What is proper way to use cocoapods with React Native (0.43.4) in ios?

Question

I have dug through a number of posts trying to set up a react native project using cocoapods for native ios libraries but I inevitably end up with an error for a missing file in #import <React/RCTBundleURLProvider.h> statement in my AppDelegate.m file.

What is the proper way to use cocoa pods with react-native? At the time of this post my current version of RN is 0.43.4 and I'm using Xcode 8.2.1.

This was my process, curious where I might be going wrong:

1) In the terminal, I create a new project using react-native init TestProject

2) I run pod init in the ios directory of that project

3) I add a dependency in my podFile and run pod install

4) The install process succeeds, but I see a warning that my targets override the 'OTHER_LDFLAGS' and it's suggested I use $(inherit) in my linker flags in Xcode.

5) So based on this SO post I add $(inherited) to Project> TestProject > BuildSettings > linking> Other Linker Flags which was otherwise empty. I also checked and saw that $(inherited) was already present in Targets > TestProject> Build Settings> Linking> Other Linker Flags and PreProcessor Macros as well.

6) At this point I see React/RCTBundleURLProvider.h file not found error on the #import <React/RCTBundleURLProvider.h> statement in AppDelegate.m

7) Based on this SO post I try deleting the node modules directory and back in the terminal run npm install and when complete 'react-native upgrade'. When it asks me if I want to replace AppDelegate.m and project.pbxproj files I say yes.

8) Back in xCode I clean my build but still have the error from step 6 importing <React/RCTBundleURLProvider.h>