Sister Michelle Christine North: Just Do It

It was so great talking with the family yesterday! Minus the fact that they wouldn't play Taylor Swift for me (my only wish), but I wont get into that right now. ;) I hope that all of the moms and future moms had a lovely mothers day. Hermana Fuentes and I celebrated the day by sleeping in! (aka: 7:30AM because there was no ward council). It was so nice. We spent our first Sunday morning without meetings with ease. Hermana made french toast and then we enjoyed it in...or on bed, while watching the Joseph Smith movie (one of my favorites!) We were having the most relaxing morning ever, until we got a call from the elders in our ward asking us to up with them before church so that we could meet their investigator. I told Elder Fowers, "Of course, we would love too! We'll be ready in about 30 minutes," which followed with his response, “Umm…well Hermana North, church starts in 30 minutes.” Ha ha. Ooops! Also, I forgot to mention that it takes us 40 minutes to walk to church. So Hermana Fuentes and I ran around our apartment getting ready in five minutes to go meet the Elders in ten minutes. Winkled skirts, half curled hair and all, we ended up taking a taxi and walking into the church building being greeting by our investigator, Jaime. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Ha ha! Qué vergüenza. It was one interesting morning to say the least.

Speaking of Jaime, I have some really exciting news for you guys! Let me start at the beginning. So on Wednesday we had a lesson with him. Before we started the lesson, he came out with my favorite pastry here in Chile, Mill Ojas. He bought it for us once before and I fell absolutely in love with it, so when I saw it this time, I knew that this lesson was gonna be a really magical lesson! We talked a lot about faith with Jaime (Book of Mormon: Alma 32). He is progressing so much and my favorite part is that he is always so persistent with his questions. He has also been following through with all of the commitments that we have left with him, which shows that he wants this for himself. He talked to us about how much he loves how he has felt ever since we have been coming to visit him. He calls us his angels, (Awe! How sweet). At the end of our lesson with him, I felt the spirit so strong and just knew that he was ready to start preparing for a baptism date. We asked him to be baptized on June first and after promising him that we would keep teaching him (of course), he said “Yes”. So now we are working really hard with Jaime, so that he can be ready for June first.

I have developed such a strong love for the Book of Mormon this week, more like an obsession with reading it actually. Something that we did a lot this week was invite people to read it, our investigator as well as the members in our ward. There is just something so empowering about that book. My very first time reading it, I didn’t cache nada. (Translation: understand anything), but I stayed strong and read it all the way through. And over the time that I have been able to read it over and over, my understanding for it and my love for it has grown. Even though I am reading the same thing every time, I always learn something new! That is what has been on my mind this week and has been so mind blowing to me, but really. I love the gospel so much because you can take one principle and learn about it for hours and hours and days. There is so much we can learn and so many ways we can be influenced by one single principle. Take faith for example. We start by learning that faith is the very first principle of the gospel. Then we can learn how to cultivate it, which leads to learning how it can affect our lives if we have it and then after that we can learn how to apply it in our lives which then could lead to learning how to deal with trials and then that might lead us to learning how to have faith in the atonement, and so on. The gospel of Jesus Christ enriches, enlightens, and brings happiness and love into our lives when we study it and use it. That's another one of my favorite things about the gospel, that we are invited to study and learn for ourselves. In the introduction of the Book of Mormon it invites us to read and ask Heavenly Father in prayer if the words written in it are True; if it is the word of God. We aren't invited to ask our Mormon friends or go to the bishop or the missionaries, we are invited to find out for ourselves through our Heavenly Father. He is there for us always, and knows that the only way we can grow and really learn is by studying it out on our own with the guidance of his spirit. His gospel is simple, but life changing. So JUST DO IT, because it is True. I know that because I have received my answer and continue to have it confirmed everyday.

I am so grateful to be here in Chile serving a mission for the Lord. He has given me so much and this is just a small thing that I can give back. I have seen so many blessings in my life, and miracles every day, thanks to Him. As I serve the people here in San Miguel, I learn so much and am even more blessed than before. People might see this as a sacrifice, and on the rough days it may seem like that, but I really can say with all of my heart, that my mission is the biggest blessing that the Lord has given me.

I love you guys so much! May you feel the Saviors love this week and continue staying close to Him.

Chao until next week! xoxoxoxox, Hermana North

picture 1: We made 100 of these oreo truffles! And not one was left over. Yumm

picture 2: These dogs always come up to me in the street. They think I'm their owner bc I named them one time. Funny thing is though, they respond to those names now. ha ha. Romeo y Carlos