River Falls week 9

Hello family and friends!

So this week had some amusing moments. On Wednesday, Elder Mattison (one of my zone leaders) arrived at the home we are staying at in time for us to drive them to district meeting. But he came running into the house with these flip flop things on and was like Elder D.! I forgot my shoes somehow! I need some! So he borrowed some shoes. But Elder Mattison is a tad bit shorter than me and wears a size 10 compared to my 12, so he looked a tad goofy. I love that kid. 

While knocking some doors near an appointment we had, Elder Berg turned to me and said lets go knock those garages (they were more like storage units). I stood there with an amused look on my face as Elder Berg proceeded to knock on the garage doors and cover up the key hole as if he was blocking the eye hole (we dont normally do this, dont worry). Eight garages later he turned to me and said Hey! We arent supposed to contact alone get over here (i was leaning against a nearby wall). I must give credit to Elder Berg. When he commits to a practical joke, he really commits to it. ha ha. 

Then at the appointment we had, the son, John, ran up to Elder Berg and placed a lego piece on his head. john and another girl who is about 7 (John is 8) then started chanting "all hail king Elder Berg" and they began bowing to him and whatnot. It was an amusing sight. Then Elder Berg turned to me with an expectant look on his face. I just said no and laughed. But then John grabbed the leggo crown off of Elder Berg's head and placed it on mine. He then shouted "All hail King Elder Damron! King over all the world!" I returned Elder Berg's expectant look. 

We also met a woman named Sarah Larson (we are teaching like 5 Sarahs right now. what the heck) in a trailer park we go to that is 5 miles out of town. We bike there since we have limited miles. We have 1000 miles for the month and we went over. The funny thing is that we only use the car for meetings and dinners. So we used about 800 miles on dinners alone. Yay for being in farm country! Anyway, I digress. Sarah is super cool. She is going through some life troubles and recognized the help this gospel could give her almost immediately. She has a 1 year old named Gracie who likes to rummage through our backpacks looking for pamphlets. So precious. Anyway, Sarah told us she wants to meet women in the ward. We were going to bring one over Saturday night, but her father was hospitalized so she canceled. Then sunday her ride for church got impatient waiting for her and left her because she was running a few minutes late. That was kind of frustrating for us because she now cannot get baptized on her committed date and the next available date is next transfer.. but oh well. We are just hoping she gets baptized. 

It rained most the day friday. Elder Berg does NOT like cool weather at all and was very unhappy. I enjoyed it a little bit. But riding in the rain while getting soaked was an interesting experience. Later that night as we were about to cross the street and knock on the door of a town home, a police car came soaring into the parking lot and screeched to a halt, the police man ran out, and then he ran to the door we were about to knock on. then we heard sirens coming from every direction. 2 police cars and 2 ambulances later Elder Berg and I retreated to watch the scene unfold from behind another building. One cop had run at the door with his gun out for some reason. But then we saw the medical team move it. A man was wheeled off after a couple minutes. But he was joking and laughing with the medical team as he was being wheeled off, so hopefully everything turned out well. 

At church on sunday, our most progressing investigator did not appear at the meeting place for his ride (we teach him at the library. he wont tell us where he lives). Then 10 minutes into sacrament meeting he appeared! He drove himself! But he doesnt have a car, so he borrowed someone's car to make it to church. Seriously a miracle. Elder Berg and I were very very happy. 

Well that is about how the week went. We taught 9 doorstep lessons on saturday and 1 member present. It was a very fun day! Most of them were meaningful too. We used to just teach to whomever we could teach to. But if they really dont want to listen, the Spirit wont be there, so we now just follow the Spirit, gauge interest, and move on to find those truly prepared sheep just as president has counseled. I truly love to teach and share what I know. 

This week in my studies I was reading 1 Nephi 8 and I decided to make the Tree represent the Atonement as I read the chapter and see how all the symbols would apply with such a representation. The verse that stood out to me was verse 7. It talks about the land being a "dark and dreary waste." Such is this earth and our lives without the Atonement of our Lord and Savior! Embrace it. Learn of it. Pray for a deepened understanding it. It truly is the center of the gospel. The axle upon which this whole gospel swings. I would challenge you all to read the same chapter and apply the same symbol for the Tree as I did last week. You will learn a lot. 

Have a wonderful week everyone! 

-Elder Damron

Pictures from River Falls week 8

River Falls week 8

This week we went on exchanges to Oakdale and I ended up in South Saint Paul for a day. It was super fun! I want to serve there at some point. I think we were the only white people within a couple miles. A lot of the people we talked to were like, "yeah I grew up in Chicago and didnt want to deal with all that so I moved here." St. Paul can be pretty sketch so we were just like wUt. 

The church changed the missionary dress code a little. Summer time rules for Elders is now year round. Meaning, we dont HAVE to wear a suit all winter (still to church and meetings of course). We are happy about that. Unfortunately, backpacks are now banned starting August 31. Side bags are mandatory. We arent too happy about that one.

Anyway, this week I want to emphasize Moroni 7: 27,37. Our God is a God of miracles. But miracles are based on faith. President Clements always tells us to expect miracles. This is God's work and glory. We are messengers and servants. The Lord will not put us to a task that he wants done and not help us. Anyway, I have spoken of Sarah Schroeder before. She is moving July 27, so we wanted to baptize her the 26th. So we have been meeting with her and she has been progressing quite well. But Elder Berg and I were worried maybe not fast enough. We didnt want her to move and fall through the cracks and be lost, and she said that if she was to get baptized that she would come back here. So we wanted to move forward. Last sunday, Elder Berg and I fasted that we  may have the faith to go to where the miracles are (which president tells us to do). So Monday we taught sarah and brought sister schafer along. Sister schafer has been a member for about 3 weeks now. We went through the lesson and it was very well, but sarah still was unsure on baptism. She felt she needed to but wanted to wait. I suddenly had a strong feeling to share a passage in Ether 2 about the Lord telling the Brother of Jared to find a solution to the light problem and come to him with the solution. I was going to relate this to [how] the Lord sometimes wants us to make a decision THEN ask if it is the right one. But the conversation shifted so i didnt share it. I kept thinking I needed to share it. All of a sudden elder berg turned to me and asked me if i had anything to share. He never does this in lessons and he later said he felt he really needed to. so i shared this scripture experience and told her she should make a decision and ask the Lord. what happened next is a testimony to the power of member work and of the spirit. the lesson changed completely. Sister Schafer then took over and opened Sarah completely up, Sarah spilled her hearts concerns, and Sister Schafer bore a powerful testimony that baptism was the start to fixing her problems. It was absolutely incredible. She then said she wanted to be baptized July 26th. Elder Berg and I ran home over joyed !!!! :) 

So on Wednesday, we had zone training and President was there doing interviews. We asked him if we could baptize and confirm her on the 26th. He said that was not possible and that converts MUST be confirmed in church. and since she was moving saturday, we could not. He told us to see if she could move her moving date. So thursday we went over and she said she could not move the moving date. Her parents were coming up saturday and moving her out. We watched the talk "Safety for the Soul" by Elder Holland to boost her testimony of Joseph Smith (she was concerned she didnt truly know for herself yet). When we got home we called president and told her she had to move on that date. We asked for permission to do it on the 26th. He said no. Instead, he told us to baptize her on saturday the 20th. As in in less than 48 hours. we were like wUt. But said ok. President waived the church to 3 times rule (in our mission you must attend church 3 times to be baptized. she attended twice, had to miss once for work, but promised to go on the 21st) and said to move forward. So we went over friday morning and told her the baptismal date had been moved up. We prayed with all our might before hand that she would want to. And, she said she wanted to move forward. We then drove over to the church and had the baptismal interview and got her her jumpsuit. We then put together a baptism friday afternoon in about an hour. we have a fantastic ward who was willing to work with us. 

Anyway, saturday we arrive at the church at 7:30 am and fill the font, then we went and got sarah, and came back to the church. we took pictures and as we walked to the relief society room, Elder Berg pulled me into the bathroom. He took off his tie, unbuttoned the top of his shirt, and told me he thought he was going to throw up (he had said he had a bad stomach ache earlier). he then turned sheet white, ran to the stall, and lost basically anything and everything in his body. He sounded like he was dying and I was wondering what in the world I should do. It was pretty bad. I was sure everyone in the building could probably hear him dying in the bathroom (luckily someone was playing prelude music on the piano and no one could hear). He then walked out, I gave him some mints, he put his tie on, and he went and baptized her. That's what I call consecration.  She said she had never felt so amazing in her life. The next day after church when she was confirmed, she said she had never felt anything so intense and amazing in her life. she moves saturday, but we have set her up with the singles ward info and our bishop is going to call her new bishop and make sure he contacts her.

This baptism went from probably not happening to a reality in a couple of days. Our Father in Heaven is certainly a God of miracles. I have been a part of one of the greatest miracles of my life this week. 

Seeing the absolute joy and change in countenance in Sarah after her baptism made me realize more fully what I am out here to do. The worth of souls is great to the Lord. And if we shall bring even one soul unto him, how great shall be our joy, right? This was true joy. 

I love all of you and thank you for your prayers. Have a wonderful week :)

Elder Damron

Picture from River Falls week 7

River Falls Week 7

So this weekend was pretty interesting. River Falls doesnt do anything for Fourth of July because the following week River Falls Days begin. And this is pretty serious business around here. People from all over the country fly in to return to it, people from the Twin Cities come in as well. Basically the population of this town probably doubled or tripled. And since Wisconsin the is state that leads the country in alcohol consumption, you can imagine we had a difficult time finding people to teach. Originally we were excited to go downtown and find people to teach since there were so many people. We tried once and realized that it wasnt going to work too well... 

I rode by one guy, who was stopped at the light, and he told me he loved Satan. I just kept riding. But then he drove past me holding this black book with devilish looking symbols out the window. Apparently he was serious. Ha ha. 

So we are teaching this girl named Sarah and she is super awesome. She has kept every commitment, stopped drinking, come to church the last few weeks, but still isnt 100% on baptism. She moves July 27.... so naturally we want her to get baptized on July 26th. Hopefully that will work out. SHE IS SOOOO CLOSE. 

We also taught this other lady, Amy, (I think I mentioned her last week. She said her bible tells her that infants can be baptized and whatnot) and using the scriptures we responded to all her questions and she was confounded in every sense of the word. But her heart is still not open and she blamed it on her not remembering because it has been many years. She then refused to talk to us anymore and said we must talk to her husband. It is hard when we bring a message of truth that really has basically every answer and people reject it. It puzzles me. 

So on tuesday Elder Berg and I biked about 30 miles. That was pretty crazy and fun. we rode our bikes like 5 miles out of town to this trailer park. We talked to a less active who told us that we must NOT go knocking next door because a schizophrenic lady lives there and most the time when people knock on the door she calls the cops and accuses them of some pretty terrible things. the cops come out about once a week because of it. Even the accusation of such things can get us into a lot of trouble as missionaries so we stayed away. But I realized that a few weeks ago we did knock on the door and actually met her. She was very nice but told us to come back later. It is such a sad situation. 

The next day we knocked on the door of this apartment building and this guy came out. He started yelling about a golden book and Joe Smith and told us we were nuts and ran up the stairs. In that process he slipped and totally faceplanted on the stairs. Elder Berg opened the door and said "dont trip, buddy". it was quite amusing and ironic. He then went upstairs and him and his roommates set off all their car alarms as we tried to talk to someone else. It was an interesting couple minutes.

Funny Elder Berg Moment of the Week:

I said," I need a letter opener". Elder Berg then replied,"well that is a cocky statement". I found this so funny for some reason...

So I keep mentioning Grace as one of our investigators. Well we stopped by and taught her again this week and she expressed her desire to be baptized! It was great. Well, 2 days later she said she had tried calling bishop to report us for harassment and said she would call the cops if we showed up again. Talk about a 180 turn. She then rambled about not having a boyfriend for some reason. We asked her what that was about and she forwarded us a text from 3 weeks ago where elder Berg asked her and her mother, "what is your guy's last name?" She took that as us asking for information on her boyfriend or something and that is when she dropped us originally. She is still pretty mad about it I guess. We apologized for the confusion and tried our best to get back to teach her but she said absolutely not. She is so prepared. WHat a sad situation. 

On Wednesday we taught 9 lessons. That day absolutely flew by. But it was so fun! I love teaching so much... we actually taught 153 total lessons this transfer or about 25 a week. This first transfer absolutely flew by. Hopefully we can do something similar on this transfer.

Elder Berg popped his back tire on a curb that day too. We had to go to a bike shop in town and replace the tube in it. Luckily it was pretty cheap.

I also got sick for the 3rd time on my mission. 3 times in 2 months! (Today is my 2 month mark!) Elder Berg drank from my milk on accident and gave me something wicked (He had been sick for awhile). Hopefully I can get over it quick....

I can also drive now! So I drove for the first time in awhile this week. Elder Berg still does all the driving really though. I dont mind too much. I like to sit back and watch the scenery or memorize stuff. We also cant speed. So driving is really boring.. he he.

While weekly planning in the park this man named Rod Knox approached us and started talking about religion. He is one of the first known guitarists in the Hudson area or something like that. But he loves mormons and our beliefs and what type of people we are. We taught him the resto right there, gave him a BoM, and he wants us to come over sometime! Talk about being handed an investigator by the Lord... 

So im a pretty slow biker (compared to Elder Berg. He has one speed: Mach 89) and so Elder Berg told me he would give me a dollar if I beat him to the park (Where we were teaching someone). So he took off and I just went about my normal way. Right before we got to the park, he slowed down on a hill and I zoomed past him. So i beat him to the park. He wasnt too happy about that. He tells me he doesnt believe he is gambling when he makes bets because it is not a gamble if you know you are going to win. His face was pretty priceless when he pulled up. ha ha. he wont even give me that dollar. (i wouldnt actually take it though, dont worry)

Thought of the week: Ether 2:16-20,25

16 And the Lord said: Go to work and build, after the manner of^abarges which ye have hitherto built. And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did go to work, and also his brethren, and built barges after the manner which they had built, according to the^binstructions of the Lord. And they were small, and they were light upon the water, even like unto the lightness of a fowl upon the water.

 17 And they were built after a manner that they were exceedingly^atight, even that they would hold water like unto a dish; and the bottom thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the sides thereof were tight like unto a dish; and the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a tree; and the door thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto a dish.

 18 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, I have performed the work which thou hast commanded me, and I have made the barges according as thou hast directed me.

 19 And behold, O Lord, in them there is no light; whither shall we steer? And also we shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe, save it is the air which is in them; therefore we shall perish.

 20 And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt make a hole in the top, and also in the bottom; and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole and receive air. And if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye shall stop the hole, that ye may not perish in the flood.

25 And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?

While reading this I felt like I should compare the barges unto our testimonies. First, verse 17 tells us they were tight like unto a dish. water could not get in. Our testimonies need to be built like this! Built with fine materials so water cannot seep in and waterlg or drown our spirituality! (so build faith on scriptures, church, etc. not going off of our parents testimonies or something). But what is important to remember is that the Lord told the Brother of Jared HOW to build that ship. The Lord has shown us how to build our faith in Him. And if we follow that counsel, we can have strong, tight testimonies. But even after the ship was completed, there was still problems (air and light). So no matter how strong our testimony is, it can always be stronger. Brother of Jared asked the Lord how to fix these problems. For one problem, the Lord gave the answer. He will tell us how to strengthen our testimonies if we ask. But the Lord told Brother of Jared to try and figure out the second one for himself. We still need to find ways to strengthen ourselves here on earth as well. That is part of learning. we cannot truly learn a whole lot if the Lord just tells us everything without us struggling to seek it out ourselves.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

-Elder Damron

Pictures from River Falls (week 6)

"[the] picture of the clouds separating for the rays of sunshine...is one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen in my life"

River Falls week 6

So today is transfer calls and Elder Berg was called to be a district leader..... but he is the district leader here in River Falls! And I am staying with him here! I am so overjoyed, I do NOT want to leave Elder Berg. Like ever. We went on 48 hour exchanges monday/tuesday so I wasnt with him for 2 days and I realized how well we work together. So that makes me happy. THe two elders we went out with are quite quiet and I found myself doing most the talking and approaching people, which I havent dont much of out here. It is good for me. 

When President called E. Berg to tell him of his DL assignment he asked if he gets up on time every morning. E. Berg gave us a 4 out of 5 (we have been getting up at like 6:35ish, not bueno) and president then committed him (and me) to getting up at or before 6:30 every morning the rest of our missions. We have to text him whenever we get up late. So the alarm will be going off at 6:15. ha ha

While on exchanges with Elder Denney (very quiet kid from Nevada) we knocked into these 2 boys and started talking. They are quite religious and actually use the King James Bible (first people in 6 weeks I have met that actually do that). We believed basically everything the same, they accused our church of not being of the bible pattern and I explained we very much so are, and i cited Articles of Faith I think to back it up and i explained our church's structure. we went back and forth, and finally we asked if we could pray. I have never seen any 2 people look more uncomfortable in their lives. I asked them what was wrong and they said the bible tells us to specifically pray only in private. I definitely remember a scripture in the bible going something like "pray over your crops" and all else you have or something, but i couldnt remember where it is and didnt want to argue with them anymore so we were like ok. They said the only way they would speak with us again is if their pastor could sit in with us. yeah, no thanks. That would be fun and full of Spirit fed teaching. Maybe we will give them a call one day....

So one of our investigators Chris has been avoiding us for a couple weeks. Elder Berg texted him with much boldness and asked him what was up. He said he read the whole book of mormon and that it made him realize there is no God and that religion is all for profit. He called us foolish for not seeing that. Elder Berg basically called him a liar without being so rude about it and said if he had truly read any of it, not to mention the whole thing, he would not have those feelings. elder berg then managed to get Chris to want to learn about God and he begged us to help him find God. On one condition: E. Berg goes alone. He does not want to see me ever again. He said I was extremely disrespectful (apparently I tied my shoe on his kitchen table. I never tie my shoe on anything so I find it odd that I actually did do it this one time. And the one time I did the person got offended. oh well.) and that I messed up the lesson a whole ton and he just never wants me to go back (I think he was like my 3rd lesson in the Mission field so maybe I messed it up. Regardless, I did ok and the lesson was powerful and I felt so happy during it). This made me quite... irritated. Respect is like my life motto. I like to think that I am pretty level headed most the time but the one thing that sets me off in about 2.84749384 seconds is disrespect, so I always strive to be as respectful as I can. So to have this kid call me out like this when I tried so hard made me quite unhappy. Regardless, I decided I needed humbling. I immediately got on my knees and begged the Lord to not cause my imperfections to keep this man from hearing the Gospel of Christ and asked for my heart toward him to be softened. Usually I just simmer in bitterness for awhile, but this worked much better. 

While on exchanges we also met this woman named Amy, who is Lutheran. We talked for awhile and she talked about how Luther started her church and she didnt need Joseph Smith. I pointed out that Luther didnt actually start the Lutheran church (his followers started the church. at least I am 90% certain of this, maybe I preached false doctrine.). she got pretty mad. We also explained the BoM clarifies the bible, such as things like baptism. She explained her bible taught it very clearly: older people go down into the water and babies have water sprinkled on her forehead. My jaw dropped. I was like the bible does not say that. She said her bible does and that it was re written to be easy to read and that her church translates it to be "as close as it can be" to the original. I told her that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever and thats why we could do that. She didnt like that either. But she still took the BoM and promised to study it and we will see her tonight. WE talked to her drunk husband a couple weeks ago, so it might get... interesting tonight. 

So we taught Jamie Halfen this week. We brought a member, Sister Dixen, with us to teach word of wisdom. We watched President Monson's talk on obedience and then tied it in. She does not want to quite. finally at the end after a bunch of subject changes I remembered the words of Elder Holland a couple weeks ago when he told us we had power authority from God. So we need to act like it. Far too many missionaries are too lax about this. Anyway, something came over me (Spirit, obviously) and I looked her straight in the face and told her I was a representative of Jesus Christ and because of this I have the authority to promise blessings to those who will keep the commandments. I told her that if she would truly commit to try and quit smoking and ask God for help with all energy of heart, that it would happen ( i said some other stuff too). She just looked at me. it was so powerful and awesome. she committed. Next time we met with her she made me a little irritated again because she denied ever committing to quit and she remembers telling us she probably wouldnt quit and so she had been smoking the whole week. But she is down from one pack to 3 cigs a day, so i guess we can work with that... 

We also met this less active named Andy. Now what I saw what he opened the door might remain in my head for the rest of my life. He opens his door without a shirt, and the portion of skin between his ribs is removed because of a surgery he had recently. So it is all nasty and healing. He also has a stoma (i think it is called this) on his chest. basically it looks like one of his intestines is poking from his chest. He was so casual about it and just sat there talking. I actually didnt get too bothered because thankfully my loving father has set me up job shadowing and i have seen some surgeries. But elder denney looked like he might lose his stomach contents. ha ha

We also talked to this lady on the doorstep who basically believes the plan of salvation without knowing what it is. She is catholic. We asked what her belief on hell/heaven is and she said that her local catholic church has basically stopped preaching that there is a hell. She believes there are different places for good people and bad people, but not hellfire and brimstone. How does a local church just stop teaching their doctrine? We also talked to this other catholic man who had been going for 35 years and we asked him some pretty simple questions and he couldnt answer any of them. Our church truly can answer any question we have and it blows my mind whenever I think about it.

So this week Jamie also told me that it took her 2 weeks to get a good read on me. She can read people she meets pretty well but she said that my dead straight face that I have most of the time just totally threw her off. Ha ha. Me, hard to read because of lack of facial expressions? Never. Im working on it though, she says she can tell im genuine and gave me advice on that if i cant show people im interesting in what they are saying by facial expressions, use my eyes. So i appreciated that. 

well, I have written a solid amount this week but want to write so much more! But alas, time is short. I shall share a quick thought before I head off.

In Alma 56: 47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the ^aliberty of their ^bfathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their ^cmothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

 48 And they rehearsed unto me the words of their ^amothers, saying: We ^bdo not doubt our mothers knew it.

And then in Alma 57: 21 Yea, and they did ^aobey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their ^bmothers had taught them.

The stripling warriors, who had never before fought and none of them died in their tremendous battles, learned from their mothers the things of God. Their exceedingly strong faith came from the teachings of their mothers! To me this is powerful. I feel as if motherhood is often overlooked and mothers are not given enough credit for raising children. I have grown SOOO much appreciation for my mother as I have been with families with small children on my mission. Fathers are incredibly important as well, but apostles and prophets have often spoken that the teachings of mothers to their children is vital and has a lasting influence on the lives of their children. Everyone be grateful to their mothers! (I love you mom)!

I feel like my above paragraph is kind of scrambled and incoherent, but i hope you all get the point. Have a good week everyone :)

Elder Damron

River Falls week 5

So unfortunately I will not be able to write a long letter or really send many emails today. Our P-Day was changed to Thursday, July 4th and we were given 1 hour to email today. So I will answer a lot of letters next week. 

So this week has been rather slow. Two of our main investigators, Grace and Mary, repeatedly texted us and basically told us to not come back. So that was sad. An investigator named Jim, whom I think I mentioned last week, is really progressing. This man has done basically all you can do wrong in life and is currently on probation, but he loves everything we teach. He has decided he wants to be Mormon, he has come to church the last 2 weeks and has no intention of stopping. He lives with his fiance and we taught him the law of chastity and told him he could not get baptized unless he moved out or got married, he called the bishop and wants to get married before the end of July. I will keep yall updated on him. 

 

Anyway, in my limited time I will now share a rather amusing series of events. So Elder Berg and I went on a 48 hour exchange with our zone leaders one town over. They live will a millionaire who travels a lot, and has a LOT of rules. The missionaries are permitted to use 2 bedrooms and the bathroom upstairs and the kitchen downstairs. That is it. Only certain counter spaces are allowed for use as well. Anyway, so Elder Sargeant/Looye had to go out one morning so we stayed home and watched The District (these missionary training movies) as part of my training. Elder Berg popped it into the DVD player on the 60" TV in the house and we watched it for awhile (the zone leaders said they watched the restoration video on it once, but i think they were kidding...). Anyway after awhile i was like yeah, this will get us into some serious trouble. lets go back to watching it on our mini dvd player. so we did, much to elder Berg's protests. We then ate some bagel bites for lunch and waited for the ZLs to get home. when they did, Elder Berg was like, "So we watched the TV." Elder Looye said that was not a funny joke and Elder Sargeants face was one of complete, inexplicable horror. The mental image I have of that scene still makes me laugh out loud. anyway, they asked if the remote was back in the exact same place and the tv was on the exact same channel. we promised they were and they said we were lucky the owner didnt come home because WW3 would have broken out. Well, things got worse. As i went to the library with Elder Sargeant he asked me what I ate for lunch. I said Elder Berg had heated up bagel bites (elder looye had shown elder berg what we were and were not allowed to eat in the morning while i was in another room). Elder Sargeant stopped the car and was like i really hope you are kidding. Turns out those bagel bites were the owner's and he has strict rules about no one touching his stuff. So we drove home to get the packaging so we could go to the store, get new bagel bites, and replace them so we could pretend none of this ever happened. Well all that was left was the heating instructions that had been cut out. So we took the instructions to walmart to try and find some bagel bites, but they didnt have any. Elder Sargeant's blood pressure was going up by the minute. We then tried another store and found some bagel bites! We took the cooking instructions and began matching it to the lettering on the bagel bites in the store. Luckily, we found some of the same brand. The unfortunate part was what elder berg and i ate were on trays of 12. The store only had trays of 20 and 9 for sale. so i bought two trays of 20 (elder berg and i ate 24 together) and we went home. The owner was no doubt going to realize what had occurred, but we prayed (and i mean literally, Elder Sargeant said a prayer that this man's heart would be softened toward us) that the increased number of bagel bites would make up for the mistake. Elder Sargeant and I then went out for the day with him mumbling something about us being sinning dogs. I told him at least he would always remember his last week of his mission quite well. He said yeah, i will remember running. RUNNING FOR MY LIFE. We laughed and went back to work. 

That was basically the highlight of my week. On a spiritual note, lets talk about the atonement. So before my mission president arrived 2 years, our mission had quite the reputation of being unconsecrated. People went to concerts, played the card game Magic on non-pdays (they actually had multizone card game days on proselyting days. both things are strictly forbidden), and a lot of other stuff. Our mission president came in and cleaned house. But he does not EVER preach to us obedience (unless an obvious issue arises, of course). What he does is teach about the atonement every time he talks to us. and i mean every single time. Why? As our understanding of the atonement increases, our love for the savior will increase and our desire to share his gospel will increase as well. Our desire to be obedient will naturally increase because of this. I think this is quite remarkable to think about. My mission president created a very consecrated mission based off of the teachings of the atonement almost single handedly. I think we can all apply this to our lives. Parents to their children, for example. If we find ourselves not wanting to obey a commandment or two, study the atonement. It will change your life. 

Anyway, I love all of you. I will write you all back next week when I actually have P-Day. Have a great week :)

-Elder Damron