Andover week 5

So transfer calls came today. Last night at 11:10 i got a text telling me to be on the call for the trainers meeting. yep! Im training again! There are a few different scenarios I had in my head about how transfers would play out and this literally was not even on the table for considering. I am humbled for this opportunity. I will still be a district leader too. <3 <3 <3 <3 I love being district leader :)

So last sunday while planning our day for monday I let Elder garrett plan the day out. he made some plans and I asked what we could do for more backups. He said all would be well because we were going out with a joint teacher. I was like alright then... well the next day at dinner with the joint teacher, who was then going to go out with us for a few hours, he had a family emergency and he had to leave. Our entire night was basically ruined. Elder Garrett and I looked at each other and he was like, "yep. the Lord is chastening us for last night and not planning well." Well played. So we got our slice of humble pie. ha ha.

At district meeting the next day Elder Smith and his companion brought hot chocolate! So we were able to have hot chocolate and a wonderful lessson. muy bien.

Then I went on an exchange with Elder Scarlet into Anoka, the neighboring town. That was pretty fun. i met this man named Polo who has like 7 keyboards. he is a professional key boarder and does a lot of band work. So cool. He was going to play us some stuff but he had to leave for somewhere and needed to shower.

We went joint teaching with our stake president this week. holy. cow. absolutely remarkable. we went and taught the W. family. President just absolutely dominated. The W. family would constantly tell us why our beliefs did not line up and were wrong and President came in and was just like stop pulling bible verses out of context. then he "unopapologetically declared that effort is required" for salvation and went to town. Brother W., who is a cool cat and never loses his cool, was visibly shaking. President literally rattled him to the core. It was so insane and incredible to watch. It reminded me of Helaman 5:18 when Nephi and Lehi taught the people with such authority that the people's world was rocked. Oh man.

After that we went and visited brother G. who we have been meeting with for a while. His girlfriend thought we were basically evil trying to baptize her boyfriend to rank up in our church so she wouldnt talk to us. But president managed to get her to come out, talk about christ, realize we truly share a message based on how Christ is the only way, and we do it because we love it. Her countenance changed. she loves us now! man. such a great night.

I also interviewed Brother J. for baptism. Every time i interview someone for baptism I ask them what the biggest change in their life is and they always say they feel such a peace and lasting happiness that they had not felt before. eternal happiness. The gospel of Jesus Christ is remarkable! This truly is a plan of happiness.

Well, I would love to write more but transfers and some crazy things have caused email time to be nada. Also I dont know about next weeks email with christmas and all. So.. merry Christmas!

Have a wonderful week, Elder Damron !

Andover week 4

I love it when it gets so cold that for a few days straight the temperature does not rise above 0 degrees. That is my life right now. It is quite... fun! ha ha. On saturday we got a text from President Clements telling us not to go outside until noon because of the windchill advisory.    -30 windchill anyone? Unfortunately we had no appointments, so we had to find all day. I wore two hats, 2 pairs of glove, 2 sweaters under my coat, 2 pairs of thermals on my legs, 2 pairs of socks, boots, and a neck warmer. still flippin cold. We took frequent car breaks to warm up.

So we talked to brother L. this week. He is in his 30s and loves to have us in because he just likes talking about faith. He told us about how he was in the darkest of spiritual holes you can imagine when he was in college and he cried out to god begging Him for a sign that He was there. Brother L. told us he was terrified of being smitten for being a sign seeker or something, ha ha. anyway, he said the next morning he woke up and went downstairs. he was shocked by what he saw. He said he saw God himself standing right there looking right at him. I never quite know what to say in these sorts of situations...

I went to my first Mission Leadership Conference. This is a monthly meeting for all the leaders in the mission to talk about the needs of the mission. Uber spiritual and powerful experience. we talked a lot about how sacrifice for the Lord is how we push our faith to produce miracles. As we give something up for the Lord, he will help us out!

I talked to my old zone leader from Hudson at MLC and asked him about the different people I taught back in River Falls. He told me that Brother J., who absolutely hated (yes I know this is a strong word but it is true in his case) the catholic church, prayed about the Book of Mormon, then God told him the Catholic church is true so he went back to the Catholic church. Brother J. literally went around persecuting that church in every way he could. My jaw dropped about 3 feet. Almost went through the table. I'm still in shock a little bit.

On Wednesday we had a crazy snow storm. About 8 inches fell over the course of the day. President ended up grounding the cars for the day, so we couldnt drive anywhere. Before he grounded the cars I managed to get over to another missionary's apartment for exchanges. I went with elder smith. All our plans fell through so we shoveled a lot of driveways and went out with Calvin Gaudette. He recently returned from the Mesa Arizona Mission! We talked for awhile. He is pretty crazy. We were driving down the street and we passed our turn. He slams the steering wheel to one side, pops the E-brake, and we flipped around in a perfect 180. like straight out of a movie or something. I look out the window to see a woman with a shocked look on her face shoveling her driveway. ha ha. what a site. We drove around dropping by people and shoveling some more. Then he took us to a gas station to get some drinks. I got a bottle of nesquik out and he chuckled and told me to get the half gallon. i thought he was kidding so i closed the door. he was like no, really. get the half gallon. So I walked out with a half gallon of chocolate milk. i wasnt complaining :)

We met Bro. S. again. He is coming back to the church after a long period of inactivity and we are helping him get ready to attend the temple next summer. In every lesson we are supposed to incorporate a baptismal interview question to help build and monitor faith. Well I finally got into a good position to ask the question so i rephrased the first interview question, "Do you believe God is our Eternal Father?" I phrased it to make it fit into the conversation. He looked at me like I was an idiot with a "no duh" expression on his face. I need to figure out better ways to incorporate those questions.. ha ha.

We went over to Sister W.'s again. She came to church last week and we wanted to invite her to the christmas party we were having. She opened up the door, held up her new, golden kitten, and said it's Aslan! Well, last time we were over she had just gotten her kitten. she told us she had no clue what to name it so i jokingly said Aslan. well, aparently it stuck because she liked it enough to name her cat aslan. She also is excited to tell the story of how mormons named her cat. I named a cat Aslan. muy bien.

I FOUND TRAILER PARKS IN OUR AREA. I AM SO HAPPY. I love them a lot. Such fun places :) we were tracting there on saturday, the uber cold day, and this guy opens up and says, "come on in! it is cold!" Shocked, we stood there and stared. he beckoned us in again. We got in and i immediately noticed that his walls were covered with pictures of Glacier national park. We had a pretty good conversation about the wonders of montana but he was on his way out the door, so we had to leave.

Saturday night we had our ward christmas party. We were asked to help serve. The bishop's wife told us we were to serve the jello and the vegetables. she looked at us and asked which one of us was willing to be the mean one and tell people they could only have 2 pieces of jello. elder garrett volunteered me. so i was the jello warden! It wasnt too bad. I just joked around with everyone and I actually had a good time. This one little girl, about 5, came up and started to get some jello. I looked away for a second and when i looked back i realized she had quite the full plate of different types of jellos. I managed to pry the prongs out of her hand and she ran off. Little rascal swindled me of quite a few pieces of jello...

After the party we went caroling across the street. Another set of missionaries have an investigator there so we knocked on that door. The door was at the bottom of the stairs and the caroling group was at the top of the stairs and couldnt see down. the 5 year old son who lived there came up the stairs and froze once he saw how many people were there. the group burst out into Joy to the World. The poor kid looked terrified. after the song was over he ran down the stairs to escape to safety. ha ha. 

 

Elder Bednar gave a talk in general conference on convesion a few years ago. In it he set forth a way to deepen our conversion. R.O.D. Repentence, Obedience, Diligence. As we repent, are obedient, and are diligent in doing the first two and seeking out the Lord's will, our conversion and dedication to Him will increase. 

I hope you all have a good, warm week!

Love, Elder Damron  

Andover week 3

So it is getting a tad chilly. We have had some single digit days, which isnt too bad really. But the wind. Oh the wind! Basically it doesnt matter what you are wearing. The wind just dominates your soul. ha ha.

Well I had the opportunity to teach the B. family on exchanges with my zone leader this week. They are the family I interviewed for baptism. they are so flipping legit, I love them. We talked of the covenant of baptism. I kept trying to share a scripture but their son went insane and for 20 minutes the children were just bouncing off the walls and causing havoc, so the lesson was... interesting to say the least. Oh man. kids.

While talking to a Sister training leader about some sisters in my district over the phone, Elder Garret snuck up on me and barraged me with rubber bands. he was flinging them across the room. I then returned fire and we had quite the war. All while on a phone call. It was quite impressive. She didnt even know. im pretty sure i won.

Wednesday night we went over to this family's house for dinner. We knocked on the door and the 5 year old son answered. We asked if the parents were there and he said they were busy and slammed the door on us. we stood there like did that just happen? after a few minutes we knocked again. The same boy answered. He said, "did you knock again????" He went for the door slam again but then an adult saw us and let us in. ha ha. I then met the sister-in-law of Sister H., the member who lived there. She looked at me for a minute or two and then said," Damron! You lived in Billings!" A little taken aback i told her I indeed did. She introduced herself as sister Gilstrap (sp) and told me that she served her mission in Billings and had eaten at our house quite a few times. She told me she remembered my mother well and asked how my family was doing. Small world. and oh how the tides have turned... we had a pretty good discussion on billings. It was a lot of fun.

Thanksgiving was definitey muy bueno. We went over to a member's house in our ward and they are FANTASTIC cooks. They are Hawaiin and so there was a unique twist in there as well. Bro. G. let us play his ukuleles for awhile and then we had dinner. we hung around for awhile and chatted and also had some trivia questions. I came up with a trivia question to ask and then immediately one of the daughters, who is in her 30s, was like that is a lie! And googled it. Well the question i asked was a question that my friends and I looked up at BYU or something and we got some answer that made partial sense. i was not actually the one who looked up the answer... well turns out i was dead wrong. So they called me out on that one and then the daughter googled everything else i said the rest of the day. blah. I hate being wrong. :)

That night from 6-9 pm we were supposed to visit less active and active members of the ward that might be alone. We had set up appointments but they all fell through. We were not allowed to tract so we were thinking it was going to be a LOOONG night. But then we felt as if we should go and visit Sister E. She lives quite far away but we committed to it and went. We got there about 20 minutes later and the family let us right in and we had a wonderful talk. her youngest son has been asking about God and Sister E. knows he needs to be in church. This was such a miracle! our plans fell through and then we felt we should go visit this woman! Not a coincidence.

We were teaching Sister W. and we had challenged her to pray to know if Christ was the Son of God. She prayed about it and was shocked to recieve the answer that He was indeed sent her to earth with a purpose. Before she wouldnt even acknowledge He existed. that was a cool experience. She really hates how a lot of churches and a lot of her friends always badmouth our church and this is one reason she is attracted to it. While talking about faith I said something silly like, "all churches require faith. except the golden plates, we need to see those to believe that." She found that quite hysterical. it is slightly true though.

We visited with a less active man who is returning to the gospel after a health scare kind of reality checked him. We were teaching the restoration and we got to Christ's earthly ministry. The atonement obviously came up and he just kept saying how bad a man he really was. it was such a sweet experience to testify that through Christ, all can be made right. he can change. He can feel the peace of forgiveness.

We went to our Bishop's for dinner and the topic of musical instruments came up. Their kids play band instruments and Elder garrett plays the trumpet. Elder Garrett declared the trumpet to be the Celestial instrument since angels play them in most pictures and the trumpet is mentioned in the bible. I responded that the bible uses a lot of symbolism and that angels are not of celestial glory yet and so obviously the cello will be played in the Celestial kingdom. he he

During gospel principles in church we were talking about the priesthood. At one point the teacher said, "if i ran off and tried to start my own sect using the priesthood while also having my children in cages in the basement, what would happen?" I immediately understood what he was trying to get across. That priesthood power is only obtained through personal righteousness and whatnot. Well the rest of the class did not realize this and hilarity ensued. oh man. Im glad we didnt have any volatile investigators who would flip out. ha ha.

 

D&C 59:7 Thou shalt ^athank the Lord thy God in all things.

2 nephi 9:52 Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give ^athanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts ^brejoice.

The Lord has commanded us to be thankful. It is a commandment! And with every commandment there a blessing. He has promised that as we are more thankful, we WILL be happier. Not only that, but we will be more humble as we recognize how much the Lord actually does in our lives.

 

i love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Damron

Andover week 2

So today is not normal P-Day. Thursday was made our P-Day but we get a very limited time to email today. So for those of you who emailed me, I will get back to you next week. sorry!

So I really hate being sick. like a lot. for the flipping 4th time in sixth months I am sick. I was stuck in the apartment most of saturday then sunday I got a wicked migraine (first one in 6 months, must be a record) and that basically destroyed proselyting efforts there too. Blah. Our zone had a goal of reaching a certain amount of lessons and I am not sure if we made it because we undershot it due to illness. Blah. i feel horrible.

Other than that.. the week was good! We taught the W. family and they basically bashed the whole time. Like I said before, for some reason when i come to town the bashers come out. at one point Brother W. said, "lets take the book of mormon off the table and just talk about the bible." I politely refused and you can tell how that lesson went. ha ha

We had our first district meeting under the reign of king elder damron, i mean, uhm, humble servant elder damron. I'm just kidding.. but the meeting went pretty well. SO MUCH STRESS. at first I thought i would not have enough to do to fill the time, i quickly realized I didnt have enough time. but the spirit was there and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

We are teaching this old man, Brother R. He seems kinda crazy and I am unsure if he comprehends what we are actually teaching. he remembers a lot of it, but its significance doesn't come across well. He rants about how marvelous the book of mormon makes him feel, though. So hopefully he continues to progress. I set a baptismal date for January 11th with him.. That is right. My birthday is on a saturday next year. BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER. So I REALLY hope this one turns out. ha ha. But there will be some struggles. He likes to go off on tangents so teaching can be hard. he talked about being hit by a car on his bike multiple times for like 30 minutes one lesson. That was interesting.

We were walking down the street one day and this woman in a giant van pulled up and told us she respects us for what we are doing, even if we are completely wrong. Then she ranted about her megachurch and how Christ didnt abandon her church like we claim he did, or something like that. I just smiled and expressed my appreciation for meeting someone with such great faith. i really do enjoy meeting these people. we need more faith in the world.

We also went to a blood drive being held at our church building. I had a sore throat so they wouldnt let me donate blood. my zone leader elder Hicken almost passed out before he was about to give blood. so that was quite amusing. ha ha. we mingled with the people and investigators and chatted. it was pretty fun. Later that night I returned to the church to interview Brother and Sister B. for baptism. i cannot describe with words how great of an experience this was. The testimonies and the joy they both have seeped from their souls and shone from their countenance. Miracle after miracle occured during their meeting with the missionaries. One miracle was after they accepted to live the law of tithing. they knew they did not have enough money to pay it, but felt they should commit to it. 5 minutes after the Elders left the got a phone call and brother B. got a job offer for a job he interviewed for like 6 weeks ago (he was supposed to hear back after 2 weeks). they talked so much about the joy and peace they had in their lives now. So remarkable. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to meet and interview them.

We brought Sister W. to church. She liked the service! but after sacrament meeting she basically told us she was done talking to us and she learned all she wanted to. Then she turned to me and called me a self righteous blah blah blah. my jaw dropped a little bit. She told me I am not considerate of other people's beliefs and the other missionaries actually were. This disturbed me to the core. I have always tried to be open minded and respectful. Disrespect is the one thing that really sets me off. She told me my body language gave me away and she knew that I thought her beliefs were a joke. I hate the body language card. A few people have "read my body language" on my mission and claimed i have malice towards them but in each case my body language had to do with something else. Such as feeling super sick and wanting to die... not hating her beliefs. i took the humble route and apologized for the miscommunication. It is humbling to apologize for something you do not think you did. Another problem is the last missionaries stopped teaching her and went over to be her friend only. We need to befriend everyone, but we are also trying to bring people unto Christ. I tried to get sister W. to read the BoM. Not to demean her beliefs, but the help her understand ours. She is meeting with us after all... She didnt like that idea. oh well though. I plan on going over and smoothing things over one more time.

Sorry this email is so short. this whole not a pday thing kinda makes things hectic.

this week i read mosiah 22:9

9 And it came to pass that the king hearkened unto the words of Gideon.

In this case King Limhi listened to the counsel of Gideon on how to escape the lamanites rule over them. I think this applies to all of us. The King, the boss, listened to an underling of his. Are we humble enough to hearken to the advice of those people we sometimes feel are "below" us? Takes a big slice of humble pie to do that.

anyway, i loveth all of thee!

Have a good week, Elder Damron

Andover week 1

So new area. Fun! I miss River Falls a little bit, but I guess that is natural. For the first time in my mission I am actually serving in Minnesota, though.

So the Taylors have this santa plate that Elder Cole and I liked a lot. Well, at the start of me training him he took an oath that he would not eat off of any plate but that santa plate while he lived at the Taylors. I like that plate too and was here first, but he still swiped it. He even would pick my plate up, put my food onto another plate, and then use the santa plate. That goon. haha. Anyway, on Tuesday I walked out into the kitchen to see him and another missionary this was with us eating lunch. And the other missionary had the santa plate. I started laughing and said, "OH MY GOSH." They looked at me puzzled. The realization of what had occurred creeped onto Elder Cole's face. Oh man, that was hilarious. He tried to defend himself as he realized the mix up, but alas, the day before our time together ended he failed at keeping his oath. I need to teach him what enduring to the end means.

We taught and said goodbye to Sister Jessica and Sister Jamie, both of whom got baptized. I teared up a little as we walked out of Sister Jamie's apartment that night after saying goodbye. I truly care for these people. Leaving was one of the hardest things I have done in awhile.

Our investigator Mike was FURIOUS I was leaving. Like, super super mad. He didnt want either of us to leave and called the mission home and demanded we both stay. Oh man.

We tracted into this guy named Ross. I shook his hand and kept shaking and kept shaking. He wouldnt let go. I tried pullling away but he seriously held my hand for like 2-3 minutes and kept talking. so awkard.

So now I am with Elder Garrett, who was actually in my district and room in the MTC! I was happy to hear that I was with him. He is the definition of exactly obedient and I admire him for that. Not that I am not obedient, he is just very aware of what we should be doing.

Basically this area is a tracting area. It is literally all we do here. The missionary who was with elder garrett before me kinda left him hanging dry a little and he doesnt know the area very well and we have no investigators. so basically both of us dont know the area. We are psuedo whitewashing (we call it whitewashing when 2 missionaries with no prior experience of the area come in and start working there). I whitewashed River Falls. It is brutally hard, but it can be fun. We are going to do WORK in this place. I am pretty excited.

This ward is also amazing, I love it already. It is a super missionary minded ward. We have joint teachers lined up throughout the week that are also required to feed us, which we dont mind, and if our plans fall through we go help them work with their people. Their reactivation program is very good as well. Family after family is coming back to the church. I am going to like this place.

While tracting this guy opened the door and said, "Hi, my name is Blaine. Blaine Lutheran." I got a kick out of that one. ha ha. on the same street we met a man who left the church over 20 years ago. He lives on Zion street. Oh the irony...

We dropped by a potential Sister G. we talked for a minute, set up a return appointment, then she told us to hold on because she wanted to give us some stuff. We waited and she came out and handed us a stack of anti. This stuff was honestly so ridiculous. I couldnt even believe that she got sucked into this stuff. I just do not understand people who claim to be the true christians but then run around persecuting anyone who does not have their beliefs. Our return appointment was rather fun, too. She spouted off all this stuff and I just kept telling her to go to the source, not the internet, and read the BoM. She pulled out the 'ol Revelations scripture that basically says (in their interpretation) no more scripture can come forth. I am pretty sick of that one and I told her (politely, dont worry) to look up the order the bible books were written. Since Revelations was not written last, that argument would mean that parts of the bible would have to be thrown out. Then I basically repeated "read and pray about the BoM" 39 times and we had to leave. Why do the bashers come out when I come to town? Ha ha.

We tracted into a woman named Sister B. She is a wonderful lady and we had a good discussion. At the end she told us if we came to her church, she would come to ours. So we did! We went to a baptist church sunday night from 6-7. The first 20 minutes were songs and the congregation could pick them I picked out "I'll Go where You Want Me To Go" from their hymn book and we sang that. It was pertty fun. Then the pastor taught Judges chapter 6. The sermon was great and the music was fun. But whenever I go to another church I cannot help but feel a little empty. Afterwards a man came up and told me that the song I picked was quite fitting for us. They are wonderful people there. Sister B. is coming to ours next week.

At church I told this guy I was from mesa and he rambled about Arizona for about 40 minutes to me. He talked about his family history there, how he goes there a lot, how the ward is very connected to Mesa, and just about anything else possible you can and cannot think of to talk about Arizona. Then he talked about Vegas for awhile. During priesthood he came up and talked another 10 minutes about the surrounding towns. I was mildly amused. ha ha. I liked that guy already.

Anyway, my email time is a tad short today because I have to do some district stuff. Being a district leader is uber fun; I love getting to know all the missionaries and their investigators.

Thought: So the woman who gave us the anti gave us the testimony of some woman that was actually pretty cool. the line I liked out of it said:"I know you think you believe in Jesus, but you may be decieving yourself. It seems you dont belive in him; you believe about Him." This line hit me pretty hard. There is a lot of truth in it! How many of us believe about Him, but not fully in him? I could not help but think of Matt 25: 10-13

 

10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were^aready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was ^bshut.

 11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
 12 But he answered and said, ^aVerily I say unto you, I ^bknow you not.
 13 ^aWatch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh

Do we truly know Christ? Will our lamps be prepared that we may be let in to the feast?

I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Elder Damron

pics from week 24

Baptism!

River Falls week 24

Well my time in River Falls has officially come to a close. For the first time on my mission I am being transferred! Six months in my first area. I will really miss this place. I was absolutely shocked. Both Elder Cole and I thought I was staying... I am gong to Andover Minnesota and will be with Elder Garrett, who was actually in my MTC room with me! I am happy about that. I will also be the District Leader there. I am ever so slightly terrified about that... we will see how that goes.

Well, here is the summary of my last week in River Falls, 'Wiscansin. First, BYU lost to Madison. apuoghfasudnfkajsnfjaskdfna. <-- That describes my feelings about that. I may or may not have talked a lot of trash to ward members and investigators... good thing I am leaving before they can all come track me down ha ha :)

So one of our investigators, Sister L., called us on monday night freaking out because CPS showed up at her house and said they were taking the child because the place was too dirty for the child's health. She lives in a trailer park and without going into too much detail, the trailer is the dirtiest place I have EVER been in my life. We went over to help her clean it to try and help her keep the child. I started having an allergic reaction to something in the house and my throat was closing. I was wheezing and coughing. Then I started to itch a lot. We cleaned a good portion and then had to leave so I didnt die or something. Oh man. The horrors. 

Elder Carlos Godoy of the 70 came and toured the mission this past week. He is flipping hilarious. He taught us how to find the real concerns that investigators have instead of the fake ones they throw at us. Someone's phone went off and he stopped talking and turned to the person and said, "you could at least make it a hymn!" He then told a story of when he was with President Uchtdorf and Pres. U. was setting apart someone to be a 70 and someones phone went off halfway through. Pres. U. told the man the same thing. ha ha. 

He also held a fireside later that night which we were allowed to bring investigators too. He told his conversion story. He had always seen the mormon church and wondered what went on inside. Finally he got invited to an event there and when he went inside people were playing a game called Poor Poor Cat. Our investigator, Sister J, Started Laughing hysterically at this (She is from Brazil, just like Elder Godoy). We were just like what... He then explained that in Poor Poor Cat one person gets on his knees and crawls around to all the people in a circle meowing. The person the "cat" goes up to must then pet the person's hat and say "poor poor cat." If you smile while doing this you then become the cat. So yep, that was his first impression of our church. Ha ha. The Sister Missionaries were playing and he eventually was taught by them and got baptized. 

So while out one night checking up one someone we had talked to a few times before a rolled up newspaper slammed into the window next to my head. i turn to see a boy about 6 years old standing there. All of a sudden he screams ALIENS and then grabs the newspaper and chucks it at my back as I was walking away. I, being a great trainer, pointed at Elder Cole and said, "He is the alien!" The little boy and now a little girl who had appeared locked their sights onto him. He took off running as the two children chased him screaming alien and throwing that newspaper at him. I was quite amused as I watched the scene. ha ha. 

So the Hudson ward is getting sister missionaries and we went to the member's home that they are living in to help them clean out their garage and other stuff for the Sisters coming in. We had to take out some screws from the wall in which they were moving in to. Those screws were literally possessed by Satan. It took us 2 hours to pry like 10 screws from the wall. One of the screws took literally 1 hour. Elder Cole and I got up and literally worked up sweats putting all our might into unscrewing that screw. Our pride definitely took a hit that day.. finally we got it out and screamed in triumph. There was a black powder around the hole that the screw came out of. We knew it was Satan's screw....

So our investigator Brother M is a little quirky and very shy. I knew for a fact that he would NOT like the fact that one of us was leavingon wednesday. So when we were at his house last when we went to set up our next appointment I was very careful. I said," Brother M. we are... going on a trip on wednesday and would love to meet you before then!" Elder Cole totally missed what I was trying to do and was like, "yeah! One of us is for sure leaving! We want to see you before then!" I facepalmed. As I predicted, Brother M was not comfortable with that and he ended up calling the mission home and demanding that we stay... oh boy. 

A few days later I went on an exchange with Elder Sharp, another missionary who is from Mesa. We had a blast, but literally no one would talk to us that day. that wasnt fun. ha ha

Our investigator Sister J was baptized on Saturday. She is the most golden and prepared person I will perhaps ever meet. I feel completely unworthy of the gift of teaching her that the Lord gave us here in River Falls. She told her conversion story at her baptism and it was so powerful. Not often do investigators flag you down on the street and then get baptized... 

Well, since transfers are today my email time will be a tad shorter since I now have to go pack for the first time in 6 months. Blah. 

 Thought: Alma 5: 6-7

6 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in ^aremembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has ^bdelivered their souls from hell?

 7 Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, they were encircled about by the ^abands of death, and the ^bchains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await them.

I love these scriptures because we really need to remember how merciful God has been to our fathers. This is one purpose of the BoM. Go read moroni 10:3-5, remembering is also a condition of us receiving answers. God awoke them from a deep sleep and illuminated our souls. This is the point of missionary work. To remind people that before they came to earth they agreed to a very specific plan! Oh how glorious this plan is! This is salvation, people cant remember but we have that knowledge. Share it! 

Sorry if my email is scattered today. I love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Damron 

pics from River Falls week 22

dressed as each other for the ward Halloween party

SLENDER MAN costume

River Falls week 22

Hello!

So last P-Day we had our district P-Day, where all the missionaries get together within the district and do some activities. We were going to go to a corn maize, but that fell through. So we carved pumpkins and played some games. When I first arrived some missionaries were playing the organ. So I went in and we sat down. One of the Elders who I was in the MTC with started playing Canon in D. I started playing the pedals with my feet and some Canon variations up high while he did it down low. So the church rang with some beautiful classical music. IT WAS SO LEGIT <3 <3

Anyway, then I ran off to Woodbury on exchanges. Woodbury is a super rich area filled with countless town homes. The place is so prim and proper. Literally nothing is out of place. All the lawns are perfectly trimmed and the houses are all similar in style and color. It is kinda erie, honestly. When some plans fell through Elder Kelsch, the missionary I was on exchanges with, and I had the opportunity to go visit a family that a woman in Montana really wanted me to visit. I told the family I knew someone in Montana that knew them. We talked for awhile but they were ultimately not interested. I honestly did not believe I would ever have the opportunity to do that. The mission is so big! But I am grateful the Lord put me in the place to have that opportunity. 

While in Woodbury we taught a man who flipped out about the Word of Wisdom concerning hot drinks. He said that we are hypocrites for not drinking antioxidant caffeine free green tea yet drinking HOT chocolate, especially since one was healthy and the other was not. I asked him if he ate normal chocolate but then decided that the conversation I was about to start would  was not worth it so I changed the subject to talking about the Holy Ghost. 

While I was on exchanges Elder Cole and Elder Sharp when and talked to a less active I have been visiting for the 5 months I have been here. She told them she was leaving the church. Things went crazy. This woman can talk for about 2 hours straight. Literally. The member we brought can do the same. And that is what happened. The less active and the member went at it for about 2 hours and Elder Cole and Elder Sharp managed to say 6 sentences in 2 hours. Oh man. ha ha. 

For lunch one day Elder Cole fried up some chicken. Some oil spilled and burned onto the stove (a white ceramic sort of stove top) and a plate sized mess of black char stuck to the stove. I went and made some calls while he began to clean. I heard Sister Taylor come in and just gasp and say, "oh my..." I got a good chuckle out of that. It took 40 minutes of hard scrubbing to fix that one. 

So our investigator Sister J. is a young exchange student who is getting baptized on November 9th! But a lot of drama has come up because of it. She attends the singles ward in Minneapolis, 45 minutes away. So we cannot attend the baptism there. She found out and wants to switch it to here. Well now the Elders in Dinkytown (University of Minnesota ward) are not happy that a baptism is being moved from their area. Neither are their zone leaders. So there is some really dumb quarreling going on and I thought I left the drama behind in high school... lulz. This is our investigator's decision so we will just iron out the wrinkles. 

A member this week asked us about our investigators. We told him we are teaching in a lot of trailer parks. He laughed and said, "of course you are. In my mission we called trailer parks Narnia. They are hard to find, but once you get there it is magical." 

So friday night was our ward Chili Cookoff slash Halloween party. Elder Cole and I got pretty creative for our costumes! We dressed up as... each other! We switched name tags, wore each other's ties, I put contacts in and gave Elder Cole my spare pair of glasses to wear for the night (he kept them low on his nose), and then I did my hair like Elder Cole. It was mildly amusing. The members got a chuckle out of that one. Elder Farnes almost died laughing on the ground. It wasnt THAT funny... There is also this member who is a Grand Master in martial arts and self defense. Elder Mattison once taught me how to protect myself from a knife attack using a move he learned from this member. Elder Farnes was trying to use some move to rip out my intestine or something and so I told him to attack me with the knife. I couldnt remember too well how to do it so it didnt work to well. Then the member was like no this is how you do it. In a blink of an eye I was staring at the ceiling with a massive arm around my neck and the other arm pushing my spine upward. Yeah. it hurt. I got destroyed. The member who won the costume contest came as Slender Man! Now a lot of you probably dont know what that is, but it is a creepy character from this little computer game. Basically you are in a dark forrest trying to find some notes and Slender Man comes and consumes your soul. Mildly terrifying to play in the middle of the night. He stood about 8 feet tall in the costume. So bueno. look for the pictures I will send out. 

Last night we went over to a referral's house. The scene we stepped into was.... bizarre. I have never seen so much tobacco in my life. There was mounds upon mounds of tobacco piles and literally hundreds of cigarettes waiting to be filled. He smoked 4 cigarettes and drank 3 bottles of beer while we were there. He has this parrot who lives in the corner that was staring at us the whole time. The man is brilliant. He basically knew my thoughts from my body language. It was insane. When we left I saw that his gas stove burner was on high. It was just on. It wasnt being used. The flames were just billowing up. 

Spiritual Thought: 2 Nephi 2:24

 24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who ^aknoweth all things.

This scripture really stuck out to me this week while I was thinking about why bad things happen to good people, which I have been asked a LOT recently. It hit me that one reason God allows this to happen is because He knows that through the Atonement all will be made right. His Son came to earth and covered for all these pains. Yes bad things happen, but through the atonement of Jesus Christ those pains can be taken and the joy that comes from following the savior can fill our lives. Just Alma and his followers in Alma 24 (i think, somewhere around there) who had their burdens made so light they barely even remembered them through their faith and trust in the Lord. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Damron 

River Falls week 21

So it is currently snowing outside. I really do love this time of year. Except I have never had to proselyte in it, so we shall see how this goes.. ha ha. 

So last Monday Elder Cole called the Lumberjack challenge (when I ate that 5-6 pounds of ice cream a few months ago) "easy" and decided he wanted to take it on. Our new zone leaders decided the same thing. I shook my head and agreed to go with them to do the challenge. They were talking so much smack and I just kept shaking my head and saying, "just you wait." Well, they got their bowls of ice cream, realized just how much ice cream it really was, still tried to talk the challenge down, and then got utterly destroyed by that ice cream. I just sat there laughing as they dropped out one by one. Oh man was it hilarious. I took some pictures to mark their humiliation and reminded them how "easy" the challenge was. So I am the only champ in these parts of 'Wiscansin. I still remind Elder Cole how "easy" it was. He still says it will be easy the second time and wants to go back. lulz

So last week I mentioned our little debate over whether it was raining or sprinkling one day. We decided this would be a great way to contact and then we went to campus and started asking people (it was raining/sprinkling/drizzling and at one point misting at the time) to clarify what the precipitation was. Most people agreed with Elder Cole... all I am saying is look up the definition of rain in the dictionary. Not that I did that or anything.... 

We also finally got back into contact with Sister S. We had not talked to her in about a month and she had quite a few commitment issues. But we finally found her at home one night and we went in to talk. She broke down and told us she had made quite a few mistakes recently and she didn't know what to do. We immediately taught a message on the atonement and told her the only way she can be happy is if she gives up breaking the commandments. She immediately went to her fridge and pulled out six large bottles of alcohol and told us to get rid of them for her, which we did. But there is such a change in her countenance. Truly, just as spoken in Alma 32, the  Lord will compel us to be humble. We then committed her to come to church. There were two issues with this. 1. she had bailed quite often on church. 2. it was stake conference in a town 35 minutes away. But by a literal miracle of God we found someone to take her and us and we brought her there on Sunday. A young couple of our ward immediately came over and said she could come sit with them and that truly made all the difference. Member missionary work truly changes the whole dynamics of missionary work. The stake conference was on missionary work as well and a few recent converts spoke and they all mentioned how great the members were. Sarah said afterwards that she had never felt such a family feeling in a church in her whole life. After she even met President Clements, who spoke at the conference. She stood there wide eyed and without us even telling her I am positive she could see that a true man of God was standing before her. 

So Elder Cole and I like to pretend we are funny. There is this bike on this bike rack we go to frequently where the person puts their bike lock on, but never mixes up the combo. Anyone could take the bike at any time. Makes sense, right? So we finally decided to help this person out. We moved the bike to the other side of the rack, mixed the combo up, and left a note telling the person someone could easily steal their bike, but mixing up the combination would really solve all their problems. A similar thing happened to Elder Cole a few weeks ago, so we figured we would pay it forward. 

One of our investigators who has refused to pray for quite some time prayed this week! He prayed for his sister! Without any encouragement from us! Few times on my mission have I been so filled with joy. He later told us he thinks God selectively answers prayers so he doesn't want to pray too often, but baby steps. We will work that out later. ha ha. 

We have met a college student Brother JB a few times. He often belief bashes and so this time we called in the big guns and brought a man in our ward who is pretty legit. So we go in, the investigator starts trying to pick us apart, and at one point the topic of persecution came up. We talked about John 15:20 on how the true church will be heavily persecuted. Then I asked him, "for example, you left the catholic church. Do you heavily persecute them?" He said," YES. I DO. I go to all the pastors in town, make appointments with them, and slam them on why they are wrong." JB:1 Elder Damron:0 Then the conversation went on and I refused to keep answering his many, many questions and told him to go to the Book of Mormon as a source of truth. He has literally gone everywhere but there. I told him to pray about it and he said ok. Then we talked about the bible. Now up to this point he came off as someone who believed the bible to be true or he was searching for that truth. I told him that just as he finds the bible to be true through prayer, he must do the same with the BoM. He told me that would not work then because he has prayed and the answer he got was the bible wasnt true. JB:2 Elder Damron:0 Basically that lesson did not go well. I walked out fuming. Blah. But he committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon! That is cool.

So Elder Cole almost died this week. It was pretty terrifying. We were helping this man move some stuff out of his storage unit. The guy had put part of a computer desk at the very top of this unit on top of some boxes. He could barely reach it. So he told us he was going to slide the desk down and we were going to grab it and help it slide to where we could firmly hold it. So he tipped it and started sliding it down, Elder Cole was at the bottom holding the end of the desk and slowly letting it down. All of a sudden the desk lurched forward and we heard the sound of something quite heavy sliding down the desk (it was too far up to even see what it was). All of a sudden some very large boards all wrapped together hit the one peg at the end of the desk and stopped 2 inches from Elder Cole's face. We literally would have had to call the ambulance. Holy cow. The Lord watches over his missionaries... 

So this week I was reading in Mosiah 10. I noticed that multiple times in the chapter it says "they (the lamanites) were wroth." At one point it said they had an "eternal hatred." Then they were wiped out in war. The start of our downfall is anger. Anger cannot coexist with the Spirit, which will show us all things that we should do to be safe. Peace be unto thy souls! And follow the Lord's counsel to be of good cheer. 

I love you all! Have a good week! Thank you for the mail too, I will write you all back. 

Love, Elder Damron 

pics from River Falls week 20

RIver Falls week 20

It is starting to get chilly... and dark... But that is alright. We still only bike and so after dinner we put coats on and thermals under our slacks. The one store in the area that we can buy winter stuff at won't have winter clothing for another month, so hopefully we can stay warm till then.. ha ha.
Anyway, we had another slowish week, but that is alright. Our teaching pool is still not where we want it to be but we met some awesome people this week that we are really hoping will progress. One of those people was Sister S. So after all of our plans fell through for the day and the time was around 8 pm (most awful time of day to try and do anything because people freak out that it is "late." IT just gets dark early...) we decided to pray. After the prayer we felt we should visit Sister S. We had performed some service for her 2 weeks ago and stopped by to say hello and so this time we decided we were going to go teach her. She gladly let us in and told us how she is a recovering addict and the guilt of her addictions are weighing heavily upon her. WE shared a message on the atonement and gave her Alma 36 to read. We shared the message of the restoration too and then she hardcore rejected baptism.... but we will take care of that. 

We dropped by a member of the ward who actually attend a different ward in the area to do what we call a teaching evaluation, which is where we teach a lesson and they tell us how we can improve. It got awkward quick when one member said, "we know you are just here because the bishop thinks we are inactive." That is not actually true, but it was awkward nonetheless... 

So this week was filled with raking. We met this woman with some health issues tracting and asked her if there was anything we could do to help her. She was like, are you serious? We told her yes and she said she was physically unable to do her raking because of the health issues. We told her we would return the next day to help. And we did. We also returned the next day. And the next day. After about 8 hours of raking, 34 bags, and what we calculated to be 1352 gallons of leaves, we completed the task of raking that yard. Holy cow. But it was all worth it in the end when she almost started crying because of her appreciation. We also organized her shed and put some boxes in and she was speechless when she looked inside to see what we had done. I love to help people... she then asked us if we believed in Jesus, ha ha. She said she wanted to pray but she ended prayers in Jesus' name and didnt want to offend us. We told her we would love to pray in Jesus' name. Side note: another cool experience occurred on the first day we raked when the mother of the woman whose house we raked came outside and glared at us. We asked her how her day was going and she just said, skeptically, "why are you doing this?" We told her we just really love to help. She was shocked that there are still people in the world who offer help so freely. What is our world coming too, anyway. 

While tracting this 6'5" bald, mammoth of a man opened the door in an orange tank top. He folded his arms and just glared at us. His arms were probably as big as my thighs. This man probably could have eaten my soul. Needless to say, the conversation didnt go anywhere and Elder Cole and I scampered off quickly. 

Being in a college town weekends can get kinda crazy. On fridaynight we foolishly went into an apartment building looking for a potential. This man named David came running up to us totally high as a kite (we have talked to him  before) and was like you need to come and have some drinks with us! He knew already we dont drink. We reminded him and he said we could just sit and watch the movie instead. We talked our way out of that one and then we finally agreed to merely say hello to his roommates to get him to leave us alone. We waived from the doorstep, said a word or two, and quickly left. The door shut and then the hilarity ensued. The walls are quite thin and we heard David go on about how the other day he apparently confounded us with his opinion of Jesus being a legend, not a myth or fact or anything. In actuality all he did was invite us to join his booster club and mention Jesus was a legend. We hear the most interesting things through walls after we leave a door, ha ha.  Some people's kids... 

So on Friday Elder Cole said he would bet two ties that it would not rain that day. Around 3:30 it started to rain a little bit. He refused to acknowledge that it was actually raining and said it was sprinkling. I told him that no one said, "hey sprinkle drops are falling!" No, everyone and their dog says, "rain drops are falling." So we took this tactic into our finding and began asking people if they thought it was raining or not. All I am saying right now is Elder Cole needs to pony up two ties. 

So Elder Cole REALLY hates bugs. He flips out if one comes near him. After church Elder Walker (our new zone leader) picked up a box elder bug (those things are like flies here, sooo many of them) and threw it at Elder Cole who was sitting in the car with his window down. Elder Cole flipped out in his seat. Oh man, so funny. I got the bug out of the car for him, dont worry.

Spiritual thought: I was reading in Jonah recently. The Lord called Jonah to do a great work, but Jonah rebelled and resisted. But the Lord is very merciful and allowed him to repent and then complete that same work. This is very comforting to me to know that as imperfect as I am, if I will repent and follow Christ that no matter how many times I mess up, the Lord will still allow me to complete the tasks he wishes me to complete.

I love all of you! Have a wonderful week! 

-Elder Damron

River Falls week 19

So this last P-Day was fantastic. Elder Cole and I stopped at a thrift shop and bought 6 classical Cds, including some celtic music we are stoked about, a CD player thing, and some super nice ties (which I got for 50 cents!). Then we went home and gave each other haircuts using some clippers a missionary who recently went home gave me. That was an interesting experience... Elder Cole has a bald patch behind one ear and I have this giant clump of hair on the crown of my head that Elder Cole totally missed. Ha ha. At Coordination Meeting our ward mission leader asked us where we got our haircuts. We told them we did it and he said oh ok. I was asking so I could stay clear of the place. ouch. The cuts aren't THAT bad...

I also  named my bike Shadowfax. Every time we are in a hurry I yell," With haste, Shadowfax!" Got to love Lord of the Rings. :)

ELder Cole and I were pretty sick this last week. He got sick last weekend and, being the kind companion he is, gave it to me. I almost had to stay in the apartment on 2 occasions but we had appointments so we went out. The appointments canceled and I put my head on a picnic table while Elder Cole made some calls. Every single lesson we had except 2 canceled this week. So that always makes for a really fun time. We tracted college areas and found some people we are looking forward to going back to see, but none of those meetings turned into a lesson. It also rained almost the entire week and all we do is bike, so that was pretty fun too. We tried to stick to some apartment buildings. THis week is supposed to be in the 70s, but then the snow is coming. The nights are getting quite cold and it gets dark around 7:15. People answer there door around 7:30 and complain that we are out so late. I look at my watch every time and say something along the lines of "it isnt late, it just seems like it because it gets dark so early..." 

I think Elder Cole and I will open up a maid service and start running it on P-Days. We got a referral from this nonmember to go talk to this lady with a lot of health issues. Well it turned into us cleaning her apartment, the apartment of someone she is a caretaker for, and now we get calls from random people saying they were referred from this woman for free labor. We love to help of course, but we also need to add to our teaching pool some how. We always help then return later to share a message. 

We were tracting a trailer park the other night and we met this man who had a few too many drinks. He proclaimed he was the mayor of the trailer park! Then he rambled something unintelligible about mormon temples and SLC. We meet some of the most interesting people tracting. 

Another time I was riding my bike and this man in a truck pulled up next to me and yelled at me," God doesn't love you!" I responded with,"but He loves you!" That wasnt the response he was expecting. 

Both Elder Cole and I both had some bike troubles this week. On the way to teach an investigator at the college campus I hit the brakes but then I hit a patch of mud and just kept going. I hit the curb of the sidewalk and flipped off my bike. It hurt a lot. My hip has a wonderful bruise. And of course everyone was staring at the strange boy in dress clothes who just hit the curb and flipped off his bike... Later that day Elder Cole had a bit of an accident. Elder Cole tends to get bored when he rides his bike. On this occasion he was trying to speed up, and hold himself up on his handle bars while dangling his feet below off of the pedals. Well you can imagine how that turned out. I looked forward to see him fall over and eat cement. His pants got ripped pretty bad and his leg started bleeding pretty bad. We went to a woman's house nearby whom we teach off and on and we patched him up. He cant bend his leg too well at the moment. 

While riding in the car Elder Cole told a delightful story: "My neighbors bought a cow and named it Steve. Then they butchered it and ate it." (Elder Cole's first name is Steven, just FYI) I died laughing. It reminded me of Anna Griffin's stories. So for those of you who havent had the opportunity to behold her marvelous story telling, I would suggest seeking her out.

One bright spot this week was teaching Brother D. We haven't been able to teach him much because he works inspecting water towers and travels all over the midwest. But he is so incredibly awesome. He practically taught us the message of the restoration through the questions he asked. He thinks that our message makes so much sense and he brings the BoM on his long trips to read in the hotels. Hopefully we can meet him more often than once every 3 weeks...

Well conference was pretty legit! 

I cannot say I had a favorite talk, because I have like 7 favorite talks, but two I really enjoyed were Elder Ulisses Soares on meekness. I have really been trying to seek this attribute out the last few weeks so I loved the talk. But man can he talk quick... I will need to re read that one. ha ha. I also LOVED Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk on bondage. I feel like I have been in "bondage" a lot in life with worldly things. Whether that was being glued to my iPhone at all times of the day or worshipping LeBron James and Peyton Manning every sundaynight. But the single greatest source of bondage in my life I think would have to be negativity. I need to follow the Lord's counsel, and commandment for that matter, Be of Good Cheer. Why should I always look at the negative when the Lord has given me so much? 

I also was delighted to hear Elder Holland talk on depression. I don't think people take it as seriously as it should be taken. 

A couple of themes I picked up on: missionary work tied with member work, role of women in society, cleansing power of the atonement, faith unto conversion, and chastity. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Love, Elder Damron

River Falls week 18

Transfer calls! Elder Cole and I are staying in River Falls. 

Elder Mattison, my zone leader from Mesa is leaving. He is in our ward and I am actually really, really sad. I know missionaries get moved around a lot, but we cannot write other missionaries in our mission and he has become a good friend.

So this week was pretty crazy. Basically every investigator we have dropped us except one. So we have nothing on our plate. We will be doing a lot of finding this week... But last night we were tracting at 8 pm (which no one likes to do because people get quite irritated) and at 8:35 we knocked on this woman's door and had a wonderful restoration lesson. She looked at the picture of Joseph Smith's first vision and told us she believed it. So hopefully that pans out well. 

On P-Day Elder Cole and I played chess to some classical music. I won the first game, he won the second, and I absolutely dominated his soul in the third.. sort of. So he takes FOREVER to play so the last game we played timed chess. He didnt like that much. Anyway I systematically eliminated all of his pieces off the board until he had his King left. I began setting up the board to annihilate him when he realized he couldnt move anywhere because anywhere he moved would mean he was in check. Apparently this is a stalemate in chess. So the game was a tie. He got up and was like, "man it feels great to both have the same record at the end of the day doesnt it?" with a big grin on his face. Revenge will be mine today. 

So we got a call from a friend of a man we know to go and help this woman he knows. So we show up at her house and she was like oh, not me! Help him! She is a caretaker for this elderly man. SO we went over to his apartment and cleaned the place for him because she didnt have time. She said it "looks like a crack house" and oh man, I had to put some elbow grease into it but that apartment looked absolutely beautiful after we got done with it. We will try and go back and teach the man soon. 

We went over to a member's home to give a spiritual thought and then give them invitations to the primary program to hand out. We get in there and the one son wants to play me in chess, the father volunteered me. So I started playing him. I just moved random pieces to let him win. Elder Cole kept on taking turns on me to try and beat the kid, but he had been playing chess for a week and he was only 7. I was not going to beat this little kid at chess. Elder Cole is merciless, oh man. Anyway, Elder Cole was trying to share a thought while I tried to let this kid win at chess. Then the other son started riling up their little dog. He went berserk and started running around the room, up the couches, jumping across the furniture, and snarling the whole time. Imagine this scene: I am playing this kid at chess, the dog is going berserk, the daughter is growling at the dog and trying to cling to Elder Cole's leg as the father is yelling at her to get off, Elder Cole is trying to share a message, and the mother just has her hands on her head. Oh man. So much chaos. Ha ha. 

On Thursday Elder Sharp got emergency transfered to our area. He is also from Mesa and is best friends with Elder Mattison from back home. He was with us till saturday and we had a lot of fun. Working in a tri-companionship is pretty difficult, though. 

So we came out from an apartment complex and Elder Cole had a note on his bike that said, "HI. You should lock up your FRAME, at least. I could totally steal it. YA DANGUS." He had locked up only his tired to the rack. The person had also loosened his bike tire as if they were going to take it off. He was pretty spooked that his bike was almost stole it... YA DANGUS. ha ha. I have no clue what a dingus/dangus is. Hopefully it isnt offensive.. if it is.. I apologize and will go repent. 

So we were teaching a less active in this trailer park. He daughter comes in and tells the LA that someone just committed suicide. That was awkward for us. Then she talked about her schizophrenic neighbor that calls the cops on santa every other day and some other crazy stuff. She looked at us and said," the next time you come there will probably be a shoot out or something, ha ha. I dont know what you would do, maybe hold up your Books of Mormon." I said," actually, that would be the best thing for us. After all, nothing gets through Second Nephi." ZING. She laughed pretty hard at that one. That is the first time I have used that joke in conversation. (Shout out to my wonderful mother for telling me that joke)

So our zone leaders sent out a challenge this week to use Mahonri Moriancumre in conversation 5 times one day (to promote us talking to a lot of people). It was quite difficult teaching people and keeping a straight face while saying," there are prophets in the BoM just like in the bible, In the bible you have Moses, Abraham, Jeremiah. In the BoM you have Alma, Nephi, Mahonri Moriancomre." Oh man. SO much lulz. 

Yesterday we helped this man move who has a lot of faith. He is the second person I have met on my mission who believes God is a woman because men aren't nice enough or something like that. His girlfriend called us to ask us to come over (i gave her my number two weeks ago and she didnt actually believe I would come) and she asked me if I was Jesus. That one got a good chuckle out of me. But I told her no, I am not Jesus. 

Spiritual thought: D&C 93

12 And I, John, saw that he received not of the ^afulness at the first, but received ^bgrace for grace;

 13 And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from^agrace to grace, until he received a fulness;

 Christ received grace for grace. And if we received his fulness over time, wouldnt that mean we need to work even harder to receive grace for grace? So many people we meet deny works, and yes we cannot get to heaven on works alone. But Christ did good works to reach his fulness, we must too. We cannot sit idly and pretend to be faithful. Faith is an action word. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Damron 

River Falls week 17

So I had quite the entertaining week. We contacted on campus and met this guy who seemed interested in our message. On our return appointment we quickly realized he was there to try and disprove the existence of God through math and philosophy. I learned quite a few good arguments to keep in the back of my mind for the future, but needless to say things didn't go super well. We have had roughly 8 lessons in the last 3 weeks with bible/belief bashers. We must be magnets to these people or something, ha ha. 

On Tuesday we went off looking for this man named Jim that we met in a parking lot like 3 months ago. His house was pretty close to ours (1.5 miles) so we took off on bikes after studying the GPS. Two hours later we were lost in the middle of the woods with a bunch of dairy farms and horses around us. It was quite beautiful, but we had absolutely no clue where this house was, ha ha. Our district leader happened to call us and he then looked up the address on his GPS. We had taken a wrong turn like 4 miles previous. WE basically we got quite the scenic ride. And a lot of time wasted. The guy wasnt even home when we finally got to his house... Elder Cole just kept on muttering things about me not bringing the GPS. ha ha

While teaching a woman that we have been meeting for about 4 months, she went off on a 20 minute tangent about how she was mad that Christ's second coming did not occur in the year 2000. She told us that was the millennium! That is when He needed to come! WE tried to explain what the millennium actually was but it didn't go well. 

We went on 48 hour exchanges withe Zone Leaders this week. Basically we just switched companions for 2 days. We blitzed their area and just stayed at their house with them. I have not had a more interesting 48 hours on my mission. As I said earlier I am a bible bashing magnet and of course we had 3 bible basher moments in that time period. Elder Mattison told me he had never met a missionary who gets himself in these positions more. Anyway, one of these instances was a family, the Bots. We walked in and they had their bible on the table. That is never a good sign. They wanted to hear our message "in case they got something wrong." After every principle we taught the husband would say "only if it is in accordance with the bible." After we finished the restoration they were like alright, question time. They grilled us. Elder Farnes is a good example of how to handle these situations. He didn't argue a single question. He just kept telling them to pray about it, over and over and over. It was powerful. At one point the husband picked up the BoM and said he couldnt accept the book because it contradicted the bible. He tried looking up a scripture in Alma, but couldnt remember where it was. Then he told us that Alma says there was 3 days of darkness when Christ died, but the bible says 3 hours. Therefore, our book must be rejected. Elder Farnes and I just looked at him with faces that said, "honestly? THAT is your issue?" THis is where the lesson got amusing. I turned to 3 Ne 8 and read the verse that talks about the destruction ended in 3 hours. I told him the BoM totally agrees with the bible (yes I know which passage in Alma says 3 days and later in 3 Ne 8 it says 3 days, but I wont go on that tangent now). His face was priceless. He stammered a little bit, totally confounded. He didn't try to bash the BoM the rest of the lesson. Hilarious? Yes. Should I have done that? Probably not.

Elder Mattison has a tiny little bike (he isnt very tall) that I used while on the exchange. The brakes didnt work, my knees almost hit my chest as I pedaled, and the chain came off like 3 times. I looked like a clown riding one of those mini cars. At one point E. Farnes stopped to talk to someone and I hit my brakes to talk to him too. Usually when you hit the brakes you expect to stop, right? Well I managed to say a hello to the man and then just kept going for like 40 feet. Dumb bike. Elder Farnes found that pretty amusing. 

Last night we rode our bikes 6 miles out of town to do some member drop bys to commit people to invite people they know to the primary program. On the way back we were riding our bikes through the woods in pitch darkness with our little bike lights. It was super pretty! One thing I am not used to yet is the whole no mountains thing out here. I could see the horizon for the whole 360 degrees. So many stars! I still miss mountains, though.

 

Spiritual thought: 

2 Ne 9:45

45 O, my beloved brethren, turn away from your sins; shake off the ^achains of him that would bind you fast; come unto that God who is the ^brock of your salvation.

 I love this scripture! The imagery is amazing. We are literally shackled by chains that will keep us bound by sin. Yet as we turn to Christ we can "shake off the chains." To me that shows the power of the Atonement that was made. We can literally shake off our iniquities and return to live with God. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Damron