VICTORY!

Date:  November 30, 2015
Area:  Tucuru, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder McEntee
Week 104

I have finished my last week in the mission. I´m coming home. It´s a weird thing though, I know it is happening but my mind can´t seem to comprehend it because I´ve been a missionary for so long.

Anyway, This was what my last week was all about, and what a final week it was.

Thank you all for your support and love and I look foreward to talking to everyone. You may have wanted more from my last week, but did you really expect more? (I will be writing an end mission thing later for those who actually did expect more.)

Homeward Bound,

Elder Jered Lamont North (Laj Saqi Noq´)

Up on the mountain tops

Date:  November 23, 2015

Area:  Turucu, Guatemala

Companion:  Edler McEntee

Week 102

This week I did divisions with my Zone leader Elder Soriano, I got to go up to Senahu for the first and last time in my mission.  Senahu is a part of the Polochic that is way up in the mountains and we call that the mountain district and boy did it feel good up there. It was raining more and it was very cool and not hot whatsoever. We had some good lessons up there but honestly it felt more like a vacation for me, I was out of my area so I wasn´t the one taking the lead on where to go and what to say in the lessons so I got to relax more than usual. We met with a really cool less active named Enrique, he had some doubts about the church pop up and so we visited him and did our best to answer is questions but most of all we told him that he should really take his questions to his Father in Heaven who will not only give him the answers, but will give them in a way that is completely unique to him and in a way that he knows they are true.  Senahu is a really pretty place, how I describe it, it actually feels like you are in a town IN the mountains instead of in a town SURROUNDED by mountains as I have felt for the most part of my mission.

Other than that works goes on like usual, Juana and her daughters are very excited for her baptism. We did get to go to a graduation party, which is to say that we went and ate a meal to celebrate the graduation of one of our investigators. Here in Guatemala when there is an event like a birthday or something you invite pretty much everyone you know just to share a meal with them. That´s pretty cool.

I´m now starting my final week in the mission and it feels weird but honestly I´ve been a missionary for quite a while that it just feels natural to keep going for a little longer.

I love you all,

Elder North

Water that falls down

Date:  November 16, 2015
Area:  Tucuru, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder McEntee
Week 101

A couple things this week. I´ll start from the end, which means today.

So, today I went on what could probably be my last major adventure while on the mission, we went to see the giant waterfall again and this time it was a lot bigger than the last two times I went, it was really good and we didn´t get ambushed by lamanites like we did the first time. Due to that I´m emailing a little later than usual.

This week we also celebrated the 20th birthday of my companion Elder McEntee. The members here in Tucuru are just absolutely amazing, they went all the way to Tactic (About an hour and a half away) to buy a really awesome chocolate cake for him, of which we all enjoyed although with really rich chocolate cakes you can´t really eat a lot all at once, but we ignored that and had really big pieces anyway. It was that day that I was eating some nachos and I must have bit on one really oddly because my back tooth chipped. It suddenly felt odd and I felt like something was missing, sure enough my tooth had chipped quite a large chunk off, but it doesn´t hurt, I´m hoping that on the way out of the mission I can stop by the mission dentist and see if they can do anything about that, if not I´ll just have to wait until I get home and see my own dentist.

Sunday we had a special District conference, it was a special conference for all of Guatemala where the area presidency spoke as well as Elder David A. Bednar of the quorum of the twelve apostles. They focused on the Sabbath day and how we can help others stay in the church once they have gotten baptized, in other words. Retention of converts. A big part of that is the role that members play in helping investigators join and stay in the church. As my time as a full time missionary comes to an end I look to ways that I can still help in the missionary work but as a member. It´s certainly a different part of the work but it is really important as well. References from members are more than three fourths of the baptisms of missionaries I believe.

Things are going well, I´m about ready to go home but it´s just a little time more in the field and I´m going to really stick it out and love it and love the people and the place because I don´t know when I´ll be able to see them again.

Thank you all for keeping up on my mission adventures, just a couple more and then I´ll be having return missionary adventures.

Love,

Elder Norte

Week of unexpected and expected travels.

Date:  November 9, 2015
Area:  Tacuru, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder McEntee
Week 98



This week seemed to fly by because we had to do some more traveling than the usual. I´ll just tell about those first.

So, the unexpected travel was because of an emergency change. Not for me mind you, but for other Elders and we had to escort Elder Flores to Cobán so that he wouldn´t be alone and so we had to take a little trip to Cobán, while there we did get to take advantage of the brand new Taco Bell that is up and boy was that good, I was craving Taco Bell the rest of the week, it´s amazing how different Taco Bell actually is from the food here that says it sells tacos all the time. A taco though can be many different things. With meat or without.

The other travels were expected, we had zone meeting this week and it was my final zone meeting, with that I did get plenty of mail. All of my happy birthday mail came, and they were from the Holden's, Karoline, Grandma Mary, Mom and I got a letter from Sister Hibbs and from Rowan. They were all very cool and I loved them, thank you all.

Since we were running around everywhere we didn´t have as much time in our area as we thought we would this week but we did some great work. We found Juana and her two little children and they are now set for baptism my last week, which means, the 28th of November. One of Juana´s daughters is actually baptized already but she couldn´t due to her living circumstances but now she can.

With that we also found Matilde, she really wants to be baptized but has to get married first, that´s actually not that hard and we have some major help here in Tucuru, the hard part for her is that her husband works in Honduras a month at a time and only comes back home for about three days. It´s a really rough schedule, but that´s how they have it. So we´re figuring that out but we believe she will be able to get baptized by the end of December.

An update on Olga, she is still unsure about things, she really wanted to know more about Joseph Smith so we got to gether with her member friends and we watched the Joseph Smith movie and actually ended up just talking about gospel stuff for an hour after. The only thing that annoys me with her is that she isn´t reading, she needs to do that.

We celebrated a couple birthdays this week as well, I was actually fasting one of those day and didn´t participate in eating the cake, a little sad but it was all right.

Answers to some questions:

My clothes have held up fine, I´ve lost a couple of buttons though. My shoes.... Well, you´ll see.

I don´t really know my neighbors, They are friendly though, their dog is not.

I am sleeping like a baby, crying and turning all night. But really, I´m sleeping really well.

I usually have my bowl of cereal in the morning.

I learned this week about eternal progression, that it is only possible with marraige and the family. I´ve thought about home a couple times this week, hehe.

That´s about it for this week,

Love you

Elder Norte

There are mountains to climb

Rubber tree

Date:  November 1, 2015

Area:  Tacuru, Guatemala

Companion:  Elder McEntee

Week 97

This week we had some fun climbing mountains learning more about Tucuru, one such trip actually wasn`t that efficient and we ended up actually doing nearly nothing the entire day but we had another day where we visited a little village up in the mountain and found plenty of new people and a family that wants to learn more and to get baptized but she`s not married to her `husband` but really a marriage isn`t that hard to do if both parties are willing, it`s when there is a divorce or something else that has to happen at the same time is when it gets hard for us.

I actually wasn`t there for that trip because I was in divisions in La Tinta with Elder Ortiz from Chile, it was interesting because I got the opportunity to go to church in La Tinta yesterday and see all the members and even my converts that  I got to know at the start of my mission. It was a bit odd seeing everyone grown up and it was cool for them to see that I have learned Spanish and Q`eqchi` and have conquered for the most part my fear of talking even though I would still prefer not to talk a lot it`s not provoked by a fear or insecurity anymore.

I had the realization that that is how it might be when I return home and I see everyone back home and how much they have grown and they also get to see how much I have grown. my converts were really happy to see me and I was really happy to see them, I can only imagine the joy I will feel upon seeing my family again, it reminds me of a really special moment in my life which included my family. The family is the most important part of our lives and the most important and significant part in the plan of our father in heaven it is worth more than rubies to develope, fix or whatever needs to be done to have a good relationship with all the members of your family, parents and siblings.

Update on our investigators, we have that new lady which I havn`t yet that wants to get baptized but needs to get married, we`re going to be helping her with that but first we need to talk with her `husband` to see how he feels about the whole thing.

Olga is progressing well, she is coming to church now but she is having trouble with the small things like reading, they do seem small but by small means great things are brought to pass. Things always start small before they get big, like a snowball rolling down a hill. (surprisingly I still know what a snowball is)

Our other investigators that are likely to progress are still on the edge of making the decision if they want to really go forward or not, we shall see. there is certainly a lot for Elder McEntee and I to do.

No letters this week, but we will be getting those in a matter of days, Elder Kortsen went to Cobàn today and will be picking those up for Elder McEntee and I. We`re always excited to get letters although I must remind all you guys out there at home to stop sending me letters at least, stop sending them to the mission because chances are that they will get here and I`ll be home, so my recommendation is write those letters and send them to my home.

I love you all, keep going strong.

Elder North

This is from Elder McEntee's letter home this week. (Always fun to get the companions view on things)
Today is the Day of the Dead! Entonces, Feliz Dia! Not the best day for P-Day to fall on since nothing will be open today but we were at least lucky enough to find this internet cafe open! I hope you all had a great Halloween! Its November, that happened fast!After going almost 5 days without running water in the house it finally came back this week so that was reason for minor celebration! After hearing that you may be asking yourself “Does that mean he didnt shower for almost 5 days…?”. In which case my answer would be No, I didnt shower for almost 5 days…. But come on people, what do you expect me to do! hah I can promise you though, I am now a clean human being! Minor events this week: flame throwered a turantula. Scaled a super steep mountain for 3 hours straight. I placed a baptimal date. One day I actually cooked meals for both my companion and I, all 3 meals. One night we had dinner at two different members house, it was awesome. This week we had divisions. Elder Gonzalez (yes my old companion) and I were in Tucuru for two days, while my companion went to La Tinta. It was fun being with Elder Gonzalez again, it felt good to teach with him again! Plus it helped having him in some lessons with our investigators that speak Spanish. He is a great District Leader and Im so grateful, especially now, to of had him as my trainer, he taught me basically all the Spanish I know. As always with weeks where we have divisions this week went really fast!My companion, Elder North, and I are really about to get things rolling in Tucuru. Its exciting to have our schedules full of people that want to learn and actually WANT to progress. I cant express in words how much I love what I’m teaching

and how much I just want to share it with everyone! I wish I wasn’t so shy with my beliefs in High School, I just want all my friends at home and everyone to know that I KNOW this church to be the true church of Jesus Christ on the Earth today with a living Prophet and Apostles to lead and guide us. I know that if one would just pray with the slightest bit of faith concerning the truth of what Im saying that they will receive a confirmation by means of the Holy Ghost that it is ALL true. Jesus Christ is our Savior, the Redeemer of the world and our advocate with the Father. He came to this earth to take upon the sins of the world and loves each one of us more than we could imagine. Eternal Happiness is only accomplished through His Everlasting Atonement and I feel such a responsibility and desire to share that happiness with all of you! I know it may seem like Ive changed from the kid you all knew, and I guess that's true in some ways. My beliefs haven't changed but I do have a stronger testimony of the things I knew before and Im not afraid to share anymore. To all my buddy’s back home and good friends and really just everyone, I want to apologize right now for not sharing my testimony with you before. How selfish of me to have held back what I know to be true! I love you all, thanks for everybody’s support and love.  Love Elder MCENTEE

If you would like to send Jered a welcome home letter that would be cool.  Send it to our home address.
Jered North
4111 Red Tail Drive
Riverton, UT 84065

Baptism and long bus ride

Date:  October 27, 2015
Area:  Tucuru, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder McEntee
Week 96

So, Elder McEntee and I had some interesting adventures this week and all those adventures started with interviews with our awesome President of the mission Presidente Curtiss and his wife Sister Curtiss. I felt like my interviews with them were shorter than normal but no less fantastic, I did ask President if I could renew my temple recommend but unfortunately he wasn´t caring around the papers to do it, so we have to find another time to do that. I have a new assignment from sister Curtiss to study about Pride and being humble for the remaining time I am on my mission, usually the assignments from her are for the next three months, but the fact is that I´m going to be out of the mission in less than that.

About those adventures, Elder McEntee´s tooth was hurting him our first week and Sister Curtiss always asks about our health in the interviews so he told her that his tooth was hurting that first week but now it was better, Sister Curtiss in her love and concern right then set up an appointment with the dentists. The dentists though, work in the capital, so we had to go there this Monday and that´s where the long bus rides come from. It takes two hours for us to get to Cobán from Tucuru and then four hours to get to the Captial from Cobán, and we had to do that four hour ride twice in one day, because we went, they found out that nothing was wrong with his tooth because the pain he felt was actually from sinus issues as we were adjusting to the new area and then we went back, so that was a lot of bus rides and that sums up our day Monday. Go in, get checked, get out. Hehe, Oh well, better safe than sorry I guess.

Here are some pictures of my house.  I think this is the nicest house in the whole mission!

 

Anyway, other than that lovely adventure we did have a baptism this week, the baptism of Beverly Cristabel Balsells Xol, she has been being taught for the last two years I believe and is now ready to be baptized and it was a very happy day, the service was simple and actually started way later than planned, but we got it all figured out and we even confirmed her that same day. I have learned that every baptism in the mission is a very special  
miracle.

Hole to the secret gnome world.

We have several investigators, friends of a member, that are very interested in listening to us and they seem ready, for a missionary it is always a treat to teach people that are truly ready, they have questions and they follow through with their commitments and it´s so easy, since the spirit has prepared them we pretty much just walk in teach and then that´s it, they do the rest and get baptized and we get to see another special miracle.

My new ride

Another investigator we have that we are propably going to drop is a very kind guy that is named Marco Antonio, we met him through contacting and he was very nice and listend to us and we introduced ourselves and got to know one another, we asked if he had a church and he said yes, we found out later that he is actually the pastor of the church, now that´s not going to stop us from sharing our message if someone will listen to us and we gave him a Book of Mormon and he promised us that he will read it. Now the question is what will he do once he reads the Book of Mormon and prays about it, I´m very sure that he will recieve an answer if he asks with faith but once he gets that answer what will he do with it, will he follow it or will he stay with being pastor of his church. It all depends on what he feels and what he´s willing to do, because if he´s not willing to change then we can´t really do anything but I do believe that even if we drop him that we have planted a seed that will definately be able to have fruit in the future.

So, that was our week, busy with the baptism and then going to the capital, it was a bit weird being there for a little bit and knowing that I´m going to make that trip again soon and when I do that it will be on the way home. I´m excited to be home but I´m also very excited to end out my mission strong.

I love you all, keep on truckin´

Elder Norte

We finally got Elder North's release date.  We had hoped he might be home for Thanksgiving but it is not to be.  He will be home the next week on December 3rd.  Will keep you posted as to when his homecoming address will be.  Thanks for the love and support!

Tucuru, the beginning

Date: October 19, 2015
Area:  Tucuru, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder McEntee
Week 95

So here goes the beginning of the end, I´m in my last area, my last change my last companion and my last mountain walking legs. My companion is Elder McEntee, spelling is now correct, he is from Old Port Oregon and we get along just well. It´s interesting to be opening up an area, that means that both of us are new to the area and it makes things a little hard at first but the members here in Tucuru are really helpful and we´re getting plans together and we´re going to work hard.

Although I actually didn´t take any pictures this week somehow I have plenty of things to take pictures of, the house for one is awesome, I wish I had a before and after picture of when we cleaned it but it´s now just amazing and it feels nice and cozy. The area of Tucuru itself feels homey for some reason.  I am in the Senahu Zone and I go to La Tinta for P-days which is about an hours drive away and that is no joke!  :) 

We don´t have many investigators on our plate right now but we have one that is ready for the waters and her name is Beverly Balses, she has been being taught by the missionaries for a bit and has accepted a baptism date and then it fell and now we have another one for her on the 24th of Octuber, she is more decided on this one and I believe she´ll get there. We had a member with us, Daniel and he was the one that told us that she was more decided on the date than the ones before it where he said she was more wishy washy on accepting it.

We´ve done some contacting in Tucuru and I have noticed that the people are a little different than what I´m used to. The people speak more Spanish as well so I´ve been pulling out the Spanish lessons from the shelf and dusting them off and polishing them up, by no means do I think I´m bad at Spanish, I just didn´t use it in lessons that much before. Now I´m using it on the daily.

I've been helping my companion, Elder McEntee learn in both languages, he´s doing really well, he has about four months out (Like my brother Mikel) and he started with a Mexican companion, with me it´s a lot easier to explain things and I feel like it´ll let him learn faster even if we don´t speak a lot together in either language while at home. Trading better understanding with speaking time.

We´re still getting used to things here, but it´s all going well and the area is pretty big so it doesn´t look like we´re going to have a lack of things to do and places to go. It´s going to be a fun and work filled final to my mission.

I expect to get mail with interviews with my mission president that is coming up but I don´t know if they will bring it, we´ll see. The next time I expect to get mail is our Zone meeting the first week of November, getting mail while out in the Polochic takes some time.

I should find out tomorrow or Wednesday when I am actually coming home because we´re going to have interviews with President Curtiss, most likely will be December 3rd though.

I love you all, get better everyone and avoid more accidents, I´m praying for you,

Elder North