Physical Death and Spiritual Rebirth

It's been a hecka week!! Lots of good things, some not so fun things, and many spiritual things....

Last Pday we were able to play Bubble Soccer (If you don't know what that is, just look it up on Youtube, you will probably laugh your head off), it was so fun and so exhausting!! We are pretty sore and having bruises everywhere, but sooooo worth it!!

On Wednesday we had a good amount of Lessons on Campus!! I will mention just a couple of them briefly so that this doesn't turn into an essay...

We met with Luke Johnson in the morning! His brother actually joined the church about 6+ years earlier and went on a mission as well. I guess Luke saw how much Josh loved the Church and wanted to have some of that joy as well!! He is one of the only people that I have taught in the mission that is trying to find out if there is a God. I am glad that we are able to help him on this pursuit, this is just a first for me! :)

Another lesson was with Mason and Catrina again!! It went really well, everytime we meet with Catrina she becomes more and more open!! Mason is getting really excited, he just wants to be baptized already!! The same day we went over to a members house for dinner and Mason & Catrina came along as well! We all had a dandy time!!

On Thursday we had a lesson with Lay! Before the meeting we texted him to find out if he was still coming and he said, "ya, we are coming now." We immediately knew that the 'we' in his text meant that he was bringing his Church of Christ Preacher, so we decided to play dirty as well and bring Mason along with us (the last church that Mason attended was the Church of Christ) and he threw down hard!! It was pretty awesome!! Then afterwards we met with this girl named Autumn who had a lot of questions about the Plan of Salvation!! As we were teaching, it was easy to see that Mason believed all the principles in the Plan as well, and he would teach them perfectly!! My comp and I just sat there dumbfounded. The man is the most Golden of all the Golden's!!!

Friday morning we got an unexpected call from our bishop. It was about 6:30am and he texted us saying that he needed to talk to us!! When we got on the phone with him he told us that the Senior Missionary, Elder Sorenson had passed away in his sleep that very night!! After we got off the phone, both of us sat there frozen for about an hour!! We were all very close to the Sorenson's, it was a real heartbreak! 

We went over to visit Sister Sorenson later in the day when she felt like she could have visitors. She had a few other visitors there as well; her brother, the sister missionaries and President Clayton! It was very interesting to see everyone's reaction, the gloomy faces and broken hearts, only to see Sister Sorenson smiling throughout all the conversations. She was still sad, and broke out in tears, but she also bore witness many times of the Plan of Happiness!! Towards the end of our time there our Mission President offered to give her a Priesthood Blessing. This was probably one of the most powerful blessings that I've ever witnessed. We were all in tears, but the Spirit of God was powerful and almost overwhelming!! I love Sister Sorenson with all my heart. Please keep her and her family in your prayers!!

On Saturday we had the opportunity to go to Jason Sun's baptism back in the Fayetteville Ward. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and also talked about how it has been incredible to see Jason's progress from when we first met him at his door to see him enter the waters of Baptism!! I know that baptism is just the first stepping stone into a more devoted life, I am so happy for the man!!

{Bro Pugmire (Chinese Speaker) and Jason Sun (Jin Sun)}

The very next day we had a Baptism in our own area for Gerald Drolet! There was a large support group there for him, he really felt loved there that day! It was pretty funny, right before the service we asked Gerald to put his baptismal suit on......buuuuuuuuuut it was too small! It was pretty stressful trying to find pants that would be long enough, then he had to run back to his apartment to get his long sleeve white shirt!! It felt like a mess, but it worked out in the end!! 

(us, Gerald, Colin Merling) *Buzz Cuts in honor of Elder Sorenson

Overall its been a very interesting and spiritually enlightening week!! The New Testament Story of Nicodemus and Jesus comes to mind as I think about the experiences from this week!

John 3:4-5,14-16

4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

14 ¶ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 ¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

I know that because of Jesus Christ we can all live again! He suffered, he died, and he lived again that we through him can do the same!! I have a testimony of this! I know it and I Love it!! :)

GO FIGHT WIN!!

Love YALL

ELDER NORTHRUP

The Spirit of an Apostle

Its been a great week to be a Missionary for Jesus Christ :)

Last Pday we played Ping Pong for hours, I am finally getting pretty good at it. (You hear that daddio?? I'm going to finally beat you when I get home!!! {Not trunky I promise}) 

Tuesday we went to Ghetto Cedartown and did an exchange with the Elders there!! I went with Elder Kohler this time around, we had a great amount of success in finding and teaching! It was a great day!!

Wednesday we had a great District Council! We love having Elder Sorenson (Senior Missionary) be our District Leader, we learn a lot from his example!!

We met with Mason and Catrina to talk about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!! She is still very hesitant about joining the Church but Mason is all in! He testified to her that he knew the Book of Mormon was true, and that he knew that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter~Day Saints is the Church with Christ at the head!!

We had dinner at a Members house later in the evening, Mason and Catrina came as well!! It was great to have them hear other testimonies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon as well!!

I also called Jason (from Fayetteville) because he is going to be Baptized this coming Saturday! He asked if I would give a talk on the Holy Ghost!! I am so excited!! Gerald is also going to be baptized this coming Sunday so it will be a very spiritual weekend!!

I'm not going to get super deep into the rest of the week! We had many miracles throughout the week through finding and teaching but it would take forever to list all of the them!! The main people that I would really ask yall to prayer for is; Jason, Gerald, Mason and Catrina!! Catrina is having a rough time right now, but we know that the power of Prayer is real!! Thank yall!!

Elder and Sister Costa

Elder and Sister Bednar

Now we will get to the meat of the email...

Yesterday we had the privilege of meeting with Elder and Sister Bednar, Elder and Sister Costa, Elder and Sister Alba for a Mission wide conference!! It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life!!! At the beginning of the meeting he told us that he didn't want us to write down anything he said, but to write down what the spirit said! He said something along the lines of, "If all you are writing down is what the speaker is saying, you aren't really listening." I can honestly say that although Elder Bednar said some amazing things, the impressions and words that came from the Spirit were much more personal and were inviting! I can't explain it!! Many of the feelings and impressions I had are very personal so I won't go into too much detail about those, but I would like to share some thoughts and feelings! :)

At one point we were all discussing as a mission a question one of the missionaries had for Elder Bednar. It was basically, "how can I stay active when I get home from the mission?" Elder Bednar related an experience he had with returned missionaries. These RM's were struggling, many from Anti-Church literature, etc. He asked them if they were reading the Book of Mormon as much as they were reading the Anti, all of them said that they were not! 

The thought came to my mind that if all I do is reap darkness, how do I expect to keep the light? Elder Bednar described it like this...

"Imagine you are put into a very dark room with sharp objects scattered around, all of which would either cut you or impale you if you fell onto or into one of these objects. Now right before they close the door of this room, they throw you a flashlight so that you can avoid all of the sharp objects." He said, "reading anti instead of the Book of Mormon is like taking that flashlight that the people gave you and turning it off. But when you turn off the flashlight, don't be surprised if you get cut up, bruised, or even die from the objects." It was simple yet enlightening. We NEED the Book of Mormon!! Please hold fast to it!!

The Conference with Elder Bednar was very special! Not only because he is an Apostle of the Lord, but because of the Spirit that I felt there!! Before the conference I was so excited to tell everyone back home and throughout the world on missions that my favorite Apostle came to my mission. But then I realized that it goes much deeper than that!! I have a firm testimony that not only is Russell M. Nelson a Prophet called by God himself, but that the other 14 Men standing by his side are also Prophets, Seers and Revelators!!! I still feel the same spirit right now (a day later) after that meeting!! It was incredible!!!!!!

Thank you for all you do to help build the Kingdom of God here on the Earth!! 

I love yall!!

Elder Northrup

Tree of Life

me, Elders Baird, Garrett, Hyde, and Isaksen

What a week!! It just keeps flying by!! It feels like we were just emailing yesterday, wow the mission goes by fast!! (By the By, don't know how long this email is going to be because of the many miracles we have seen this week. So if you don't want to read it all just skip to the last little paragraph)

I got to play Golf last week with a member in the Carrollton Ward. It was super fun!! It's funny how much I miss the game even though I never played it at home when I was given the opportunity many times from good ol' daddio!! (many regrets there). But hey, I actually played the best game of golf I have ever played!! If there's one thing you can count on dad, its that we will be playing much more when I get home!! :)

We drove up to Douglasville that night so that we could sleep over before Interviews with Pres. Clayton the next day!

Tuesday, Interviews Day! I don't want to sound negative or anything but this day is one of the most dreaded days of my mission!! It is a great day when you are a regular missionary! But when you are a Zone Leader, you get up in front of 4 different Districts and give the same training over and over and over again! This time it wasn't as long as last time!! It was only from 8:30am-5pm! I don't know how the AP's do it, 4 days in a row doing the same thing, listening to similar trainings!! They are mighty men for sure!!

When we were driving back we got a call from Mason, he wanted to talk for a little bit about the recent General Conference! When we talked to him on Saturday, he said that he wouldn't be able to watch it live but would watch some of the reruns! But when we talked to him in the car he said that he watched almost all of it! We were straight stunned! Then he proceeded to tell us that his favorite talk was the one about the guy in South America who was targeting the Missionaries to bash them, but then ended up getting converted instead. He said that he was in the exact same boat when he first approached us!! It was pretty cool to see his change of heart!

Wednesday we had our first formal lesson in person with Mason and Catrina together! We were planning on talking about the Restoration and watching the First Vision video but we ended up talking about the Plan of Salvation instead! It was pretty awesome to see their understanding grow!!

While we were on Campus we were finding and talked to a girl named Autumn! It was pretty cool because right off the bat she talked about how it is weird that God stopped calling Prophets! I will cut the story short there and tell yall more after this upcoming week!

The same night there was an institute class and they came to that as well! Gerald came to it, but wasn't in the best mood! During the class he felt inclined to tell everyone about how he told his mom that "she was corrupt and that she was going to Hell!!" Elder Isaksen and I were just facepalming the whole time he was telling everyone this!! We heard Catrina say under her breath to Mason, "This is the kind of stuff you hear in the Church of Christ!" We then told them that he wasn't a member and we all laughed about it after that!! 

Thursday we had the Douglasville Elders come down for Exchanges! It went really well, although I was super tired by the end of the day! We really put all of our effort into finding and teaching that day, and we reaped the rewards from it!! 

The other Elders went up to Bowdon to go visit a lady that Mason and Catrina referred to us!! The man is straight Golden!! He isn't Baptized/Confirmed, but he is doing Missionary Work because he see's the Vision!! If only we could get the Members of the Church riled up like he is!! The Church would be doubling membership!! But, that's a whole different story...

Friday and Saturday were very slow as they usually are!! Campus is usually dead on the Weekends and we don't have a whole lot to do besides followups and tracting!!

But Saturday night was where the Fun came in!! Mason wanted to do a church tour so we set that up and brought Bro Tengelson!! It started out pretty normal and spiritual until the very end when we got to the First Vision Painting!! He (Mason) testified to the three of us how he knew that the Book of Mormon was true!! Like I said last week, when he got halfway through the first book of Nephi, he dumped out all of his Tea and Coffee, but it wasn't until Saturday night that we learned the spiritual experience behind it! He said that whenever he imagined Heaven (ever since he was a little kid), he thought of plains and a bright, white tree in the center! While he was reading 1 Nephi 11-14 about the Tree of Life, he could only think of Heaven and he even began to cry. This all happened in front of Catrina. He at first thought it was strange and "Stupid" that he was crying over it, but he began to understand that it was the spirit that he was feeling!! It was very memorable to hear his testimony, I will never forget it!!

I won't go into details for Sunday because this is super long. But basically, Mason and Catrina came to Church and loved it!! :)

This Church is truly true, through and through!! GO, FIGHT, WIN!!

As always, 

Love yall

Elder Northrup

Go, Fight, WIN!!!

It's truly been a remarkable week, not only because of General Conference but because of how much the Lord is blessing us right now!

Last Pday was good, and not so good! We played some pong at the Baptist Center again, took a nap, and did some work for the rest of the day. The reason why I say it wasn't so good is because I found out that night I had minor food poisoning from the Subway's we had for lunch. The next few days were quite the adventure. 

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference, and from what I heard in between me running to the Bathroom and back ever 10 mins, it was pretty good!! :) It was very focused on Finding, how we find and why we find! It was especially helpful for our zone because we don't find as many people as we should!! When we got back from Zone Conference I was in quite a bit of pain so we just planned and did some other Zone Leader stuff for the rest of the day. I called Jason as well and he said he was excited to tell me that he would be baptized on Oct. 27!! YIPPEE!!

Thursday we had our Zone Leadership Council, we gave some instruction on the Zone's actuals and goals. It was good to be able to train again!! We had the Hiram Elders there as well for exchanges, and it worked out well for a little bit but again my body was not having it!!

Friday was my first full day out and about! We had a really good day of Followups, finding and teaching Less Actives! It seems like we are coming along very well in the Carrollton Ward!!

Friday night we called Mason and his wife Katrina to answer some questions and to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon. Summer (one of E. Isaksen's Recent Converts) jumped on the call as well and bore sweet and sincere testimony about the Book of Mormon. She has gone through a lot of trials because of her choice to join the Church. Her parents and family are completely against her! She is so strong in the faith and it was so great to have her on the call with Mason and Katrina!

Saturday and Sunday, Conference Days!!! I loved everything about General Conference, it was great to be gathered together as one body of Christ, all around the World! I loved the thought that all my friends spread out on their missions, and all my family are gathered together to hear the prophet of the Lord speak!! What a blessing it is to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter~Day Saints!!

The Lord has blessed us with finding a lot of people to teach this last week! Our goal was to find 10 New People, and we ended up finding 13!! We couldn't have done it without the Lord!! Excited to see where the next few weeks will lead us!!:)

The biggest miracle of all actually happened last night while we were on a call with Mason again!! He had some questions about a verse in 2 Nephi 6 and needed some help with it!! We had a brother from the Ward help answer many of his questions! Then completely out of nowhere, Mason just dumped on us what he has been feeling over the last few weeks since he has been reading the Book of Mormon! The very first thing he said was, "Sweet Tea, Black Tea, Iced Tea; they're all my favorite. I LOVE Tea!! But when I got halfway through the first book of Nephi, I went into the fridge and the pantry and dumped down the drain every bit of Tea that I had (we hadn't taught him about the Word of Wisdom yet)." He also said, "I can relate with the Book of Mormon better than any other book, it feels like it is being written to me. There's no way Joseph Smith could've written this Book. He would either be a Prophet called by God, or a really good guesser. I feel as though he is a Prophet." One of the last things that he told us was that when he tuned into General Conference, he heard a story that changed his outlook. It was the story about the guy in South America that wanted to target the Missionaries to bash them. Mason said that the first time he approached Elder Kohler and me (we were on Exchanges), that was what his intent was. It was to make us question what we believed. But as time has gone on and as he has read the Book of Mormon with an open heart, he has come to know of its truthfulness!!

Again, What a Wonderful Privilege it is to be a Missionary in the Great Georgia Atlanta Mission!! :) Love y'all!!

Elder Northrup