Bloemfontein

We got some details about his new companion this week, so that was good! And while it seemed like the work was slow at first, they have found some people to teach and are super excited about it.

"So sorry for the short email last week. let me make up for it :D

So Elder Fransen, my new companion. Awesome dude from cali! (mom, what city are our relatives in california from?)  He was a wrestler in high school so we are starting to work out hard in the morning! getting "yoked" or "swoll" as they call it haha. he also did a lot of welding which is pretty cool so he would make his own knives and belt buckles and what not. pretty impressive.

He has been on mission just over a year now. We are really getting a long and the work is starting up now.

Bloemfontein is a town area, and towns are known for being a bit rough and tough on missionary work. Because of the holiday season a lot of our investigators are out of town so we have a lot of open time.... like all day.... so we go tracking, try to set up booths and get denied and all. the frustrating part about town is when you knock on someones gate you will see them peak out the window and then hide and not answer the door.... silly people don't they know that their families can be together forever through the message we share.... I guess they don't otherwise I don't know why they wouldn't answer."

"So the work has been a bit slow and disheartening. but luckily these past two days we were actually able to find some awesome people. things are starting to look upwards and momentum is coming. We met this guy name Thapelo and his two buds. they are going to the university and they had quite a few questions about why there are so many interpretations of the bible and all that jazz, we were happy to invite them to learn more of the restoration of the gospel that answers that question perfectly and how God has provided a way for us to know exactly what he wants us to know. to get rid of all confusion. its through the Book of Mormon.

NO one can know if the Book of Mormon is TRUE unless they READ, and PRAY about it! the best part is if they actually do that, they find out it is true and life becomes so much brighter!!!!

We also found this young women named Sindi, she is studying Psychology and is super cool. Her parents are pastors of her church but in recent times she has had lots of questions about the bible and things not making sense so she has stopped reading it. we told her its normal to not understand everything. I mean I teach the gospel 7 days a week and still learn more each day. the gospel is like a puzzle. you start with the corners. if I give you a middle peace and you haven't built the sides then you wont know where it goes. the peace none the less still has a purpose and place in the big picture but it needs to wait. we need a foundation. it is the same with the gospel and principles in it. for example if I don't have faith then why pray. there would be no point in prayer if I didnt have a belief that God hears me and answers my prayers, that He loves me, and Knows me. So we see we have to build from the foundation and hold on to those pieces we don't quite understand yet and continue to build our knowledge until we find out where it fits.

The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is awesome because it puts forth the doctrine of salvation so clearly and helps us really understand the teachings that get so mixed and confused in the bible. I love the Bible, I love the Book of Mormon and know them to be the word of God. I know the best way to find peace in your life is to read the Book of Mormon and pray. search it for answers. It is full of them.... you'll be surprised! :)

My good friend Kayla asked me this week what has been my favorite thing on mission... what a good question, I couldn't really give an answer because I just love so many things and there are to many to chose just one but  I did try my best with this reply.

I have loved being able to just meet so many wonderful people on my mission to see all the different backgrounds people come from and how the teachings and love of Jesus Christ fit perfectly into each of their lives. I have loved being able to learn more about my Savior and also about myself and I have done my best to serve with all I got. As a missionary people seem to naturally trust you and that is one of my favorite things is people trusting me enough to tell me whats really going on and coming for help. I love seeing how in all these different struggles, weather it be money, family, relationship, personal, or other all these struggles seem to find answers through Christ and it amazes me. It is something I didn't know before or even understand. Its still crazy to me how it happens. I have loved meeting new and incredible people everyday. learning different cultures and coming to love them. it'll be hard to leave them. I don't know its hard to say just one thing. I have loved my mission and look forward to the last months I have.

its been tough though. some days really suck. you just go out and try to find people to teach and no one wants to even look at you. it can get discouraging but one thing I have learned is hard work. I have really learned to work on my mission. to not get discouraged. and to press forward knowing all will work out. I have learned so much about life and how great it is. 

It doesn't come close to describing the love and joy of missionary service but maybe it gives you a hint of some things I love about being a missionary."

"The Roberts. Sadly they go home next month"

"Elder Henley and I"

"Elder Benissan and I"

"This was a great week. It has been a bit of a tough start. A lot of our investigators are out of town due to the holiday season and because of the recent baptisms we are really trying to build a teaching pool. We haven't been successful in the past as we have been doing all we could think of to find until these past two days. it seems like people are now just showing up, and real people with potential. Its actually really exciting. I was starting to worry about this area and that it would be too hard to get things going but now things really are starting to happen and it gave us the much needed moral boost to start of this week. We both look forward to working hard this week and getting all the little things in. Ie studies right on time, out to the area early and finding meaningful activity for every hour of the day. I look forward to great memories, and love to be had here in Bloemfontein. I am feeling more and more a sense of urgency as I feel I have lots of time to make a change not only in myself but in the area and others but at the same time I don't have anytime to waste, I really have to use it all and be effective in the way we do use our time.

Also gotta give a shout out to Hailey for getting a call to go on a camp with the U23 US Womens national team.... isnt she just incredible!!!! WOW!!!! :)

I love you all so dearly and I am grateful to be here in South Africa. It is home. God bless you all with the best new years ever!!!!

Elder North"

"New investigator Lethabo"

"She gave me a braid!"

It was super cute of him to give me a little shout out for going to camp. :) Camp was super fun and a really good experience. I learned a lot and hopefully it will only help me to progress even more!

2017

The last two emails we've gotten were kind of short, so I'm just combining them into one! After Christmas, he was transferred to Bloemfontein and got a new companion, Elder Fransen. We don't know much about his area or his companion yet.

December 26

"well lets see.... what happened this week.

We went to see Sphe who is our most promising investigator. He was unable to come to church this week but hopefully he will come next week. We are teaching him about living and keeping the commandments and he is ready to follow them! He is a power dude and likes to rap.

We found a few new investigators while trying to find less actives in mzingazi. We found this girl thando and guy Chris, they both used to live with a member so they have seen missionaries but have never been taught by them, we spent a good hour talking and getting to know them better and then they started asking all sorts of questions that all lead to the restoration of the church. so we left them with a pamphlet and will try to see them some times this week.

It sometimes gets hard to work during the Christmas season but we keep up the cheer by singing to carols and looking for adventures and service a long the way."

It was awesome to be able to skype with my family this week, they are incredible. All of my younger siblings have gotten lots lots taller.... not sure how I feel about that but eish, life moves on. 

Being a missionary has and continues to change my life every day. I may say I knew about the Savior a little bit before mission, but as a missionary I am blessed to try my best to represent Him every day, to try and do what He would do. As you strive to be like Him you come to know Him and understand just a bit more of His endless love for you. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to come to know my Savior who is Christ. He was born of humble birth, in a dark cave in a manger. He lived an exemplary life. and died in suffering for you. I love the Lord, He is my reason for hope, for love, for peace in all things. 

I love you all and hope you had a wonderful Christmas" 

It was only the day after Christmas that he emailed that week, so it felt like there wasn't much to tell in our emails since we had just talked the day before haha. But his email was really sweet so I'll share it :)

"flipits that was huge news I didnt know how to react honestly!!! ah you are so amazing I just want to go around telling everyone how awesome you are.  

I was talking to some kids the other day and they were just so happy that santa came and they had stories and all sorts of fun things to say.

Christmas is an awesome time of year. I loved skypeing. I never really got "trunky" missed home a lot after skypeing but I dont know, this time I just missed you so much like it was weird how much I missed you after just seeing you.... but life goes on. Some how you are just more beautiful in every way than I remember and ah just everything you do makes me just swoon haha. 

The new area will be a tough one. we will see how it goes. Mission President called me to tell me about my comp, appearently he has had some struggles with companions and what not. He said that he is doing better but just hasnt hit the ground running sort to speak and he wants that to change, Elder Francen is from Cali I think and he has been out for about a year now. 

Babe, I just dont know how to express in words the way I feel about you, I have been praying a lot, like a lot a lot. About us about the future about all that good stuff. Over and over again I feel so good about it all. I feel assured that its right, its not all just in my head, some fantasy or delusion that I have come up with. I want to be with you, every second of every day for the rest of forever. its just it. I love you. nothing can will or ever can change that simple fact. You blow me a way each and every day and I will try my best to keep up you, hopefully I dont slow you down to much. Thank you, thank you for emailing me every week and never mission one. thank you for being there for skype, thank you for making me feel loved at every low, sad, and down moment. thank you for your example of love, charity, dedication, work, perseverance and joy. Thank you for being you! I love that :)"

January 2nd

"Not much time this week,

It was a great week Elder Fransen is a dope dude,

we have done a lot of tracting in town.... eish... but somehow it has been pretty successful.

Because of New Years there arn't a lot of teaching appointments

Love,

Elder North"

I can't believe it's 2017!! He comes home this year!!! Looking back, so much has changed since he left and originally, that's what I was afraid of. But now I'm so excited to be able to show him this new life that I have been living and for us to adventure and have fun together again. It's crazy to think that we're nearing the end of our time apart.

It Carries Us

 Kimberly reunion

"Elder Benissan was my mtc comp and we got to see each other again at the christmas party, it was a happy reunion. "

Mikel, Elder Adams, Elder Benissan

They get a new planner each transfer and they decorate them!

Lion dog!!

Oh man, I'm definitely a slacker sometimes when it comes to typing up a blog post every week. Maybe now that school is starting up again I'll get into a better routine :) Man I have always loved the mass emails he sends out, but this week it really touched me. I don't usually do this, but I'm going to in order to include all of what stood out to me in his email this week. This is what he wrote:
"Well this week was an interesting one with the holidays still going and new years. some thing I heard about the new year that I liked was this. During the new year we hear a lot of people saying things like new year, new me. well we have something better. we have this gospel and through the gospel we learn about the atonement which enables us to repent and change and become better, we do this partly by taking the sacrament ,which resembles Christ, every week. At this time, the beginning of the week after taking the sacrament we get to say, New week, new me!

I was talking to an old lady about religion the other day when we got on the topic of relating religion to something you pick up. some people pick theirs up and put it down sometimes, some find it again and carry it once more while others never come back to it. To end our conversation she said something much more profound than my silly analogies. Her words were true, Christians don't carry their religion, their religion carries them. This made me think and again this took me back to the atonement and how it lifts and carries us through the  grace of Christ. Religion shouldn't be something we pick up and put down, it should be the thing that picks us up when we are down!

Something else that has repetitively come into my mind was the sentence, be an example of the believers. I'll just let you take or leave it and think about what it means to you.

I got a message from a friend today who said this. I will also share a quote from Henry B Eyring "If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill. The Lord is anxious to lead us to the safety of higher ground." I know all things that happen to us are for our eternal benefit, because the Lord loves all His children infinitely, and asks us to endure with patience, hope and faith in Jesus Christ, where with Him we can endure anything. I know the atonement stretches past any transgression or sin, His love is unchanging and unfailing, and though we may not always feel we are moving uphill in our mortal journey we can trust that if we are obedient, that He has prepared a  perfect way.

So my reply was that's an awesome quote thank you so much! It just makes me think of the fault in our starts when it says I am on a roller coaster that only goes up haha. Its true though, we may feel as if our ride is going down hill but (romans8) everything will work for good to them who love God. If we just keep pushing forward we will find that the hill we thought we were rolling down actually was a mountain we climbed. I dont know if that makes sense at all but just that we think things are all going to hell and then when we look back we see the growth and strength that we gained through those experiences and realize that God never left us but pushed us further, strengthen us more so we can accomplish great things to come."

Opening presents at 1 AM

Christmas candy!

Husky Puppy

"a lot of people us machetes to cute thier lawns, we did it for a while and took some nice pictures"

They gave a monkey a dum dum and he ate it.

This is what my reply to him was today:

"I loved the mass email you sent out last week, but I loved it even more when all of the things I experienced this week related to it! I'll start with the "new week, new me" part :) During the sacrament today I was just thinking about my past week and how much I have been struggling with different things and I was prompted to pull out my study journal. I just started flipping through it and I came to a page where I had taken notes on the talk "What Lack I Yet?" and I wrote down that each week during the sacrament, I should have a conversation with the Lord about what I can improve on. So that's what I did! I asked where I needed to improve and how and I set specific goals for the week based on the answers I got. It was a really cool experience and I'm going to start doing that every week during the sacrament to keep me engaged and focused on what the sacrament really does for me, you and everyone. It's a fresh start and a chance to change and be better every week! How awesome is that?

The next thing you said that I loved was that our religion carries us. Oh my goodness I have found that to be so true over the last few months. Today right before relief society the lady that was teaching asked me if I would bear my testimony about how my trial (injury) has helped me to grow closer to my Savior and to bring the gospel to the center of my life. Of course that was the most emotional testimony I've ever given haha but I shared two things that have been circulating through my head the last few months. The first is a poem about the Savior which I have always loved:
"One night I had a dream.

I dreamed I was walking along the beach
with the Lord..

Across the sky flashed scenes from my life..
For each scene, I noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand,
one belonging to me, and the other to the Lord..

When the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life
there was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest
and saddest times in my life.

This really bothered me
and I questioned the Lord about it:
"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why
when I need you most you would leave me."

The Lord replied:
"My precious child, I love you and would
never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints, it was then
that I carried you."

I don't think I need to explain that any further :) The second thing that I shared was from Mosiah 24:12-15. It's definitely worth looking up so I'll let you do that :) I just want you to know that I know that as we put the gospel first in our lives, we will be led to where we need to be. As we rely on the Savior and let Him carry us through our trials we will become much more than we ever could become on our own. I love my Savior and I'm thankful for this trial, because without it my testimony wouldn't have grown as I needed it to.

Be an example of the believers! As I was reading in Matthew this week, I read Matthew 5:14-16. We were given the light of the gospel to share it, not to hide it! Everything we do (be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation..) should share the light of the gospel with it. So anyway, thank you for what you shared! Your testimony has always strengthened mine and I'm so blessed to have you in my life. I love you!! :)"

Street soccer!

Friends :)

Reviewing what they are teaching

Leaf bug!

When you run out of tp...

I'm thankful every day for him and his testimony. Even thousands of miles away he continues to bless my life!

Hello 2016!

It's been another crazy, crazy week. New Year's Eve, driving to St George, my cousin's wedding, setting up and taking down for the reception, and then driving back home. Man, I am exhausted! One more week of winter break and then it's back up to school for another semester and spring season of soccer. Well, not really soccer for me, but fitness for sure haha. I remember this time last year and how long ago it feels but how not so long ago it really was. I remember thinking that I only had one more semester left with Mikel. He would be getting his mission call in a few months and then after that goodbyes would start. I remember thinking how time was just going way too fast and that I wanted it all to just slow down so I would never have to say goodbye to him, my friends, my home. I would never have to move out and live my own life, go to college and have to make new friends. But there's so much that I've learned in this last year that I wouldn't change. Mikel and I have both grown and learned so much and we couldn't have gotten those experiences any other way. We both still have a lot of learning to do in the next year and a half and I know we're going to grow into who we need to become, with the help and guidance of the Lord. I'm excited for what's ahead and for new adventures!

We didn't get any pictures from him this week unfortunately, and his emails were short, but he said his Christmas was great! "so because of the festivities all around this week not much happened in the sense of being able to teach people or get into homes. something the was great but also not great was when we went to check up on an old gogo named angel who is a new investigator. last time we met with her which was a couple of days or a week previous we were told that her husband who was in hospital died. So the day we went to visit which was Wednesday we came up to a huge funeral tent across the yard, so we put two and two together and realized that the funeral was today, we decided to leave our bags in the car and go and try an help all we could, we spent 10:00 to 2:00 there just helping set up, cook and anything they needed sharing short gospel thoughts along the way. It was a great experience to be able to just serve and bring gospel into that service, we hope that some of the people we contacted will call us and visit more with us to hear the rest of the lessons and our messages but it was a great day and we were so tired at the end of the day I almost slept in my white shirt and tie.

Christmas day was power, we spent the day at a members house where we played board games and other games like such. we got to spend time with a family which made being away from our own family not so bad. I got to skype my family as well and while doing so had a special surprise! (Hey, that surprise was me!) It was so good to talk to my family face to face for a short while, we spent and hour that felt like 5 min, I wish we could have had longer but, I guess I have to wait till next year! :) It was good to see everyone doing so well and happy and such a beautiful morning to celebrate and commemorate the birth of the savior!"

Last week in our email we talked a little more about his focus on his mission and his reply to me was so reassuring and comforting. He is focused and knows he needs to be there! "the most challenging thing for me I think was letting go of home and letting go of you, not just the leaving you at home physically but also just to be more focused on the work. I struggled not thinking of you everyday and even in lessons, we would be teaching about say the Joseph smith and my mind would wonder off either to thought of you or to thought of my family wondering what they or you were doing at that point and time and just not really focused on the lesson. I am a lot better now and I feel like I really am focused on my mission and not home life, of course I think of you everyday but my mind isnt constantly obsessing over you are my family and longing to be there like it was, of course Ill always have that want to be back in your arms by the next day but I think I have just come to grasp that I am here and not there and I have things here that I need to do. It still is hard and scares me that I sort of had to in a way distance myself from my family and especially from you and that I now dont think of you as often, it really does suck because honestly you are all I want to think about and it takes a conscious effort to tell myself that I need to stay focused. No I am not saying I am completely letting go of you or anything near that, I dream to one day be with you forever and nothing will ever change about the fact that I am in love with you so dont get me wrong its just distancing my mind heart and thoughts from home was really hard I guess, I think that is what I would say hardest thing was.  I have also really learned that I am usually the problem haha hopefully not anymore but I dont usually stay around people that annoy me but on mission you dont always have a choice and you need to be the one that helps the situation not makes it worse so I definitely had a humble lesson I had to learn and I am still learning. I have learned about balance in everything in life. I have learned how much the gospel really does bless families and how much I need it. I have learned that God loves me. I guess those are the biggest things I have learned and also that I can go through hard things with the savior by my side."

I'm thankful for his example to me and that every day brings me one more day closer to being with him again. Happy New Year!

A picture of us one year ago, at a basketball game at the U :)

and a picture of us two years ago, just before we started dating, with a few of our friends. Kyle, just above me, is serving in Pennsylvania, Mikel is in South Africa, Mckay is in Taiwan, and Hollis is in Thailand. I'm so thankful for the awesome friends I had in high school and their examples to me! They are all incredible missionaries.