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