Dear Recipients,
The branch here is practicing for the primary program as well. The Branch Presidency said it is the most attended thing the branch does all year.
I let him know that for Primary we are spending the two hours together and working on the Primary Program which will be on November 10th.
In answer to questions about the car and how that works. The car is handed off to different companionship's in a car share. Sometimes there are multiple cars in the car share. For example, four pairs of missionaries may have three cars. Thus, three of four weeks a companionship will have a car, and one bike week.
As for tracting, it is non-existent. We do what they call a Spiritual Harvest, where we approach doors only if we feel prompted to or decide to approach and ask if we can leave a prayer with the Savior's peace and blessing on a home. I have not done much Harvesting though. We try hard to avoid that and find people thorough members. Investigators and less active members that come through personal connections are more receptive.
We are expected to exercise the half hour after we wake up. I'm not the best at keeping up on it, but when I do I just do simple things. Sit ups, push-ups, we have a pull-up bar (which I don't use).
I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday about the importance of preaching the gospel and that one should not procrastinate a mission if you are able to serve one.
Thank you all for your love and remember to have the pure love of Christ. Not only to others but have A pure love of CHRIST, loving Him above all else.
- Elder North
Monday, October 28, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
October 21, 2013 - Letter Home
Dear Interested Individuals,
Congratulations to those having just received your mission calls! I wish all of you luck and blessings as you prepare then serve.
We had two people we know get their calls this week and one a little bit ago that I forgot to tell him about.
Whitney Ingram is going to San Fernando California - January 1st
Rowan Bronson is going to South Carolina, Columbia - February 5th
Brandon Evans is going to North Carolina, Raleigh - December 18th
Keep strong Zane!
Zane is the youngest North kiddo and he had his tonsils and adenoids out this week. He has done really well with this surgery and is well on his way to feeling his best again.
Things are going alright here. Some people had to be dropped or pushed back. We shall see what happens there. We have recently met a man named C**** who came to church. He was great and is on track to getting baptized.
As the interest in what I eat is ever present, the best meal this week was at The A*****
's. Homemade tacos which they like to add some ranch too. I tried it and it was good.
I try to think of questions to add to his letters to get more information but sometimes it tends to be the same questions. OOPS
We see the other two missionaries often, as the people in the branch found no trouble inviting four as opposed to two young men over to eat. Elder Anderson and I are very grateful. Actually went on exchanges this past week with Elder Overson. It went well. Exchanges are a 24 hour long switch of companions.
Two more missionaries making four total are now in charge of the West Memphis Branch. So I was wondering how much they see them. That is good of the branch members to be willing to feed four young men!
As for waking up, I find no trouble in waking at 6:30. Staying alert and fully awake the rest of the day is a different story, but in regards to solely the action of waking and rising from bed, I have no trouble with it.
Continue to pray and be specific! Specific prayers bring specific blessings.
- Elder North
A member that lives in Arkansas said that the missionaries their typically gain about 40 pounds on their missions. I asked Bryen if he has gained any weight and he said that he has actually lost about 20 pounds. E
Elder North is not always great with letting us know who is writing him but I know he appreciates hearing from people. If your interested in writing him you can do so at...
Elder Bryen North
Arkansas Little Rock Mission
606 Rainer #10
West Memphis, AR 72301
Congratulations to those having just received your mission calls! I wish all of you luck and blessings as you prepare then serve.
We had two people we know get their calls this week and one a little bit ago that I forgot to tell him about.
Whitney Ingram is going to San Fernando California - January 1st
Rowan Bronson is going to South Carolina, Columbia - February 5th
Brandon Evans is going to North Carolina, Raleigh - December 18th
Keep strong Zane!
Zane is the youngest North kiddo and he had his tonsils and adenoids out this week. He has done really well with this surgery and is well on his way to feeling his best again.
Things are going alright here. Some people had to be dropped or pushed back. We shall see what happens there. We have recently met a man named C**** who came to church. He was great and is on track to getting baptized.
As the interest in what I eat is ever present, the best meal this week was at The A*****
I try to think of questions to add to his letters to get more information but sometimes it tends to be the same questions. OOPS
We see the other two missionaries often, as the people in the branch found no trouble inviting four as opposed to two young men over to eat. Elder Anderson and I are very grateful. Actually went on exchanges this past week with Elder Overson. It went well. Exchanges are a 24 hour long switch of companions.
Two more missionaries making four total are now in charge of the West Memphis Branch. So I was wondering how much they see them. That is good of the branch members to be willing to feed four young men!
As for waking up, I find no trouble in waking at 6:30. Staying alert and fully awake the rest of the day is a different story, but in regards to solely the action of waking and rising from bed, I have no trouble with it.
Continue to pray and be specific! Specific prayers bring specific blessings.
- Elder North
A member that lives in Arkansas said that the missionaries their typically gain about 40 pounds on their missions. I asked Bryen if he has gained any weight and he said that he has actually lost about 20 pounds. E
Elder North is not always great with letting us know who is writing him but I know he appreciates hearing from people. If your interested in writing him you can do so at...
Elder Bryen North
Arkansas Little Rock Mission
606 Rainer #10
West Memphis, AR 72301
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
October 14, 2013 - Letter Home
Dear Desert Dwellers,
Birthday was fine.
Thanks for all the info son. I did receive a surprise text from Sister T*** this week. She sent a couple of pictures. She said that Elder Anderson took Bryen to a Mexican Restaurant for his birthday and they sang happy birthday to him and smeared whip cream all over his face. When I asked Bryen about it he said it was funny.
Looks like someone made Elder North a cake too!
Thank you for taking are of my son!
We have two new Elders in our area. Elder Talbert and Elder Oveson. They are in Marion.
So that makes four Elders for one Branch. There must be a lot of work for them to do.
I made the sausage biscuits this week using the recipe my mother gave me. They turned out well. I did not realize that the recipe was meant to feed two-hundred stripling warriors, so we had a lot and Elder Anderson told me some of it would keep in the fridge uncooked. I did not seal it properly though and some of it went bad.
I purchased two hundred pizza rolls for ten dollars.
Happy Birthday to my brother Jered. I almost forgot it was his birthday three days ago. He finally got to have a birthday on his own. What did he do to celebrate?
Bryen and Jered are a year apart to the day. So Jered's birthday is Bryen's birthday. Hard to forget. :) Jered celebrated by going to the Josh Groban concert with his brother Deven.
Did Dad do anything special for his birthday or was it just hunting?
Shhh Jed doesn't admit to having birthday's! ;)
We are teaching a girl named L***** who had been coming to church for a few weeks and we finally were able to sit down for a lesson. We will be trying to build back up our teaching pool since we dropped a good number of our investigators since they were not progressing in any way.
- Elder North
Although Elder North is not as good about letting us know who writes him I am sure it is still greatly appreciated. When you write him you could put your e-mail because him might be more likely to reply to you that way. Thanks for your love and support.
Elder Bryen North
Arkansas Little Rock Mission
606 Rainer #10
West Memphis, AR 72301
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| Happy 19th Birthday Elder North |
Birthday was fine.
Thanks for all the info son. I did receive a surprise text from Sister T*** this week. She sent a couple of pictures. She said that Elder Anderson took Bryen to a Mexican Restaurant for his birthday and they sang happy birthday to him and smeared whip cream all over his face. When I asked Bryen about it he said it was funny.
Looks like someone made Elder North a cake too!
Thank you for taking are of my son!
We have two new Elders in our area. Elder Talbert and Elder Oveson. They are in Marion.
So that makes four Elders for one Branch. There must be a lot of work for them to do.
I made the sausage biscuits this week using the recipe my mother gave me. They turned out well. I did not realize that the recipe was meant to feed two-hundred stripling warriors, so we had a lot and Elder Anderson told me some of it would keep in the fridge uncooked. I did not seal it properly though and some of it went bad.
I purchased two hundred pizza rolls for ten dollars.
 |
| Look he is smiling in a picture! |
Bryen and Jered are a year apart to the day. So Jered's birthday is Bryen's birthday. Hard to forget. :) Jered celebrated by going to the Josh Groban concert with his brother Deven.
Did Dad do anything special for his birthday or was it just hunting?
Shhh Jed doesn't admit to having birthday's! ;)
We are teaching a girl named L***** who had been coming to church for a few weeks and we finally were able to sit down for a lesson. We will be trying to build back up our teaching pool since we dropped a good number of our investigators since they were not progressing in any way.
Although Elder North is not as good about letting us know who writes him I am sure it is still greatly appreciated. When you write him you could put your e-mail because him might be more likely to reply to you that way. Thanks for your love and support.
Elder Bryen North
Arkansas Little Rock Mission
606 Rainer #10
West Memphis, AR 72301
Monday, October 7, 2013
October 7, 2013 - Letter Home
Dear Fellows,
I'm sure talk of conference has been buzzing in and out all of your ears non-stop from all sides, so I'll keep my take and experience brief for the sake of eliminating being repetitive of other parties.
Conference=Excellent. We watched it at the branch meeting house mostly, and saw second session at the T****'s house. Three investigators came.
Ya think towards the end of his mission he will figure out that we don't care if things are repeated a bit we WANT to know his take on things??? Not sure if the investigators attended all of conference or where but that is nice they had some with them.
I will be spending a good deal of time here in West Memphis since Elder Anderson will be finishing here and then I will be taking the area from him most likely. So that will be a quarter of my mission here at least. Time to get cozy and make some sausage biscuits.
Well don't get too cozy Elder North or they will move you for sure! So he thinks he is staying so I am sending his birthday package to the address we have for him. Things could always change it is all up to the Mission President. It will be exciting to hear who his new companion is next Monday. Last week he asked for the sausage biscuit recipe, he said he hasn't made them yet but wants to. We had them on Sunday for breakfast. Yummy! Jed learned how to make them on one of our trips to Georgia. Here is the recipe if anyone wants to try them.
I'm sure talk of conference has been buzzing in and out all of your ears non-stop from all sides, so I'll keep my take and experience brief for the sake of eliminating being repetitive of other parties.
Conference=Excellent. We watched it at the branch meeting house mostly, and saw second session at the T****'s house. Three investigators came.
Ya think towards the end of his mission he will figure out that we don't care if things are repeated a bit we WANT to know his take on things??? Not sure if the investigators attended all of conference or where but that is nice they had some with them.
I will be spending a good deal of time here in West Memphis since Elder Anderson will be finishing here and then I will be taking the area from him most likely. So that will be a quarter of my mission here at least. Time to get cozy and make some sausage biscuits.
Well don't get too cozy Elder North or they will move you for sure! So he thinks he is staying so I am sending his birthday package to the address we have for him. Things could always change it is all up to the Mission President. It will be exciting to hear who his new companion is next Monday. Last week he asked for the sausage biscuit recipe, he said he hasn't made them yet but wants to. We had them on Sunday for breakfast. Yummy! Jed learned how to make them on one of our trips to Georgia. Here is the recipe if anyone wants to try them.
Ingredients:
4 cups self-rising flour (she used Gold Meadow brand)
2-3 cups buttermilk (she used Mayfield brand)
4 heaping teaspoons of Crisco
8 oz Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 lb Sausage - "hot"
1 lb Sausage - "regular"
First, make the biscuit dough
Put flour in a large mixing bowl. Add Crisco and "cut" the Crisco into the flour until there are no clumps of Crisco. (Cut means to keep cutting the Crisco clumps with a spoon or fork until you can't see any more. Takes about 5 minutes)
Add buttermilk to make the dough moist. You are looking for a consistency of cookie dough. It will stick to your hands, that's OK. Do not over mix or kneed as this will make the dough more chewy.
Sprinkle more flour on a table to roll out the dough on. Place the dough on the table and lightly mix in a few teaspoons of flour so it can be more easily rolled. Roll into a rectangular/oval shape. It should be about 1/4" thick. You end up with a dough oval about 24 inches by 14 inches.
Use 2 1lb packages of sausage. 1 "hot" and 1 "regular". They should be thawed. Microwave them on "defrost" for 2 minutes to soften them up (not cook them). It should be warm though so it is easier to spread.
Mix the sausage together and spread it onto the dough like icing on a cake. Cover the entire dough except for about ½ inch all the way around.
Sprinkle on 8oz. of grated sharp cheddar cheese.
Cut the dough down the middle long-ways.
Roll each half section, starting from the long cut down the middle, like a cinnamon roll. Then cut into 1" rolled sections.
Place on a cookie sheet (sprayed with Pam) about 1/2" inch apart.
Cook 10-15 minutes at 400 (until sausage is cooked and dough is turning a light brown - it will be crackling).
Let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy. A little piece of Heaven direct from a Georgia kitchen.
Our week was rather arduous. Although bike week is always a grueling ordeal at least it wasn't without perks or benefits. We typically get some finding done and still have lessons, but something was horribly wrong this week. It just was tough, no single calamity or any such noise. Appointment fell through and people didn't see us, we would get left across town with nothing to do but bike back after our appointment did show up. Try to meet people and find new people, and the success in that was slim. Still, it wasn't without fun. We met a man who called himself J*** C*****. He told us he is 1700 years old and just out of a mental institution. He has to watch out since they know his real name. He's living with his dad, but its not his real dad, he just says he is his friend. His real dad died and he tried to visit his real dad's house but couldn't because there were too many snakes.
Good times, good times.
Looks like I'll be here for awhile, and I hope ti continues to marvelous.
- Elder North
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
September 30, 2013 - Letter Home
Dear North Clan (and other barbarians),
The more things change the more things stay the same. And by 'change' I mean 'stay the same'. Not to say The Work has become dull or I've resigned to any indulgent comfort, just that things continue to go as they have been. One outstanding occurrence did take place though. We were going to baptize our investigator. In going over the interview questions we remembered he had committed a crime and turns out it was a little more serious than we thought and we should have been on top of this awhile ago. His baptism is postponed for now until he shows a habit of coming to church.
I have finally delivered unto my Mother pictures, so hopefully that spares everyone reading her rants and tirades I've been told she writes on the subject. I'm thinking we'll get the next batch of pictures out in six months.
Tirades huh? Wonder who has been saying I have been ranting and tirading. HEHHE O well if my rants and tirades produce results I guess I will have to continue with them. I am glad to receive the pictures and have requested that he include some of the people he is around in the next batch including pictures of baptism. As we can tell pictures are not as important to Elder North as they are to me. I am glad he is complying and providing me with some.
In other news, we were at a thrift store and I found a framed picture of a sea otter. Needless to say I purchased it and it now resides in the bathroom.
I'd like to thank Grandma North and Ceaira for their letters, which I have received. Hope everyone continues to keep busy and always grow in faith. Conference is coming, prepare yourselves!
LDS General Conference is this coming weekend. You can watch it live on line if your interested in seeing what it is all about. http://www.lds.org/general-conference
- Elder North
The more things change the more things stay the same. And by 'change' I mean 'stay the same'. Not to say The Work has become dull or I've resigned to any indulgent comfort, just that things continue to go as they have been. One outstanding occurrence did take place though. We were going to baptize our investigator. In going over the interview questions we remembered he had committed a crime and turns out it was a little more serious than we thought and we should have been on top of this awhile ago. His baptism is postponed for now until he shows a habit of coming to church.
I have finally delivered unto my Mother pictures, so hopefully that spares everyone reading her rants and tirades I've been told she writes on the subject. I'm thinking we'll get the next batch of pictures out in six months.
Tirades huh? Wonder who has been saying I have been ranting and tirading. HEHHE O well if my rants and tirades produce results I guess I will have to continue with them. I am glad to receive the pictures and have requested that he include some of the people he is around in the next batch including pictures of baptism. As we can tell pictures are not as important to Elder North as they are to me. I am glad he is complying and providing me with some.
In other news, we were at a thrift store and I found a framed picture of a sea otter. Needless to say I purchased it and it now resides in the bathroom.
I'd like to thank Grandma North and Ceaira for their letters, which I have received. Hope everyone continues to keep busy and always grow in faith. Conference is coming, prepare yourselves!
LDS General Conference is this coming weekend. You can watch it live on line if your interested in seeing what it is all about. http://www.lds.org/general-conference
- Elder North
MORE PICTURES - This time out in the field
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| Airport heading to Arkansas! |
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| See mom the my license really did get bent in the wallet. Calling home from our layover in Texas. |
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| On the plane. |
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| The mission home. 905 Kierre Drive North Little Rock, AR 72116 |
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| Sister Peterson |
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| Elder Anderson |
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| My bed with my purple sheets. |
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| Elder Anderson and our apartment |
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| My desk |
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| Our kitchen |
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| Our beds |
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| Another view of our desks and kitchen |
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| more apartment |
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| gym equipment |
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| We have a washer and drying in our apartment |
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| Toasted PB&J |
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| FIRE burning paper |
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| Elder Anderson |
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| Elder Anderson and beans |
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| Elder Anderson with the laffy taffy I asked my mom to send him. |
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| Our apartment from the outside. |
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| Our ward building |
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| We have no benches in our chapel. |
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| Orey Family |
PICTURES MTC PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES
Yes Yes Yes, I know that I have been a little relentless in the picture category. What can I say, I'm a mom and we like information and PICTURES. My fabulous son has sent me some pictures and I am very happy. I will divide them up into two groups. These first ones will be from the MTC. Now I don't have much information in regards to the pictures but it is wonderful non the less!!!
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| How does this thing work? |
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| Elder Durrant my companion |
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| Companions - Me and Elder Durrant |
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| Sisters in our district |
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| Laundry and Letters |
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| Helpful hints |
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| SUPER COOL |
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| Our district! |
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