River Falls Week 4 pictures

River Falls Week 4

This week was full of interesting stories and excitement. At the beginning of the week we had no dinner appointments and Sister Taylor called around and got us some (I love her, she is so awesome. We seriously have the best living arrangements in the mission). So we went to the Sedos. We thanked them for having us over and then things got.. interesting. Their daughter is about 6 and she is.. high energy. We walked in and she mauled Elder Berg. Jumping on him, dragging him to the ground, hanging on him, the whole works. Then she came and attacked me. Elder Berg ran to the table and sat down so that I was the one sitting next to her during the meal. After she finished eating she started climbing all over me, she sat on my lap and I was trying to push her off the whole time. The parents tried to get her to stop but she just growled at them. Yes, growled. She didnt say a word the whole time we were there, only growls. Anyway, she latched onto me and then popped me one on the cheek. I stood up and basically threw her off me, Elder Berg shared a scripture and we ran out the door. We thanked them for dinner and we were very kind to them. But yeah... i have never been so uncomfortable in my entire life. ha ha

So while we were at dinner with them we got a call from a strange number. We returned the call, but no one picked up. At around 8 she called back and Elder Berg said we were missionaries. She was like yeah, whatever and hung up. Half an hour later we got a text asking if we were messing with her. Then at 11:00 pm she called again. we decided we wanted to finish this once and for all, so Elder Berg picked up. He explained we were missionaries and then she said, "alright, stop joking around now Jeremy. I know Wanda put this up to you." we were like wUt. she told us she knew we were lying because when we called her friends Facebook picture showed up. we again said we were missionaries and that was impossible. I told Elder Berg to jump right into the restoration lesson, and he started but then stopped for some reason. lame. anyway, she then proceeded to get mad at us for calling her that late and making her worry about her friend. we reminded her that she called us and she just continued to get mad.She eventually hung up and that was that. 

I also went on exchanges with the assistants this week. I went out with Elder Johnson. He is The Man. I love that Elder and basically want to be him. While tracting we ran into a family in the ward that just moved in. We talked with them for a few minutes and Elder Johnson found out that he played with the member's brother in high school football and the member's mother substituted long term in his art class. Small world, right? Later we did a teaching evaluation (where we teach a member/less active and pretend like they are investigators and then they give us feed back. but we do it with less active members so they can feel the spirit) with a woman named samantha. The first thing she said when we came in was there would be absolutely no prayer in her house. it only got worse. we started the teaching evaluation and tried to teach the restoration. She then basically ate our souls. jk, it wasnt that bad. we conversed for about an hour and she said she didnt believe any more for a number of reasons and then we responded. at the end she said alright, lets evaluate. she told me i need to talk more. im too thoughtful sometimes. she liked my answers because they were well thought out, but i didnt give enough of them. she then said we were not good listeners because if we had payed attention we would have realized that the key to her heart was the ward members. She talked fondly of them often and we didnt realize that was our way into her heart. she was super nice and invited us back for dinner any time. it was a very humbling learning experience. 

I also taught a lady from Kenya with elder johnson. that was really cool, but i couldnt understand her because her accent was so thick. she was really nice and humble. super ready for baptism. 

So while riding our bikes around Elder Berg and I stopped at this house and talked to some people at a picnic table out back. we walked up and the wife, Unis, was like look! mormons! (not in a mean way, they were VERY nice). So we talked with them. The wife was from Gilbert Arizona, thats why she knows so much of mormons, and the Husband, Thomas Two-Bear is a native from Glasgow Montana. My jaw dropped a little. What are the odds that a married couple from both states i grew up in were sitting in front of me asking me about the gospel? crazy. sadly they had to go somewhere, we will go talk to them later. 

So the girl, Grace, whom I mentioned 2 weeks ago (the one that LOVED church) dropped us this week via text. But we still kept going back and we finally found her again and we are now teaching her again. yesterday, we were biking around and Elder Berg said lets go see grace. I was not happy with that idea because we had to be at the house for accountability in 20 minutes and it took 10 minutes on bike, going downhill, to get there. but we went. when we got there, she wasnt feeling well so we just shared a scripture, Hel. 5:12. Right as we finished she said well that answered a prayer, thanks guys. she had been feeling down since we had left 2 days prior and she realized satan was attacking her. this was a truly humbling experience for me. i cannot complain about things like this any longer. 

So Thursday we went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Minneapolis!!!!!!! Sick, right? We were allowed to go if an investigator came with us. our investigator told us 25 minutes before we were supposed to leave that she could come, so that was a nerve wracking day. But the choir was flipping awesome and so spiritual. the crowd was moved. the orchestra was amazing. ive had a pretty good first transfer on my mission.

That night there was a thunderstorm unlike anything i have ever before seen/heard. I woke up in the middle of the night to the house shaking from the thunder. it sounded like bombs were going off over the house. Yet it was so majestic, beautiful, and somewhat peaceful as well. I got up and watched the pouring rain that was being lit up by the lighting as the thunder boomed across the city. I should write a poem or something. (also, to the Lord of the Rings nerdbombers out there, i kept thinking of the scene in the hobbit where the mountains fought to create thunder. ha ha).

then, friday night we were in an apartment complex teaching someone when all of a sudden sirens started going off everywhere. the storm sirens, tornado sirens, flood warnings, and the whole deal were freaking out. the sky turned from light to black in about 15 minutes and an absolutely torrential rainfall ensued. a loving member of the ward called us and said she would absolutely not let us ride home on our bikes in this. my companion said i was being a baby and that we could ride home in this but i was like im not dying out there, and wouldnt leave. once we got home and drove through it he was like yeah, good thing we didnt go home in this storm... lulz. they also got us dairy queen. he liked that too. ha ha. 

On sunday i forgot my name tag at home and our church is 15 minutes away so i couldnt go home for it. i felt so naked and vulnerable. also, of course this was the day our stake president visited us. she shook my hand and his eyes bore into my soul when he saw my tag missing. my companion said, "he is still a little green". president latch said "clearly". oh man, so awkward. Sister Taylor saw me with my tag later at home and said," oh good, you arent Elder Green anymore." That was pretty funny.

Anyway, i loveth thee all! Have a great week and i hope you find my tales from this week somewhat amusing. be safe. study the gospel. pray to your Heavenly Father daily.

Love, Elder Damron

Riverfalls Week 3 pics (with Elder Holland!)

 I am on the left of the picture above the canadian sign. those missionaries were too far away to travel with to see Elder Holland

Riverfalls Week 3

So this week was pretty average. Nothing too interested happened. Oh, besides the fact that Elder Holland, Elder Dube, Bishop Stevenson, and President Callister came to Minnesota and put on a mission conference for us. Every missionary but 4 (the missionaries in thunder bay canada) came to New Breighton and they spoke to us. We also shook all their hands and took pictures with them. Then they taught us for 3 hours. SOOOOOOOOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!! President Callister told a very amusing story I will now share: When he was a mission president he was speaking to his missionaries one time and a lot of them were falling asleep. So to get their attention, he pulled out his wallet, raised it in the air, and said, "Who wants all of the money in my wallet?" A lot of people raised their hands. He saw one Elder sitting in the back, who he knew did not play the piano, and said Elder, if you come up and play We Thank Thee Oh God For A Prophet I will give you all the money on my wallet. (you can see where this is going, ha ha) President Callister then started to plan out this object lesson he had set up. The elder was going to say sorry, i cannot play the piano. Elder callister was then going to say, well why not? You have fingers. you have the means to do it. and then he was going to relate it to the gospel and studying or something like that. However, this is not what happened. That elder, who didnt play the piano, got up and walked all the way to the front of the room and sat down at the piano. He then opened up to We Thank Thee Oh God For A Prophet. President Callister closed the book and told him to play it from memory. The missionary then proceeded to play We Thank Thee Oh God For A Prophet from memory. Afterwards, president callister was like I thought you cant play the piano? The elder said, I cant. but my mother made me take lessons as a child, which i hated. BEfore she let me quit, she made me memorize one hymn. so i memorized We Thank Thee Oh God For A Prophet. President callister then had to hand $180 over to the missionary. He said he thought about only giving some of the money, but he had made a commitment. He has to keep his commitments. (That was the point of the talk, NEVER BREAK A COMMITMENT). So funny. Elder Holland told us we must come home with one convert: ourselves. What happened next I am not sure I will ever forget. He basically started screaming/fervently and emotionally yelling at us to never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever go home and fall away from the church. He told us if we ever did we better pray we never meet Elder Holland again because we would be quite sorry. He told us the Lord has made an investment in us. We are His investigators. It was pretty crazy. and epic. and awesome. Also Elder Dube is a boss, i love that guy. Go look up some of his talks. 

So then the next day Elder Holland gave a talk at a special stake conference. He basically told us the story of how is father came back into the church because a bishop, elders quorum president, and sunday school president came to his house one day and asked him to teach a sunday school class. Frank Holland (the father of Jeffrey Holland) realized through inspiration that they wanted him to teach Elder Holland's sunday school class. Elder Holland said that there was only one pathway into the heart of his father, and that was his children. He said the president of the church himself could have asked his father to teach a class and he still would have refused, but because he realized it was his son's class, he came back to church. He threw away his cigarettes right there, got rid of his alcohol, and went to church early a couple days later to drop off tithing. Elder Holland said it was because of normal ward members like you and me that he is now an apostle of the Lord. He thanked us and said to find His lost sheep. He then proceeded to give a father's blessing to the congregation. Such an awesome experience. 

Anyway, lets backtrack to the beginning of the week. Elder Berg and I are apparently doing pretty well here in River Falls teaching wise. Every time we meet missionaries they ask us, "how do you do it?" I feel so privileged to be in an area where the people are so ready. Elder Berg and I are just a couple of young missionaries. (I have been out one month now, and he has been out 5). The field is white and ready to harvest here. Literally. so awesome. Unfortunately a couple of our investigators dropped us this week. But that is the life of a missionary. On wednesday we taught the resto to this guy on the street, but he wasnt interested. I then noticed a guy hanging around behind us. He then approached us and asked us what we believe. His friend showed up about 5 minutes later. We then had a 2 hour discussion about our beliefs in the middle of the sidewalk on the busiest street in the town (its a pretty small town though, only 15k. also a college town though). It was interesting to talk to them and they were very well versed in the bible. We avoided bible bashing pretty well. Although when we gave them the Book of Mormon they were shocked and asked, "you guys read scripture in old english?" We replied yes, even in the bible. they were like wUt. 

Yesterday we had a pretty awesome experience. So I keep memorizing scriptures so I will more easily remember them for when I need them. My setting apart blessing also told me I will study what my investigators need to hear (so far some of the stuff i have picked up and randomly read on a whim i have pulled into conversation and i sit back and think, "oh, that is why I decided to read that randomly".). so we taught this man on the sidewalk and he believes in God and his mercy and is a very faithful man. But he said the bible teaches us that people will try to bring forth new scripture and we should be careful about it. A few days ago i had started learning Ezekiel 37:15-17, so i whipped that out and he was like oh. that.... actually makes a lot of sense. and he sat there in a daze for a little while. it was so powerful. 

And the day before on the sidewalk right next to where we taught the aforementioned man we stopped a girl and taught her the restoration. Afterwards she was like you know, this is ironic. i had been praying to find something like this. we bore testimony that this is no accident, and got a return appointment.

Anyway, I love you all! Have a fantastic week everybody! 

-Elder Damron

Pictures from River Falls (Week 2)

River Falls Week 2

When i first got to the field, my zone leader Elder Sargeant told me if i wanted to get over home sickness and whatnot, i needed to work hard. i took that to heart and elder berg and i worked very hard this week. We taught 32 lessons, got 14 new investigators, 7 progressing investigators, 4 people came to church, and we taught 21 doorstep restorations (that is included in the aforementioned 32). We are currently leading the zone in lessons and the mission record in a week is 33. But we are staying humble, this is the Lord's work, not ours. He put those people in our path, this is not the fruits of our own labor but the result in the Lord preparing these people and Elder Berg and I praying hard and having the faith to find these people. 

Elder Sargeant had a cool experience this week that really reminded us all that this is His work not ours. Our zone leaders got a referral from the MTC for 2 women, a mother and daughter, who had been calling the MTC daily for the past 2 weeks and getting lessons over the phone. They then talked to Elder Seargent and told him that they had read the whole book of mormon. So our zone leaders went and talked to them and they begged him to know what else they needed to do to draw closer to God. So they said baptism. They said yes, we want to do it ASAP. THey will be baptized June 29, the last saturday before Elder Sargeant goes home. Elder Sargeant said he has never seen more prepared people for this gospel in his life. But he humbly acknowledged that this is not of His doing. The Lord prepared these people and then used our zone leaders as a means to get to the next step. We are merely messengers of the Lord to carry out his will. Humility is key.

Anyway, a couple of miracles happened this week. First we went and taught a less active in our ward, Sister Carlstrom. She lives about 20 minutes out of town.My companion felt prompted to do a roleplay with her as we taught. So we told her to think of someone who might be interested in the Gospel and pretend to be them. She picked Chassity, her daughter, and we then taught the restoration. at the end, we asked Sister Carlstom if Chassity would be interested and Sister Carlstrom said probably not and that she didnt want to push religion on her kids. so we said ok, and went on our way. we looked at our area book and noticed that another less active lived out near here. so we went to find them. Their name is the walshs's. We got to their house to find out that they had moved 6 months ago. but who had moved in? Chassity. Sister Carlstrom's daughter. we would never have tracted into her, she lived too far away. we jumped for joy, taught her the restoration, she said she was interested in coming to church, and we set a return date. 

Another Miracle is Chris. We were driving one day and all of a sudden my companion flipped a u-turn and said i think we need to tract this apartment complex we just passed. so we went and knocked on the second door and this kid answered the door. what we had forgotten is we had knocked on his door a couple nights previous looking for a less active member, but they no longer lived there. we foolishly didnt teach him and we left. so when he saw us for a second time he said that it was no coincidence that we had come for a second time and he let us in. he then told us he had gotten out of drug rehab awhile ago, was trying to get his life in a better place, and felt a hole in his life. we taught him, he was over joyed, and we committed him to baptism. he said "Heck Yes", but with more colorful language, then apologized for his language and just said he was so excited. the feeling i had leaving the apartment was unforgettable. 

Then there is Grace. we went out to this trailer park place that we were at last week, we taught an investigator, and ran into a woman kicking a soccer ball with 2 little black boys. (also quick story, apparently in this trailer park a man was kidnapped by a bunch of women some time back. this place is so sketch. we pray for safety there. ha ha) anyway, we taught Grace the restoration as she was playing with the two boys, and it was really interrupted and whatnot because the boys were quite energetic, but it was still good. then we asked her to come to church. she said that her mother and her had been looking for a church and said they would come. so sunday rolls around and Jamie and her son came (i talked about her last week im pretty sure, she is super cool and ready. she loved church, got along with everyone, and her son loved it too). so church starts and grace isnt there, elder berg and i were really sad. but then we sit down, look in the foyer and see her sitting in the foyer. so we go out and bring her into the chapel to sit with us. she took a lot of notes all through church and i think she enjoyed it. after church, she sent this text to us: "Thank you for inviting me and my son and mother we look forward to next sunday today i felt what i can only describe as happiness and peace at church today in its purest form then i have ever felt i thank god for sending you to talk to me". this text melted my heart. I thank heavenly father daily for sending Elder Berg and I into the paths of those who are ready to hear this message. 

The weather here has been interesting, we have seen the sun only a couple times and it has been rainy. i like it, Elder Berg really hates it and keeps telling me he is moving to arizona some day. ha ha. 

We also stopped one day and helped a random family move into their house. they only had a bunch of kids with them and so Elder Berg and I helped them move all the big stuff. they were so happy and appreciative, it is really nice to serve people. 

While tracting we ran into this man who called us peddlers, menaces, and a couple other interesting things. I explained to him we were not peddlers and not salesman like he claimed, but he said it was all the same. My trainer then said "have a good day, it was wonderful talking to you and we will maybe talk to you soon". The man said no. i absolutely will not. it was rather amusing honestly. 

I also learned a very valuable lesson in church on obedience. I have always hated rules that seemed dumb and that didnt apply to me. but one of the speakers said the standard itself is not what brings us blessings, but our willingness to keep it. So that turned my brain upside down for awhile. 

Anyway, I cannot currently think of much else to write at this moment. If you have sent me letters, i have replied to them. but it takes like 5 days for my letters to reach anyone, and then another 5-6 for me to get the letters sent to me. so its a slow process. have a wonderful week everyone :)

-Elder Damron

River Falls Week 1

So I arrived in Minnesota wednesday! We met the mission president and had interviews and some orientation and then we met our trainers and headed to our areas. And my first area is River Falls... Wisconsin. Im not even in Minnesota ha ha. Oh well. So I am in quite the unique situation. For one thing, I am actually 13 days older than my trainer. He has also only been out just over 4 months. For the second thing, we are white washing this area. Meaning, they sent two missionaries with no prior experience of the area to the area to serve. WE actually opened up this area, we are the first missionaries to serve here in awhile. So this is cool, but it creates quite a difficult place for a brand new missionary because when you open up a new area you have no contacts and all you can do is that one most fun and desirable activity: tracting. yep. we tract basically all day every day. I do not have a strong like for tracting and thursday,friday, and saturday were quite miserable for me in that regard. But sunday i prayed quite fervently to have the strength and confidence to get over myself and go out there and enjoy it. and Sunday was such a marvelous day! We tracted a good 4-5 hours, met some cool people (we met this Filipino girl named Alma. She is catholic and didnt reallly care for our message but she was like, "Yes i know i share the name of one of your chapters", it was pretty funny), got some doors slammed, and the whole works. but i was surprisingly ok with it. The whole "Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" idea is what keeps me going. Elder Seargent, one of our zone leaders, told me he whitewashed an area 3 months into his mission and he said he never worked so hard in his entire life and that that was the hardest he worked his whole mission. So it is kinda tough for me to start out being trained and whitewashing, but i realized i prayed for the Lord to help teach me how to work and how to have patience quite a few times in the MTC. So the Church is true everyone, prayers are answered. ha ha

So we also visit less active members. Elder Berg, my trainer, and I drove out (we have a car :) ) about 20 minutes to find this guy named Devrin. Well the gps told us to turn one drive way too early (this was farm country and the driveways went back quite a good distance into trees and whatnot, we couldnt see any houses) and so we drove up about 7 minutes. at one point i said "we should go back, there arent any houses up here". Elder Berg was like "lets just go a little further". well we did. and what happened? We got stuck in the mud. and of course he is the designated driver so i had to get out and push the car. i got mud all over me. blah. anyway, so the car wasnt moving so i broke some tree branches and put them under the tires to create friction so the car could move. it worked! The car moved back a couple feet... into more mud and we got stuck again. after about 20 minutes a car drove up and a man got out. he just stood there pretending not to notice us for about 5 minutes and then he walked over to us. i apologized and said our GPS was being dumb and we were looking for a boy named Devrin. he told us devrin was one house down, and he helped us get out of the mud and leave. he seemed quite irritated. i guess i would be too if i went to check on my land and two teenagers were stuck in some mud.. ha ha. but he was an answer to a prayer. no sooner did we get back on the main road when it started to pour rain. had we still been up there in the mud, we would never have gotten out. 

So now i will backtrack a little. When i boarded the plane for Minnesota, a man walked up to me and asked who we were. He then said it was nice to see such fine looking boys and girls in the world and noted how we stood out so much in the crowd, he then said it was quite sad that we stood out as much as we did. I agreed with him. I then got to talking to him a little. Turns out he lived in Montana for quite a few years so we talked about that and then before i boarded the plane, i gave him an "I'm a Mormon" card and told him if he wanted to know why we stood out so much, to go look at that website. it felt good.

Back to now. so my companion sleep talks quite crazily. like i mean full blown conversations in his sleep. i woke up the first night and thought he was on the phone it was so loud and real. i awoke last night to him laughing in conversation with someone then he said something about talking to them later. it is quite amusing.. haha

so while tracting our first day we met this boy named Cody. He recently got out of jail where he found Jesus. The instant we said we brought a message of Christ he stood straight up and just ate up everything we said. We will meet with him again tomorrow and he is a very promising investigator. the desire to learn and find truth in his eyes was remarkable. We also committed him to baptism. Another man we met is Andy. Andy is in his 60s and we walked up his driveway and talked to him in his garage. He is sort of catholic and knew most of what we taught him but he said that he was a bad bad man and there was no hope for saving him. we taught him the restoration and bore testimony that the atonement could cleanse anything he had ever done and he could be clean. We said a prayer with him and left. But i will never forget his face, i know for a fact the spirit touched that man because he was rattled to the core with the truth of the message we brought. he has a very busy work schedule but Elder Berg and I are determined to get back and teach him.

We have also been teaching a man named Jeremy, the zone leaders gave him to us because before we arrived they would travel the 20 minutes to our town and teach every once in awhile but since we are here now we can teach him. So Jeremy is late 40s, tattoos, earings, smokes, and the whole works. he has been studying religions for quite some time. He has studied basically every religion you can think of and some you would never think of. the last religion he seriously studied was Wiccan. anyway, we taught him the restoration and we brought up Christ but he does not believe Christ was perfect. He said that is impossible. We will have to work on that. So we went back saturday to teach him and his girlfriend, who lives in a half way house but visits him once a week. we taught her the restoration, and i committed her to baptism. she said if she knows it is true she will get baptized. Her and Jeremy are going to make the decision together, but i think it is all looking pretty promising. well, Wanda has a sincere desire to find out for herself. Jeremy is still a skeptic but hopefully we can get through that.

Well that has pretty much been my five days in Wisconsin. We are actually staying in a member's home, the Taylors. they gave up their master bedroom so that they could house missionaries! They are in their early 60s probably and super sweet and kind. its a pretty nice gig. but also kind of awkward. our zone leaders live with another member of our ward but he travels to Europe a lot and is rarely home. so they basically live in this mansion by themselves. its pretty legit.

Anyway, my excitement to be out here is growing. the MTC was a cakewalk compared to this and I expected the mission to be difficult but not in this way. the physical demands have not hit me, mainly because we have a car, but the mental toughness required is unlike anything i have every before run in to. My companion is a perfect match for me, he is extremely bold and loves to tract. I have always been uncomfortable talking to random people, let alone teaching religion and committing them to baptism after 5 minutes of knowing them. But through the strength of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father all things are possible. The phrase "forget yourself and go to work" is so trite when talking about missions but so true. We are commanded to spread this wonderful gospel, it is one of the most important things we can do. So I'm happy to be our here. 

Have a good week everybody, Elder Damron :)

Week 2 (MTC)

So this second week flew by. Yet at the same time, I feel like I have been here for about 3 months. Home is a distant memory that seems foreign to me now. Time is such a funny little thing. When I got here I wanted to leave ASAP. But now I kinda want to stay. I never believed I could grow so close to a group of people in less than 2 weeks but when half my district and the other district we came into the MTC left monday morning I was quite sad. And they are going to North Carolina, so I wont see them anymore. Then this morning 2 more elders left for Ohio. It has been quite sad. Tomorrow i leave for Minnesota! Its really exciting and kinda terrifying. Im a missionary now, we are supposed to start proselyting in the airport. It will  be a different experience. 

Anyway, this last week we taught this man named Junichi twice. The MTC hires people to come act as investigators or less active members and whatnot. Some of the people are LDS, some are not. There is this one guy who is Baptist who just likes to come in and bible bash the heck out of the new missionaries. I bet he gets a good laugh every time. Two elders in my district had him and the baptist guy wouldnt even let them in the door. Back to Junichi. oh man. So Junichi is a Japanese immigrant who is very set in his Shinto beliefs. He only talked to us out of respect to his friend John, who referred us to him. Junichi did not believe in talking about religion because it causes contention. And since that was exactly what we were there to talk about, thinks got... crazy. So we tried to peer into his beliefs and find ways to share ours but he wouldnt have any of it. He would cut us off mid sentence and say he didnt care what we believed because it was our belief not his. At one point I asked him if he knew who jesus was and he got up and started yelling at me, "DO YOU KNOW WHO BUDDHA IS???????" Then he said something about being silly, uneducated Americans. I do actually know a decent amount about Buddha, but I didnt want to start arguing with him so I changed the subject. As missionaries we are told not to bible bash, and he wasnt bible bashing, but he was belief bashing of sorts. I quickly realized what was happening and calmed myself down. My companion though was not so fortunate, he started to fall into arguing and voices were being raised. So I again changed the subject and decided it was time to leave (our time was up anyway) so i began to bear my testimony by saying "I Know..." and he cut me off again and said "I do not care that you know whatever you know, the Buddhists know they can  be reincarnated as monkeys so who says you are right." We left. When we returned later we found out he doesnt believe in an afterlife, nor does he care if there is one. But he cares about family. so we talked about family a lot and he had the same views about family. But he didnt say our views pertained to religion. He said a style of living is not religion, its a standard of living. Thats why he talked about it with us. We tried to tell him that in our church we live what we believe but he wouldnt have any of it. We had a good conversation, i asked him if he wanted a book that would teach him about families and he said no. By companion went for the direct approach and asked if he would read the book of mormon and he said no again, stating that he didnt have time. But he promised to call his friend John and ask him about it later. Before he left he said something that really taught me a lesson. He said "The last time we talked I felt like you were trying to give me a hot drink when i wanted a cold one". he didnt want to talk about the eternities or other beliefs, he wanted to talk about families. We must teach to the needs of investigators! I will get better, i just need experience. 

So last week i talked about Elder Richardson. A 6'3" 210 lb 18 year old of complete muscular form. He is a freak of nature. Anyway, i made the poor decision of decided to guard him in basketball at gym (i really wanted the challenge. I did a decent job too! until..) and at one point he was driving, he jump stopped, lunged forward and his shoulder slammed into my jaw. I immediately felt quite a bit of pain and my mouth began to fill in with blood. i had seriously bitten the front left of my tongue and it was gushing. Luckily, i only got the side of my tongue so i didnt bite my tongue off (i probably would have and for that i am so thankful). anyway, my tongue looked bruised for like 5 days. it was pretty crazy looking. i can still feel the wound a little, but thank heavens the tongue heals so fast.. 

On wednesday on Elder Johnson and I's way to teach Junichi, i stepped around the corner to get a drink of water (he was like 5 feet away, not too  big a deal and he knew i was there. He was watching for when the investigator's door would be ready for us) and i started choking on the water a little and coughing. Right then, 2 brand new sister missionaries (they have stickers that scream "IM A NOOB AND JUST GOT HERE") walked up and started chewing me out for being alone. Im standing there choking on water trying to explain he was just around the corner but i couldnt get it out. they left after giving me disapproving glares. i got my breath back, walked around the corner and my companion was just laughing. Some people's kids...

So the whole time we have been here we have been having this "Alpha Male" competition sort of thing. So we had an arm wrestling contest, races, basketball competition, and some other stuff. My companion won most of them so we called him Alpha the whole week. ha ha. anyway, we joking had a 4 square competition as part of our alpha competition. I stayed in the no. 1 square the longest, so i took home a slice of the alpha pie.

We also taught another man named Alfred "Scoop" Johnson. Was an older man who loved the outdoors. He was pretty awesome. At one point he went off on a tangent about how he had to sell everything he owned pretty much to deal with his 4 teenage daughters in high school. Thats why having sons is better, right? ;) lulz jk. anyway, we taught him the restoration, gave him a book of mormon, and i was prompted to ask him to be baptized and he said yes! it was a great feeling.

Anyway, thats all i have time to write this week. i have gotten all the dearelders and letters people have sent and i have replied to all of them. From this point on, if you want to write me write my mission home address on my facebook page or my dad can send it out or something.

Love you all! -Elder Damron

First words from Minnesota!

I arrived in Minnesota and am just fine. It’s hot and humid but other than that it is fine! I’ll write more later.

Love, Ethan

pics from the MTC

Here is a picture of me smelling a tree. I think this picture is very Ethan-esque so enjoy :) (The tree smells JUST like Vanilla Creme Soda, thats why I smelling it... just FYI)

Ethan and an Arizona friend: Tyson Burnham

"my teacher Brother Hales, he is the one we taught for Progressive Investigator (our teacher pretends to be an investigator and we teach them)"

The missionaries going to Minnesota!

Ethan's zone in the MTC

Ethan's district in the MTC

Week 1 (MTC)

I have little time to write so if i have gramatical and spelling errors, forgive me. So 6 days are done in the MTC. Last Wednesday and Thursday were the longest days of my life. It didnt help that Wednesday i was going off of 3 hours asleep and by the time i went to bed i had been up 21 hours. Ha ha. Wednesday we just met our teachers, studied, and had a welcome to the MTC talk by presiden Nally. The rest was "good luck". People say the MTC is immersion by fire and they mean it. I got a schedule and nothing was told to me about anything. WE  had to figure out 100% of it out for ourselves. It was pretty stressful but everything worked out just fine.

Thursday was more meeting teachers and classes along with studying. Friday is when the fun began. So a typical day in the MTC for us 2 week english speakers is 2 blocks of 3 hour classes, like 4 hours of studing, another 1.5 hour class, and eating. Every second of every day is taken up. It's nuts.

My zone is really cool and i feel we were meant to be together. When we first all met each other it just felt right and there wasnt a ton of awkardness. IT felt like i had known them before. My companion is Elder Johnson, he is from central Utah ranch and is really cool. We get along great. He is a tad quiet though so i tend to dominate lessons. So on friday we met our fake investigator Ruben. The teachers all have these fake aliases that we teach and their acting is superb and unbeliavable. Anyway, Ruben lives in England and missionaries asked him what the purpose of life was and he couldnt answer us, so we were asked to go teach him. After that lesson, i walked out and couldnt get this goofy grin off my face. Me. The straightfaced ethan could not stop smiling. It was pretty weird. ha ha.

We arent allowed to say "guys" here. It must be "Elders and Sisters". Sister Nally told us "guys" are the boys at home dating our girlfriends. THey are pretty strict about it, it's pretty hard to break the habit.

Thursday night we met our branch presidency and I talked to one of the counselors with my hands in my pockets. He told me missionaries were not allowed to do that, asked me if i had actually read the hand book (i have), and then gave a sermon to the whole zone about how we should never do that and a couple other things. I went and re checked the hand book and it says nothing about it, but i understand it unprofessional looking I suppose.

Also when I entered the MTC there was a sister Damron who came in behind me. No relation obviously, but I have never met another damron.

So there is this Elder named Elder Matthews and he is pretty crazy and has some crazy stories, I dont believe too many of them anymore but they are amusing nonetheless. Aparently he worked once checking trucks carrying pot ash. and to make sure it was pot ash and not salt, he had to taste it. So then one elder was like "you know pot ash is the remnants of decomposed bodies, right?" he got a pretty amusing look on his face and then we all laughed. Whether thats what pot ash is or not i dont know, i cant check on my iphone anymore... ha ha. I dont actually miss it. anyway, it was funny anyway. Then once of our counselors came in because he heard laughter and stamped it out. He always comes running if fun is being had to make sure it ends and we read in silence, he means well, but we like to loosen up every once in awhile.

The next morning we played basketball and a kid named Elder Garret, who is probably 5'6" and super super skinny and not too athletic, had the ball at the 3 point line and was like "i want to shoot it". I was guarding him so i backed up and said shoot it. he swished it. That boy hustled me good... ha ha. we all laughed.

Later in class our teacher Elder Hales asked us all what we wanted at that moment. He then turned to me and said I dont know about you elder, but i want Filibertos (an arizonan fast food joint that i LOVE). my jaw dropped because he is from Washington or something and i cried a little inside because i want some now... haha. it made my day. Then awhile later Sister Lee, a girl in my district, said to me "Elder Damron, you say the darndest things sometimes...". Imagine that. Me say some crazy things? never.

last night my zone all worked out together in our residence halls. at one point a boy locked himself out. so all of a sudden one kid pulls out a lock pick set and my roommate picked the lock in like 30 seconds. it was a bizarre scene and we all laughed pretty hard just because 1. it was a long day and anything was funny and 2. it was elder garret and i was not surprised at all he knew how to pick a lock. then i had to open up a package and i asked if anyone had a knife, so the kid with the lockpick pulls out a knife and said "there you go. you might have to wipe off some calf blood (he is from a ranch) but it wont hurt you". it was an amusing series of events. We then had an arm wrestling competition which my roommate won. He is probably 5'10" but he is 170. another kid, elder richardson, is 6'3" and 210. THey went at it for literally 4 minutes and my companion finally won. it was crazy.

 

I also saw elder burnham multiple times this week, he is doing well. Elder Brad Wood got reassigned to billings Montana! So if you see an Elder Wood, say hi for me.

 

So we talked as a zone the other day and we were all like yeah we didnt want to go state side but we are happy now (and i am, i mean i love the mtc but if i was stuck here in spiritual prison for 6 weeks i would cry ha ha) and one girl said something interesting. She said that we have been told that the constitution of our country will one da hang by a thread and our church will hold it up. We are being sent within the states to strengthen the church and therefore strengthen the support beam of morals in our country. I liked that insight a lot.

 

I fly to minnesota on wednesday the 29th, ill write more about it next week. when i call it will be in the morning around 7 my time.

 

Anyway, I love you all and think of home often. Im glad to be out on a mission and know that this is where i am meant to be. If any of you care to write me, i will write you back :) have a good week!

-Elder Damron

 

ps. go look up Elder Bednar's 2011 Christmas devotional MTC talk "Character of Christ", i dont say this often, but i can honestly say it was life chagning