him in your prayers please!!!

The best part about Saturday was when we went to visit Doug again!! It was pouring outside and we were on bikes so when we pulled up to his street we saw a dude Weed Eating his grass!! We knew it had to be him, he never quits!! After we got talking for a while, his dad pulled up and let us into the house. His dad loved us as well, they were stoked to have us over!! They are great people, please keep them in your prayers as well!!

Sundays are my favorite days of the Week so it was incredible as always!! The Sacrament was good, renewing Baptismal Covenants is a miracle, I love Sundays!!

For this mini spiritual thought, it came from an experience I had on Saturday!! One of the guys we are working with invited us to go to a car show with a bunch of antique and expensive cars!! While we were there, I met a guy named Ray who started to tell me about his 1940ish Ford!! We also got talking about Jesus Christ and had a really great conversation!! But the best part, the part that changed me in this exchange with him was when he said out of complete sincerity, "I love Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and I love you." He started to cry and he gave me a firm handshake. The spirit was very strong. I know that man was a true disciple of Jesus Christ, he is an example to me of the part that I need to play!! I get too negative about other Denominations and sometimes I completely forget that they are my brothers and sisters, Children of God!! 

I love yall!! Bless up

Elder Northrup

HAHAA-in Vinces apartment