"On the Road Again"

Elder Burton, the man!

Well, I am being transferred so that should be a good time!! Usually you find out on Wednesday at Transfer meeting where you will be going and all that, but Pres. Clayton just took us into a room and told us this time. I will be serving as a Zone Leader in Carrollton, still stressing but super excited to serve at the same time!!

Last Monday we went to the Aquarium and that's why I didn't really say anything on the mass email...

Tuesday we had an awesome District Counsel, I am sad to be leaving such a great District! I love all the missionaries so much, its been a fast transfer for sure!!

We actually had exchanges the same day with the Zone Leaders so that was a full decent time!! I went with the always funny Elder Boyer and we had a great time!! The same night the Priests had an activity to go out on splits with us so we had some fun with them as well!! 

Wednesday we moved another family out, and it basically took all day but we felt good after it all!! We had a lesson at Jason's house again, we are meeting with him way more frequently now!! We talked for a little bit about Baptism, and he said that he would be baptized when he felt it was right! He truly understands that baptism is a promise to God, so I am very proud of the steps that he is taking!!

Thursday I had the best exchange ever with the TT Elder Burton!! He was so fun to serve with!! We did a ton of finding and taught a lot of unplanned lessons!! It was so good to have someone that was super enthusiastic about working and having fun with it as well!! TheLord truly blessed us with many people that day!! Hopefully there will be much progression in the future!! :)

Homemade Pizza with the Lesters

Friday we had a great dinner with the Lesters, then had another incredible lesson with Jason! Bro. Lester came with us and bore powerful testimony of the Gospel (being a convert in the past), it was so sweet!!

Saturday was one of the greatest days of the mission!! Ella St. Onge, someone that the Apes and us have been working with in a part member family got Baptized! For a very long time their dad, Barry just didn't want anything to do with the Church but he finally opened up!! In Fact, Ella's little brother will be getting baptized in September and Barry even talked about being baptized as well!! It was a happy time for their family, that is for sure!! 

Ella St. Onge who go Ba

Sister St. Onge, Ella, Chris and me

Steve, Bernadette & Dominic Chafardon (card shop Steve)

The Apes told me I was being transferred earlier than usual, so we went out to dinner with Card Shop Steve and his family!! It was really sad to say goodbye to all of them but I got a pic and I will never forget them!!

As we were riding back home from the dinner, I was having mixed feelings!! Excitement for a change, but also such a love for the Fayetteville area and Ward. I learned so much and I will miss this place a lot!!

Elder Rankin, Tina, Gloria, Jason, Sister and Elder Lloyd and yours truly

Sunday was great as always!! Jason, Tina and Gloria came again!! They enjoyed the service and made a lot of new friends!! I am going to miss them tons as well when its time to depart!! I am definitely going to their baptisms though, what an exciting time to be a missionary for the true Church of Jesus Christ Restored on the Earth!! It is a privilege as always!!

Farewell my friends, I go onto a better place :)

Elder Northrup

Pics below of Member of the Fayetteville Ward...

The Allred Clan

Bishop Stanton and his family & Heber

Brother Aquirre

The Waldorf Clan - Sister Waldorf, Sophia, Samantha, Kaylee, Emma and Tilman is next to me.

Keillor, Elder N, Brother Hullinger + little sneakyWaldorf

Falcon Stadium and Aquarium

Another "Sunday Smiles" pic from Sister Lester!

Sorry for the late email and for not being able to email many of you back personally. We have been busy today and we are going back to it in a bit...

Last Pday we had an awesome time doing a tour through the Falcons Stadium with the Conyers zone. I actually had one of my most spiritual and enlightening experiences while we were there. We were all standing around talking, looking at the field when I saw a security guard just a couple paces away. I don't even remember making the mental decision to go talk to him, it just happened. He had a "vote Jesus" pin on his hat and I was commenting on it. Within a few minutes I starting talking to him about what we do as missionaries, and explained the Book of Mormon. He was stoked on it and said that he was trying to find a church since he moved from New York. I gave him a hug, got his phone number, and said I would talk to him soon. His name is Dwayne Jones, please pray for the good man! What I learned from that was the Lord can work through anyone to bring about his work and his glory, even someone weak and simple as me. I don't remember much of what was said, but I do remember the spirit that was felt :) The church is straight true!!

Tuesday we had a great District Council with a full 15 people there (usually we have maybe 8-10). There was an extra pair of ZL's, a senior couple, and a priest from our ward. 

We took the priest out for a grand day of missionary work and then he took us to the Temple to do baptisms with one of Elder Rankin's recent converts. Good time!

Wednesday we moved a family out so that took pretty much the entire day. When night came around we went and followed up with peeps, all of which weren't home. Instead we got talking to the grandparents of one of our investigators for quite a while! Good time!

Thursday night was cool! We were following up with some potentials and we hit up a guy named Wyatt Martin. He opened the door and stepped out with a big smile on his face as he greeted us. He said that enjoyed talking to Elders in the past and that he would like us back to talk with him and his fam. Good time!

I am just going to have to skip to Sunday because i have just a few minutes to tell thus experience. 

After Church we had dinner and when we got home we got a call from the sisters saying they would like a blessing. S. Bekmezian was having a serious migraine so we got a ride with a member and met them at the Church. Before I go on I need to say that I have been wanting to gain a greater testimony of the priesthood. I gave the blessing and all was well. That night while I was taking reports from the Sisters they said that I had talked about the Brother of Jared in the blessing to her. That was something that she had been studying before, and that it was a perfect blessing of comfort to her as well! I told them that I had wanted a gain a greater testimony if the priesthood, it was definitely an answer to a prayer in my heart!! GOD IS SO GOOD, He knows what each of is need at every moment of our lives. What a loving Heavenly Father we have that looks over us and cares about the things we care about!! 

Anyway, I have 2 minutes to send this! Love y'all a ton!!

Elder Northrup

   

Falcon's Stadium P-day

I don't have a whole lot of time to email today because we will be going up the the Falcon's Stadium for Pday, but I will get in as much as I can...

Elder Ashcraft in front of the Stadium

On Monday after Pday we ended up seeing a guy named David Blankenbaker instead of Dee. David is a great man, with a great faith in the Lord!! Hopefully we will be able to see Dee tonight after Pday...

Tuesday we visited Steve at his card shop and he had some of his friends with him! We have all gotten to know each other pretty well, we are almost apart of the group! John Vanloo (from a few weeks ago) was there, we were able to talk about the Book of Mormon a little bit again! There's also a guy named Jeff that is always in there, next time we see him we will be giving him a Book of Mormon!! 

On Wednesday we were blessed to have the van!! Hallelujah!! That night we were able to meet with Jason again! This was the most sincere I have ever seen him, his focus is not as much about speaking english better, but instead finding out if the Church is true. Please pray for the good man!

Thursday we had a sick Zone Conference!! It was about Role Plays, tools in our arsenals, and staying in contact with people we work with!! I think the best part of it was just being able to hear Pres. Clayton speak! Everytime I hear him I just want to stand up and put my arm to the square saying "I sustain." That may seem silly, but its true!! He and his wife are incredible!!

After Zone Conference we were able to have a mini exchange with the Atlanta 4 Elders (Elders Frandsen and Oyewalle). It was fun being able to knock doors and talk to people with E. Frand, he is the man!! 

Friday was pretty sweet for the most part!! We were doing some finding at Walmart when the AP's called and asked us if we could fill in for them by volunteering at the Blood drive that was happening at the Church. We got some good contact while we were there, made some good friends!!

Saturday we had some great exchanges with the Whitewater Elder in Fayetteville!! Elder Rue and I had a full decent day with tons of finding and lots of biking and walking!! I was pretty tired by the end, but it was so satisfying!!

That night we had another lesson with Jason, this time on the Plan of Salvation. The spirit was strong throughout the lesson and Jason said he learned a lot by the end. His daughter had a fever so we gave her a Priesthood Blessing and went on our way!! Jason also said that when he goes to the Church or when he meets with us he just feels so happy and a feeling that he hasn't felt before!! Good stuff rolling into the future!!

I wish I could say more but I want to let Elder Ashcraft have some time on the computer as well!! Yall have  blessed monday and farewell!! Love yall and share the gospel!!

Elder Northrup 

"What Family Means to Me"

jack sultans bro, I needed a pic with the legend

It's been a great week with many tender mercies, praise the Lord!!

Last Pday I was talking to the Sisters in our District about our District Shirts!! They are finna look full decent when we get them next week!! We all voted on the design, and then the Sisters drew it up on the computer, if I want to I will attach photo's of them at the end!!

We played Ultimatum Frisbay for Pday and I was completely drenched with sweat by the end!! In the pics that I will send you can see that my Lone Peak Maroon Jersey just turned Purple!! HAHA

last pday, my shirt is supposed to be maroon not purple :D

That night we had a great lesson with Dee!! It was much more spiritual this time as we read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and prayed about it at the end!! And again we will be visiting him tonight!!

On Tuesday morning, we got a referral service appointment from one of the ward members about a neighbor that needed help cleaning out a shed!! We did so and she seemed pretty interested in having us back for a message so that was cool as can be!! Her name is Pat!!

Tuesday night I was preparing my training for interviews with Pres. the next morning!! I had been given the topic the previous week but it was so broad that I couldn't come up with anything until the night before!! It seems like that's always how it works for me getting revelation from God!! I guess that means I don't rely on Him as much as I should until the last minute!! Call me to repentance everyone!!

Wednesday we had a great District Meeting and interviews and my training went a lot better than expected!! Meeting Pres. and Sister Clayton was a blast as well!! I made sure to mention as much as I could that I loved playing Golf so he would take us out to go sometime in the future!! HAHA I know I'm evil!!

After that we went and visited Steve from the card shop!! His son and wife were there so we finally got to meet the whole family!! So now we know Steve, Bernadette, and Dominic Chafardon!! Please keep them in your prayers, they are a wonderful family!!

That night we were able to have the car for the first time in 2 transfers so we decided to go to the outer reaches of the area over by Jason!! He hit him up for an appointment the next day and just caught up with him!!

The next morning we had an appointment at 11AM and we basically talked about the importance of going to Church and how it would help him as he sacrificed his time for the Lord!! Spoiler Alert: HE CAME!!! For the first time in 5 Months since Elder Frandsen and I found him!! That was dang exciting and he met a lot of Ward members, pretty cool stuff there!!

In the evening on Friday we went to dinner with a member named Sis Stubbs at the Broadway Diner. We showed up early and ended up talking to a guy named David who worked at the Goodwill right next door!! We got into a conversation about the Book of Mormon and Bible pretty fast and soon enough Sis Stubbs walked up and bore a powerful testimony!! We are meeting with him again on Wednesday!! YEET!! Prayers are much needed, thank you!!!! :)

Sunday is always great!! Love it love it love it!!! And Jason came up until 2nd hour so that was sweet!!

When we got back to the Apt after church, our other Steve, Rich Inheritance Steve gave us a call and said he would like to meet up and show us his Corvette!! So we agreed and met him at Truetts Luau!! The car was sweet, and not to sound prideful or anything but he loves hanging around us!! Not necessarily because of us, but because of the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we have in the Church!!

rich inheritance steve from yesterday (corvette)

For a little thought...

Quite a bit I was pondering about family this week, for whatever reason I'm not really sure!! Mostly just about how I want to raise my kids, where, and what kind of things I want to teach them about my mission here in Georgia!! I have been blessed to be here in Fayetteville where family values are practiced more often than most places, and I have been able to learn a lot from others!! 

cool pic on main

There's a youth themed song that is called, "What family means to me" and I always get pumped up when I hear it!! Not just because I think about my fam back home but because I have started to feel as thought these people I get to associate with here in Georgia are also my family; whether they are members of the Church or not!! God Bless Georgia and all the wonderful people here!! I know that was kinda cheesy but I just thought I would share :)

Love yall

Elder Northrup

Steve x 3 and more!

Elder Ashcraft and Elder Northrup

YEEET!!!

On Monday we had a cool lesson with Dee again!! We talked about how we need to teach our kids to live good principles now more than ever!! We bore testimony and without us even needing to say anything he said we could come back next week!! So we will be seeing him again tonight!!

On Tuesday we had another great District Counsel!! The spirit was powerful while we were there and we decided that we would make District T-shirts!! We had a District Call a couple nights later and made some sketches for the shirts, and we all voted on them!! They are finna look Full Decent!!

It was also cow day on Tuesday so after the meeting, we went to chick-fil-a with 'dots' on our suits to make us look a little more cow like!! They accepted it and we got free meals!! Hurra for Israel and Chick-Fil-A!!!

That night we went to two appointments and they both got dropped! We had about an hour until our dinner started so we decided to pray about where to go! We decided to go and visit this family a few blocks away. When we knocked on the door nobody answered but soon enough a young lady drove up near the curb in her car and got out! She was picking up someone in the house that we knocked on but she instantly wanted to hear the message that we were sharing! So we taught her a 5 min Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon!! That was a cool experience!!

Wednesday we were supposed to have a lesson with Bill, we met him at Burger King last week. He didn't actually show up to the lesson so if you could keep him in your prayers that would be fantastic!!

Thursday we spent the day laying down Hardwood flooring for a member named Bro. Aguirre!! It was a good time and I was wiped out by the end of it!! When we came back for the rest of the day we decided to hit up a guy across from us in our building! His name is a Emmanuel and he wanted us to come over and share a message with him!! He let us in that night and we shared the Restoration with him!! That was pretty sweet!! 

Friday  we had another day of Service but this time for a guy named Ben that we are working with!! We spent right around 6 hours digging out dirt from his basement and it was awesome!! 

When we were eating dinner with some members, Ray Mcadoo called and said that he had some food for us!! He came to our complex and dropped off 2 big boxes of groceries and a bunch of Ice Soda!!! He is such a good man!! We didn't even have to shop this morning!!

We are teaching 3 Steves in this area right now; Big Hoss Steve, Firefighter Steve and Rich Steve!! On Saturday, Rich Steve brought us to Longhorn Steakhouse and blew 40 bucks on each of us!! We've had a lot of people just giving us stuff lately!! Pretty flippin sick if you ask me!!

After that awesome lunch we went to visit a guy named David/Ghandi who is pretty stoked on us!! We helped him rebuild a shed months ago and we just went and checked on him this time!! He is kinda one of those cool hippy dudes that believes in the energy of rocks and the power that is within, but we somehow related it to the Plan of Salvation and he believed all of it!! Cool stuff indeed!!

On Sunday we were chilling in Gospel Principles, listening and participating in the lesson when one of the members walked in and asked if we could go teach Gospel Doctrine about Saul. So we strolled on in and did it!! That is the missionary life, I swear!! 

Towards the afternoonish I got a call from the Sister Missionaries in the District with a question. They came home late on Saturday night and didn't realize that their gas gauge was on empty so when it hit Sunday, they didn't know whether to fill up on the Sabbath, or keep it holy and have faith. I basically just told them to pray with faith to act on the impressions that they would receive. They did so and made the decision to not fill up even though they had appointments all over their area, and more importantly they came out on top and didn't crash and burn!! So that was cool!!

Just a little spiritual thought from my studies this week!!

I decided that because the prophets have repeatedly told us that each chapter of the Book of Mormon is sacred, and that we can learn from each of them, I started over on my reading and I am going to read and reread. Then I am going to write down what I learned in every chapter!! Its finna be sick by the end of it!! 

So as I read 1 Nephi 1 I realized something about Lehi and his role as a prophet!! He saw other prophets bearing testimony and yet he still felt the need to do so. He had every reason to say, "aw nah, I don't need to do that, someone else can handle it," or whatever. He didn't sink into his comfortable chair but instead sought for the will of God, no matter how rough the living would be!! 

Love yall

Elder Northrup

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

Independence

 Georgia keeps getting greener

This will be pretty quick because I am typing on a phone today and it will probably take a really long time. 

We went over to Doug Brantley the 3rds house after pday ended last week!! He happened to be sitting on the front porch when we got there and we read 1 Nephi 8 and 11. He felt the Spirit hardcore! Prayers would be much appreciated.

Tuesday was our last district meeting with this group before transfers. It was good and spiritual!! 

Later that night we went to a Baptism for a ysa named Summer! Elder Rankin had taught her previously while he was in KSU, so it was cool to finally see her take those first steps in following Christ!!

Wednesday was Transfer day and Pres. And Sister Foote's last one. We weren't able to attend because we weren't being transferred but I wanted to go so bad. Everyone said it was super spiritual and at the end when Pres. Foote was crying everyone spontaneously started singing the army of helaman! They will be missed along with the other 30 missionaries that left!

Later in the evening we were following up with some potentials on a street and one guy was outside mowing his lawn. So much of me didn't want to talk to him, he had tattoos all over, he was big and Hairy as well! But I'm glad that we did because right when we were going to walk passed him the words of a talk from Pres. Monson came to mind. "See people as they may become." So we ended up walking up his driveway and started to talk to him! He was stoked that we decided to chat and he wanted us to come back and talk to his wife as well! This name is Michael, pray for him please!

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we had service....all the days! Thursday was basement cleanup. Friday was moving an investigator. And Saturday we helped build a fence. It was awesome though! It made up for the rest of the transfer not being able to do any service at all!

Yesterday (Sunday) was by far the best day of the week! Anybody who knows me knows that my favorite holidays are Easter and the 4th of July. The Fayetteville Stake had a independence day concert and it was incredible! I shed many a tears!! It is incredible how inspired the founding fathers were to help bring the Declaration of Independence into the light!

I love y'all tons!

Elder Northrup

Sunday Smiles

this is why they call this mission the Georgia 40 (40lbs+)