Letter home from Elder NOrth

Date:  February 16, 2015
Area:  Jackson, Tennessee
Companion:  Elder Eatchel

Dear Ice Kings,

This place is iced over today! Ice everywhere! Not too dangerous though, at least not yet!

Things continue to go just fine with Elder Eatchel and we still have rice. He thought his rice wouldn't last through December but it's now mid February and there' s still plenty.

We had Benjamin to church this week, and his friend Paul! Paul is the member who got us in touch with Benjamin and he is very excited to be baptized and has a date for the 28th! Our first lesson with him was yesterday and Paul is excellent and supporting.

It's not a bunch of things to report but this is one of the best things to go on in a while. Jackson Ward seems to just attract people who want to be baptized.

-Elder North

Letter Home from Elder North

Date:  February 9, 2015
Area:  Jackson, Tennessee
Companion:  Elder Eatchel

Dear Swans,

Sorry for this letter coming so late and being a tad shorter than it would have been.  We had one interesting experience this week that I do want to make sure to tell you about!  We got a referral for someone at an address.  When we went there we found the man did not live there but there was a woman who lived there and she had been to LDS services over a decade ago when she lived in Mississippi.    We will be meeting with her again soon.  We then tried the number on the referral and got in touch with a man named Paul.  Paul was the one who sent the referral and gave the one to the guy we were looking to talk to!  He had us meet him at Chick-Fil-A and he is a traveling believer in Christ more or less.  He's been to many other countries and speaks Italian and he was very excited to get a copy of the Book of Mormon.  We were glad to give it to him.  Unfortunately he wasn't able to make it to church but we hope we might catch him again and be able to teach him more and share some of our Missionary Invitations.

Congratulations to Amber for having completed her Mission!  Thank you all for your continued support, be sure to send Jered mail!

- Elder North

Letter home from Elder Bryen North

Date:  February 2, 2015
Area:  Jackson, Tennessee
Companion:  Elder Eatchel

Dear Steam Engines,

Summer weather is returning...NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The last week was a very interesting one, and for the first time in over 3 months we set a baptismal date, 2 of them! Hopefully meeting with them frequently enough will lead to the prayer and study necessary for them to go through with the decision, but that's the case with pretty much all investigators. We invite them and hopefully they follow through on the simple invitations and progress towards a more meaningful relationship with their Heavenly Father and Savior.

The week was not very eventful otherwise, but we did manage to see a good number of people and do some walking. We met two kind preachers this week! Jeff who we met walking by and spoke with him about what we do as missionaries and about The Spirit. Later Elder Fiso and I met the father of one of our investigators and spoke with both of them about the Book of Mormon and how God will lighten our burdens.

We can all always stand to remember that when we rely on the lord he can offer us perfect help in our infirmities.

-Elder North

Letter Home from Elder North

Date:  January 26, 2015
Area:  Jackson, Tennessee 
Companion:  Elder Eatchel 


Dear Battering Rams,

Interesting thing this week. On Tuesday we got a call from the Assistants saying that we were going to have a third person added to our companionship. Elder Knoerr is from Arkansas and was called to serve in El Salvador. He sustained an injury in the MTC that has had him bouncing around missions for a while now.

The next day at the meeting however it was changed so that he could go with a pair of Spanish speaking missionaries instead so that he could continue using his language.

We had someone new to church yesterday! The day before we were talking with a young women we had met recently. 13 year old Rob asked what we were talking about and said he'd be willing to go to church with us. We met with his parents and set up the ride and he was able to attend. Before the third hour he blacked out for a bit, which was odd. A sister in the ward got him an orange, animal crackers and water to help him get his strength back up.  He enjoyed church and we hope we will be able to see a lot more of him and his mother, who we talked to later that night about the Book of Mormon.

Everybody remember the basic truths. God has not changed how he communicates with his children. Prophets then, prophets now. Not sure if that's the case? Read and pray! Always read and pray.

-Elder North

Letter Home from Elder North

Date:  January 19, 2015
Area:  Jackson, Tennessee
Companion:  Elder Eatchel

Dear Lincoln Memorial,

Congratulations on Mikel for getting all that stuff figured out a heck of a lot better than I did!

First week of our second transfer now completely done things are looking good! At very least much better than how our previous first week went.

A couple weeks ago we got a Ward Mission Leader in place, he and his assistant are both return missionaries that are very invested in the work and do everything they can to help us!

Thank you for the fancy Meat, Cheese, Crackers and Mustard Box. Very interesting. With it I got more of Grandma Mary's letters, thank you for sending them!

Though things are going relatively well there are no major developments on our end to speak of. The other Elders have another baptism lined up for the 24th though! A woman and her daughter, I met them both a couple times when we'd switch with Jackson 1st. I hope everything plays out.

It's wild but I'm now one of the older missionaries in the Mission. Got some serious age on my bones now! You get to this point and no one is willing to let you forget how close you are to going home. See you all in a while!

-Elder North

Letter Home from Elder North

Date:  January 12, 2015
Area:  Jackson, Tennesse
Companion:  Elder Eatchel

Dear Cinderblocks,

No transfer call, so it seems Elder Eatchel and I are sticking around! It's been a while since I've stayed in one place.

We did indeed go to Buffalo Wild Wings! I did as instructed and got half Mango Habenero and half Buffalo Dry Rub, with the buffalo seasoning on the fries. It was delicious. We appreciate the generosity. Elder Eatchel is extremely grateful as well.

We broke our record in-area for lessons this week I believe, which was cool. Now that things have settled things are going much smoother.

A discussion with had with a woman last night had me thinking of our clarity of doctrine. Things make such an infinitely larger degree of sense in the Gospel of the Lord's Church. I am perplexed how people can ascribe to notions of the trinity, with God and Christ being the same individual, and are so set on it that they find the more simple and obvious answer confusing.

The questions raised by investigators always give me a renewed realization of how much more clear everything is. The difficult thing is trying to share that with them without seeming like 'oh we know so much more and know better than you'. So many things are answered just by simple prayer and reading. As always I invite everybody to read and pray. Spiritual matters are spiritually discerned, if you want to know that something is true, pray to find out!

-Elder North

Letter Home from Elder North

Date:  January 5, 2015
Area:  Jackson, Tennesse
Companion:  Elder Eatchel

Dear Hugelings,

Interesting schedule change for church back home. It will be interesting going to church at that hour a couple times.

Our New Years was hardly so eventful. After the Proselyting day ended we stuck around with the other missionaries and talked for a bit before all going to sleep. After which we woke up the next morning and BAM like Magic it's 2015. Whaddya know.

The other missionaries had a baptism New Year's Day for the Mother of a return Sister Missionary. It was an excellent time for everybody and she seems she will be a very strong Member of the Church. The blessings that come from being a part of The Lord's True Church on the Earth are great in number. Witnessing a baptism always works as a great reminded of how wonderful missionary work is. To allow others to get a more complete knowledge of their God!

Our past couple of weeks were slowed a bit by the Holiday season. With it come and gone though we look like we're already picking up traction. Looking forward to some good lessons and lots of teaching!

-Elder North