Hey fam and peeps

Date:  April 25, 2016
Area:  Maseru, Lesotho
Companion:  Elder Woodland
Week 44


So this week was week of transfers, there is a new greenie in our area from SA he is an English man from Jo'Burg. his name is I think Elder Ardland or something I really don't know and also if you remember, Elder Thorson who is in my district in Toti, He was serving in Margate so this is cool :)

So this week our power family Nelson and his wife, we taught them some awesome Plan of Salvation stuff and they loved it. Ms. Nelson (I dont know her name) Is pregnant and is loving the gospel thus far.  We found out that they are not married so we will have to push their baptism till after they are legally married, we hope we don't run into any issues with labola. What what. Labola is when you have to pay like 15 cows to the parents of the wife. sorta a dowry but different. It is the cause for a lot of people to not get married. They read the Book of Mormon and study the lessons we give them. When we leave them with a pamphlet they will fill up two to three full pages of notes they have taken or questions they have. They are what we call "Golden Investigators" I have never met a family so prepared in all of my months! haha.

We had the opportunity to work with Elder Khopoche, he is from here and will be going to Botswana for his mission but his visa didnt come so he is home bound with Elder Dean in Lirebe. We had him for two and a half days and he is power! woot woot. I'll talk more of him in a bit, actually now.

so I like this adding my email to the mission president thing, but I may leave part and pieces out. Best part is you will never know ;)

We are not sure where we are planning to meet after we split, but the talk is that we will meet in our area which will help a lot I think. It is currently about a 15 to 20 min drive to church from where we stay.

Our progressing couple are due to have a baby any time so we have been unable to see them due to sickness and being in and out of the hospital for preparations. We hope that them having a baby will really open up their spiritual eyes and help them understand and feel a greater love that Heavenly Father has for His children.

I had the opportunity to add up all my stats for my entire mission thus far. It was very cool for me to see what I have done in the past ten months. I was able to set goals for the end of my mission that I think will push me to continue to "Finish Strong" when the time comes. 

Sad news for this week is that we had a baptism scheduled but the water in the town wasn't working so we were unable to fill up the font and now have to push the baptism back three weeks. Major bummer of the week but it will come. 

Highlight of the week was working with Elder Khopoche, It is true what you say about the "greenies" they are on fire and most valuable missionaries we have in the mission. Even though he was very much at home he still brought a spirit of urgency, excitement, and love for missionary work that I didn't even know had dimmed a bit. We had a wonderful two and a half days with him, teaching but at the same time learning so much. He will be a fantastic missionary and I am glad I got the privilege to serve with him, even if it was just for a few days. 

So we also went like three days without water one time, that sucked....

Other news, a power youth named Peter has dropped off the face of the earth and another cool guy has told us he doesn't want us to visit anymore and another lady refused to believe that God has given us more than just the Bible..... eish..... mission can be tough. We meet a lot of people and most of it doesn't go our way. I did the numbers and I have sat down in someones home to share the gospel over 800 times in the ten months I have been on mission.... now I haven't yet added up all the contacts and referrals but that would probably be thousands and those would be the contacts that I counted as we contacted not just someone I gave a pamphlet or a pass a long card to. Mission is cool :)

We are always trying to improve, well because there is so much to improve on, but by the grace of God we get by. as I have said. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

Love you all!

Elder North

Elder North became an uncle on Friday, April 22, 2016 at 8:05pm.  His oldest brother Deven and his wife Arley welcomed their beautiful daughter Elisabeth Diane North to the family.  We are thrilled to be grandparents and have decided that we want our grandkids to call us Gogo (Zulu for grandma) and Pops.  Elisabeth weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 18 inches long.  Mom and baby are doing great and we can't get enough of our new cutie.