Sister Michelle Christine North: "No eating here tonight, we're on a Dietttt!"‏

So as you guys know a lot of the work that Hermana Leavitt and I have been doing here in Departamental is working with the less active and inactive members. This week we decided to set a part a special fast for those loves in hopes that they would come to church this week. Before we started our fast, I decided to set a special study aside for learning more about the principle of fasting. And maybe I am jumping onto this boat super late in the game but I am officially starting that tradition, that before I fast I am going to study about fasting. It made this opportunity so much more meaningful and I was able to feel the blessings more strongly of this particular fast. Here is one of the most beautiful scriptures that I found in my studies, Isaiah 58:3-12…READ IT!

On Sunday morning, we woke up early and ran over to Alison’s house, one of our inactive members, to help her get ready and make sure that she was able to go to church. When we got to her house, her sister told us that she was still in bed sleeping (just as we were expecting). We ran into her room and turned on the light and started yelling random things like “Rise and Shine!” and “Happy Birthday!”(Even though it wasn’t her birthday). She probably hated us in that moment but we were determined to get her to church. After we said a morning prayer with her, we waited for her to get ready on a porch swing outside of her house and sung at the top of our lungs the corniest songs out of the hymn book. I would have hated us too, but it was all for her own good! We wanted her to feel the blessings of going to church and especially of God’s love for her. After the circus act that we put on for Alison, we walked to church and got there just in time for church to start. It was an amazing meeting and my smile just got bigger and bigger as we saw all of our inactive loves, that we worked with this week; walk into church with their families. It was an absolute answer to our fasting and prayer. It gave me a stronger testimony of the power of fasting with lots of faith and willing heart. It kind of makes me want to fast every day, but that’s why we have prayer.

Last night was the best ever because we got to have a Noche de Hogar with the Morreno familia- an inactive/part-member family aka double whammy. During the week we had the reference from a family in the ward to visit the mom, Karina because it had been a while since she had come to church. We went on Saturday and talked with her a little bit about what has been going on with her and she told us that she was offended by some of the members in the ward, SURPRISE (that’s the story that we hear for just about EVERY inactive member). The good thing is that she had desires to come back to church, but she said that she would come after her hard feelings were gone. After we shared a little message with her, she asked us to come back the next day to meet with her entire family. It was super awesome because she was so excited to have us in the ward, we could feel her love. So last night was when we got to meet all of them, Carlos (the dad- nonmember), Ana and Karen (the daughters- members) and Jose (the son- nonmember). What surprised me the most was how open the dad was; he was so nice to us and asked us so many questions! “Do you guys teach the same lesson to every family?” “How many families do you visit in a day?” “How do you know what to teach to each family?” etc. We shared with their family the Mormon message of “Moments that Matter the Most” (One of my favorites) and then left them with the Liahona magazine, which they were so excited to receive. Carlos even claimed it and said that he was going to take it to work and read it. Then my favorite part of the night came when Carlos committed us to coming to their house every Sunday at 7PM to teach them! He committed us! Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Ha ha. Starting next week (so far away!) we are going to start teaching them the lessons. I am so excited to get to know them better; I already feel part of their family. Wish you guys could have been there!

Here is the funny story for the week: One day this week Hermana Leavitt and I were really far from our apartment and we had to pee sooooo bad! We both were really against using gross public bathrooms so when we found a super fancy Chinese restaurant we took our chance and ran in hoping that they would have a bathroom. (Of course they would!) No one stopped us when we walked in so we assumed that it was okay but little did we know an angry Chinese man was waiting for us outside of the bathroom. He started going off in Spanish with his Chinese accent (an entire different language might I add) saying, things like "you used our comfort, you used our water, you used our toilet, you have to pay." He explained this to us over and over until we finally understood what he wanted. All of that trouble and all he wanted were 400 pesos. Lesson learned, always pee before leaving the apartment.

Take care loves! Chao.

Xoxo, Hermana North

picture 1: I love having friends that know how to make yummy treats