Sister Michelle Christine North: Week 18

Hermana Birtcher and I have had so many tender mercies from the Lord this week, I feel so grateful. With all of these new changes and my new responsibility, to lead our sector and direct the lessons, I have felt so much weakness, doubt and stress. However, I have been blessed time and time again with the most supportive companion- Hermana Birtcher. She has already taught me so much, through her example, her teachings and all of her pep-talks (at least 2 a day). She is teaching me to Trust in the Lord more. Honestly, I really did think that I had a lot of faith in the Lord and his plan for me, but Hermana Birtcher is teaching me hoe to TURST Him in ways that I never did before.

One thing that I was able to learn from day one with my new Hermana, was the importance of Prayer, but not just any prayer, a prayer asking for very specific things. As we pray for specific things, and yes, our prayers are a lot longer now, we not only receive specific answers to our prayers, not our relationship with our Heavenly Father grows stronger- my Trust in Him, becomes stronger. My love for prayers has grown even stronger within this past week with Hermana as miracles have popped out in front of us each day.

One of my favorite miracles from this week, (p.s: are you aloud to have favorites?) came from one of those very specific prayers. In the morning Hermana Birthcer and I made the goal to find a nuevo to teach, but not just any nuevo, a nuevo Family. We had prayed in every prayer that day that we could find a new family to teach. We found a lot of success in teaching lessons all day, we really saw the Lord’s help, but it was 9PM and we still hadn’t found a new family. As we were walking to an appointment with, the loved, Marita, we passed by a store that sold little nick nacks and I told Hermana that I wanted to buy some fuzzy socks for the night (laundry day was coming up soon = no clothes). When we walked in the store, we started talking to the lady and she told us that her son had been looking for us! She ran into the back and brought her son, Jose (9 years old), out and that is when our little miracle came about. We started talking with him and he told us that his cousin had been taking the missionary lessons with the elders and that he was so excited to start learning more. He already had his Book of Mormon and everything. He asked us if we liked the story about when Nephi killed Laban…of course a nine year old boy would LOVE that story and never forget it. After we shared a message with them, we told him that we were going to come back on Sunday morning to take him to church with us. Now this week, we are planning on going over to teach Jose and his Mom, Vicky. She is really open to learning with Jose, but the enthusiasm that Jose has for learning more just makes me SMILE, real big. I asked him why he was looking for us and he said, “Because I want to learn more about Jesus” and I said, “Who is Jesus to you, Jose?” and he said, “A friend”. Yeah J and he is nine years old. My first little of my mission is a Stud. I am so stoked. And all day today, his mom kept calling me, spelling out words in English so that I could translate them in Spanish. I love that she did that, and she calls me “North,” just North. Not Hermana North or Hemrana…okay maybe I am already getting super attached to this family, eating up every little thing they do and say. But really, the Lord blesses us with miracles when we have faith in Him.

Things were not super smooth with my FREAK out of all of these new changes, it has been hard and I am exhausted. (Missions are hard work). But it is all so worth it for me. Heavenly Father follows through with his promises, and all of my worries of not being able to understand the people or not being able to talk with them or not being able to do this have all been have been taken away. MIRACLES are real for those who Believe. The End.

I love you guys so much!

Xoxoxoxox, Hermana North

picture 1: My new wingwoman- Hemrna Birtcher