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