Andover week 11

So it is pretty cold. School has been canceled 5 times, tomorrow will be the 6th, in January due to -40 to -50 degree Farenheit windchills. Last year school was canceled once because of snow. So yep. It is a lot of fun. We are in the apartment until noon most days (which actually doesnt change anything for Elder Foggin and I because training mean we study more and get out at that time anyway). Tonight we arent allowed to leave unless have set appointments, luckily we have 2! Muy bien.

I had my first steak in a loooong time this week :) Our ward mission leader took us to Texas Road House for dinner then he went joint teaching with us. We dropped by Brother L's house and his sister-in-law came in yapping about the Book of Mormon being an idol and all this stuff. I wouldn't say I lost my temper, but I was not pleased with the situation. I challenged her to actually read and pray about it. Then I invited her to church sunday. She was a little taken aback. She wasn't expecting a response to her criticisms. We quickly left after that.

Then we saw Brother E. This man is a POWERHOUSE. Seriously, every time we go over there with a lesson planned he basically teaches us the lesson we had planned. Then he tells us he knows he needs to read, pray, and come to church to experience these things since he needs to act in faith to get an answer. His hang up right now is priesthood authority, but his real intent is so pure that I firmly believe the Lord will answer his prayers.

Brother G. is doing fantastic as always. He was quite sick last week so tuesday we went over and gave him a blessing. He got up teary and gave us all hugs. Thursday we watched The Restoration DVD. That video is a spiritual bomb. Everyone in the room received a powerful confirmation of the reality of the First Vision. Then on Saturday we went over and taught tithing. His girlfriend of 19 years came out and said, "I hate to admit it, but he has really calmed down since you came around." ha ha. Then we invited her to a baptism that happened sunday night. She said she was already baptized, but said it was not a great experience. She was baptized in a lake and people were screaming evil things at her. Brother G. piped up and said, "that's cuz you were baptized in the wrong church!" ha ha ha ha sooo funny. Brother G is a stud. He is hilarious. She gave him a sour look... We still took Brother G. to the baptism sunday and he said, "I'll be next" after the service ended. What I did to be blessed with the opportunity of teaching this man I do not know.

We dropped by a less active, Brother B., and he let us right in. Him and his wife have strong testimonies but havent come in like 6 years because they work weekends. He recounted a story where one time at stake conference the Stake President got up and counseled the men how to get their wives to really appreciate them. He said, "Bretheren, chocolate, flowers, and gifts are great, but just shut up and vaccum." Sister B. nodded her head and said that was very, very true. ha ha ha. noted.

We had a lesson with the C. family. Well, "lesson." I did not realize how much they loved to talk and they walked right over us for 45 minutes. They told us that they researched Christmas and found out that christmas trees are a form of Baal worship, as found in Jeremiah (dont put up and worship fir trees with ornaments) and that in a scandavian play Saint Nick is Lucifer. So they will probably stop doing Christmas each year. It was a pretty interesting conversation. We still taught about the Book of Mormon a little bit but we had been there forever so we had to leave. They are a really wonderful family, though. Absolutely golden. We will teach them!

We visited a less active Brother S. He let us right in and then asked us if we had a book of mormon on us. I said of course! Who do you think we are? Anyway, he started flipping through it and sai, "where can i find a scripture on..... well, you could probably find it easier than me." Then he handed it back. Then he said, "actually, the Lord knows what I need. You find a scripture." That was somewhat nerve wracking.. I ended up turning to D&C 82:10 and we read that. He took the scriptures from me, almost not believing what I had just read. He is in a bad way in life trying to escape so this promise of blessings really rung true in his heart. He wrote the scripture down on a sticky note and then he asked for a blessing. He broke down crying as he asked us. It was a spiritual experience.

We also visited a less active that lives 20 miles away named Brother S. He have a LOT of extra miles on our car this month due to cold weather so we are going to the far reaches of our area that we normally cannot get out to. We walked up the driveway and he was outside. We stood there looking at each other. He knew why we were there. We knew why we were there. I really have not been in a more awkward moment on my mission than this one. There was a little bit of small talk then he said, "well, I dont know what to tell you, boys." Then he walked inside. Oh man.

We also were able to teach a Liberian, Brother S, after church sunday. We pretty much have been teaching all West Africans the last few weeks. It is a lot of fun! Anyway, Brother S has started the Book of Mormon and loves it. He is reall studying it. We also gave him a Family Proclomation to the World last visit and he raved about it. He declared that the document was from God and was powerful. We explained modern day prophets and testified of that. We retaught about Joseph Smith and committed him to find out if the BoM was the word of God. He readily accepted.

After we taught Brother S. we went and dropped by Brother T. He is a Liberian man we have been trying to get ahold of for awhile. Just as we pulled up he had started shoveling his drive way. Why he was shoveling in 30 mph winds and a -20 F windchill, I dont know, but it was literally perfect timing we pulled up right then. NOT a coincidence. We pulled our shovels out of the trunk and went and shoveled his driveway. He then let us come inside and he thanked us repeatedly. He said he would have had to take many breaks to finish it. We finished it together in about 10 minutes. We talked about his family and asked him about the Book of Mormon (missionaries gave him one 3 months ago). He told us it was on his bedstand! He talked about Lehi and how much he loved Moroni. He even said he looked up the D&C and has been reading that. He believes Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the BoM is the word of God. He basically taught us the Restoration and said it was awesome how Joseph found the golden plates. Brother T says he feels like he is in the sheos of Joseph Smith, seeking direction amidst the confusion of modern Christianity. Our jaws dropped. This man is elect. We testified that the direction and belonging he yearns for will come from Baptism by proper Priesthood authority and by recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. This man is incredible. And he has six kids. He is a kingdom builder.

 

Service is such a powerful tool in our lives. Service is the can opener to people's hearts. Brother T's heart was softened this week. We stopped by another potential and shoveled their drive way a few days ago. When we later returned the daughter came out and thanked us for our help and then told us she wanted to study with us. When you are in the service of your fellow being you truly are in the service of your God! It is remarkable! Reaching out and serving those around you is a wonderful way to perform missionary work. After all, actions speak louder than words.

 

I love you all! I hope you are all warmer than I am!

Love, Elder Damron

Andover week 10

Hello!

So we had another fantastic teaching week. We have had 6+ member present lessons the last couple weeks. We had maybe 2 or 3 for the first month I was here. Things are picking up and the ward is getting quite involved! We had 10 joint teachers this past week.

We are teaching Brother E. This guy is a powerhouse. I feel like he teaches us every time we go over there. When talking about repentance this week he said, "Repentance is the goal setting to change." boom. That is powerful. He should make a quote book or something. He has wanted to come to church but someone took sick leave and so his schedule got changed. He had to work 3 Sundays in a row for the first time in years. Flipping Satan. You are so annoying.

We also taught Brother L a few times. He is a former who dropped off, it a hole in his life again, and now wants to come back to church. He knows everything he needs to be doing and every time he goes over we don't need to really extend commitments because he just tells us what he needs to be doing. It is pretty great. :)

Brother G. is doing quite well. Except he got super sick this weekend and could go to church or meet with us. His lessons are the highlights of my week so I was quite sad. The ward missed him a lot, too. We called him Yesterday to see how he was doing. He was hacking up a lung, had no voice, but still managed to remind me about the fact that I forgot to bring him a bible a few days ago. ha ha. He is hilarious, I love that man. He definitely keeps me on my toes.

We also taught Brother S too. He is a Liberian man who the missionaries met awhile ago but lost contact with. I cant remember if I wrote about him last week but when we knocked on his door he was like, "the missionaries! I love you guys! Come in!" We taught him with Brother Scott from our ward, who has native American heritage. Brother Scott and Brother S. talked extensively about their different tribal heritages. Even though Brother S is from Liberia, a lot of his native customs and whatnot are similar to Brother Scott's native customs. It was pretty cool. We showed him biblical references to the Book of Mormon and he is quite excited to read it. I love Liberians :)

So Wednesday night we had one of the Priests in the ward come out with us. We called up Sister Colburn, who cant attend church because of medical reasons, and asked her to pretend to be an investigator. Then we told the Priest we were going to meet someone we met just recently. We went into her apartment and she was TOUGH. Man. She flipped out about God being a Spirit for like 10 minutes. She is a fantastic actor. The Priest got some good insights and scriptures in. At the end of the lesson, when Sister Colburn wasn't looking, I handed the Priest my BoM and told him to read a scripture (on baptism) and then invite her to be baptized. He looked at me and said, "isn't that your job?" I just smiled at him. He read it and invited her! We then said, "CUT" and told him it was all a role play. Oh man. It was so fantastic. We got that Priest good.

We had interviews with President Clements. I love interviews with him. Every three months I get to sit down with probably the most inspired man I have ever met and pick his brain on how I can improve and become more dedicated in my service. His counsel is literally what the Lord wants me to hear.

Friday night we taught a 7th Day Adventist family with Brother F., who is pretty well versed in the scriptures. Holy cow that lesson was crazy. The son asked a question so we taught the PoS to answer the question. The mother, Sister L, basically went on a rant about how much she disagreed with our beliefs and how weird our beliefs are. She said some blatantly offensive and quite frankly wrong things that we didn't even say. It sounded like ridiculous anti you look up online. Then she explained her beliefs on the afterlife. Brother F. spoke up and said, "Well. We do not believe that whatsoever at all. I also learned something today. 7th Day Adventists have the same belief of the afterlife as the Jehovahs!" Well as you can imagine Sister L did not like that at all. ha ha. It was so uncomfortable. And fantastic. Elder Foggin stopped talking. I tried talking a few times and Sister L cut me off.  I finally managed to just end the conversation and we left since it was 9 pm. oh man. so fantastic. They thanked us for coming, though. They are actually the kindest family I have met in a long while.

Sunday night we were tracting. Some woman opened her door down a few doors down from where we were  and starts yelling at us. She demanded to know who we were, we said missionaries. She yelled back," DONT YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS??? IT IS 7 PM ON A SUNDAY NIGHT. PEOPLE HAVE WORK TOMORROW AND SLEEPING SO THEY CAN BE READY." Then she slammed her door. OK then. Well then she opened it again and yelled, "YOU GUYS SERIOUSLY NEED TO LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE. WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING HERE?? YOU ARE WEIRD." ha ha got to love tracting. But honestly, 7 pm on a sunday? no one was sleeping. They were all watching the Seahawks and 49ers play. Which caused enough problems in itself.

Thought: Jacob 2:8

 8 And it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing ^aword of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul.

The first step to applying the atonement in our life is reading the scriptures and hearing the word! Then our wounded souls may be begin to be healed by the Great Physician, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Damron

pics from Andover week 9

Throwing boiling water outside and watching it crystalize. SO COLD OUTSIDE.

My mom's recipe for peach cobbler? Happy 20th birthday Ethan!

Andover week 9

**By the way - I (Ethan's sister) apologize for not being on top of getting Ethan's emails sent out. Twas the season I suppose! We are officially caught up now.**

So last sunday was pretty flipping cold. Last Monday was even colder.Monday during the day was -37 with windchill. The morning temperatures were around -60. We actually threw boiling water off of our balcony and watched it instantly crystalize and fall to the ground as a powder. Pretty cool to see. Look it up on youtube. Needless to say we didnt leave our apartment for 2 days. We did just about everything you can do in a missionary apartment. Except sleep. Our mission President doesnt allow naps. Which is probably a good thing... but President Clements promised that if we plan very well we would have the best statistical week we have had in a month. He was right. Elder Foggin and I tore our area book apart and planned every second of every day. Our week was phenomenal! We honestly taught all week.

Brother G. is still doing absolutely amazing! We asked him about his book of mormon reading this past week and he said, "Best book I've laid my hands on." He desperately wants to be baptized, but his girlfriend still refuses marriage. Our stake president gave the advice for him to go to his GF and tell her all the reasons he cares about her, then ask her hand in marriage. So Saturday night we composed a love letter with him. Didnt think Id do that on my mission.... ha ha.

Speaking of which, President Toronto came out with us again! I told Elder Foggin his mind was going to be blown and he didn't quite believe me. He definitely realized very quickly what I was talking about. President Toronto manages to cover much more ground with investigators than us in a shorter amount of time. What he does in 20 minutes takes us like 2 weeks to do... ha ha. That is teaching with power and authority right there. We taught the Sister's main investigator right now with the Sisters and President Toronto. He basically committed her to baptism after the sisters have been trying for 2 months. Pretty crazy lesson.

We also started working at a Food Shelf every wednesday. I love it! It is wonderful to help people and also quite humbling to see all the different people that come in and out.

I went on an exchange with Elder Jasper, a missionary who went to Mountain View! We had quite a bit of fun. I was able to help teach all of his progressing investigators and the Spirit basically took over the lessons and I said some pretty intense things I never even imagined saying. It was a remarkable and miracle filled night. Elder Jasper and I were both quite amazed. Teaching by the Spirit is what makes missionary work fun and effective. This is not my work. This is the Lord's work. It is much easier when we do it with His help.

So we knocked on the door of a former investigator Sister B. She opened up and told us she had the flu. The member we had with us gave her a blessing, which was a cool experience. He said a lot of things that answered some of Sister B's prayers. Then we taught the Restoration. SHe told us she believes it because she, too, has seen a white light. She didnt see anyone in it, but she heard a voice telling her everything would be alright (she was quite ill in the hospital). The devil came up somehow and she was like, "yeah he is scary looking and kinda short." We chuckled, thinking this was some sort of joke. Nope. She then explained to us that Satan, in the form of a 2 foot tall creature thing, appeared by her bedside one night. She hid in her bathroom and felt it outside her door all night until morning. Then she had some sort of out of body experience and saw it watching the door from the other side. It was crazy stuff. But she loves the Book of Mormon and said it "came alive" when she first read it. So we will go back and see what is up.

My Birthday was Saturday! I didnt get the baptism I wanted that day, but the day was still pretty good. Besides being sick for the 6th time in 8 months, but oh well. Elder Foggin made mini peach cobler from a reciple my mother sent me and he told our dinner appointment it was my brithday so they put a candle in my brownie and sang to me. Elder Foggin offered to sing me a solo but I declined that one. ha ha.

Andover is quite the racially diverse city it seems. We taught Liberians, African Americans, a man from the Congo, and a Russian in the last few weeks. This week we taught one caucasian person. ha ha. Not only does the Lord send his missionaries to people all over the globe, but he brings them to us as well.

 

Exodus 31: 16-17

 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual ^acovenant.
 17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in^asix days the Lord ^bmade heaven and earth, and on the ^cseventh dayhe ^drested, and was ^erefreshed.
The sabbath day is a gift from God! He has covenanted that as we keep it holy, He WILL bless us! PMG states something along the lines of our attitude towards the sabbath is a reflection of the attitude towards our God. Also, as our commit to the Sabbath day deteriorates, so does all other aspects of our lives. Not keeping the Sababth day holy is a wonderful way to set yourself up for a bad week. We should all ponder and pray about how we can more effectively keep it holy.
Have a wonderful week!
Love, Elder Damron

Andover week 8 (sent January 4)

Today is saturday! Yay! So the next 4 or five days are going to be pretty flipping cold. Church meetings have been canceled tomorrow. Monday we have been told to not leave the apartment. The high monday is supposed to be between -18 to -25 degrees without windchill. Yum. So President instructed us to email and shop today.

To all of you who received a Christmas letter from my father, I would like to point out that I did in fact eat all 5 pounds of that ice cream :p whether I kept it in or not is another story...

So monday we attended a funeral at the church. WE were aksed to help set up and whatnot and the family wanted us to stay. The girl who passed away was only 27 and basically went to bed with the flu and didnt wake up. She has not been active in the church in over a decade and about 300 people showed up who were not members of our faith. The girl's step father got up and basically taught the Plan of Salvation to the whole crowd. The chapel was dead silent. The sniffeling stopped. I was borderline uncomfortable in my chair in the back just listening to how bold of a talk this was. Uncomfortable moments in missionary work are the best. :) He bore powerful witness of the fact that we will all be together again and he told the people that he felt sorry for them that they did not have the knowledge we have. He said he wished he could comfort them as best he could. The Spirit was strong. It was incredible. Lovingly bold is where it is at.

Our ward mission leader came and taught Brother G. with us this week. Brother G. is doing super well. He has such a strong tesimony that has grown so rapidly in the last few weeks. At the end of the lesson I asked Brother G. to give a prayer. His prayer was essentially a testimony in which he thanked the Lord for sending us and for the peace he has now. He said he knew this was the path he was supposed to be on and he choked up as he thanked our Father in Heaven. Quite remarkable. As we walked out our WML was amazed at how prepared he is and at how strong the Spirit was in that home. The only thing holding Bro. G. back is his girlfriend who is refusing to be married. I am confident this will be resolved. At a second lesson this week with him we talked about the 10 commandments. When we got to the whole "thou shalt not steal" commandment Brother G. started telling a story (he breaks into random stories a lot that sometimes does not make any sense). He starts talking about how he went to church one time and a man picked up the offering plate and ran out of the church. I sat there and thought of the different ways this story could end. Such as he came to church next week with a niec watch, or he felt bad and returned it, or he got arrested. Brother G. then exclaimed "he died that night!" I was not expecting that. ha ha.

Our mission set a record for the number of baptisms we had this year and december was our highest total for the last 10 years (which is what we have records for). We had quite a remarkable year in bringing souls unto the Lord here in the MMM! The numbers are not what matter, what the numbers represent is what matters. Souls came unto Christ.

Elder Foggin and I popped out the sparkling cider on new years eve. We definitely had quite the party as we got in bed by 10:30. ;)

On new years day we got a call from the sister missionaries asking us to come help move furniture at someone's house. I got quite a kick out of this because a few days prior when they volunteered to help move they told the person we were not needed because they were just as strong as us. Well moving a ginormous, solid wood dresser, in which the drawers cannot come out, down a loft and across an apartment complex was pretty brutal. Im sure the sisters found it quite amusing to watch.

I went on exchanges with Elder Hicken, one of my zone leaders, this past week. We were teaching a former investigator a lesson on scripture study. He has hit a low in his life and we showed him how the scriptures can guide us to all the answers we need in life. The lesson went well. His kids, not so much. They are borderline insane. The one son, who is about 7, was screaming in the back room. His father went to investigate and came back to tell us he was mad at his video game. 30 seconds later we heard the sound of an xbox being thrown against a wall. Oh man. Then the son came in and started fighting the other son, who is like 9. They went into a side room and we could hear the kids attacking each other. The dad looked exhausted and quite overwhelmed. His wife passed away a few months ago and he is struggling to keep up. We asked him to give the closing prayer and he literally gave a 10 minute prayer. It is one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard. The kids were destroying the house around us yet the prayer was peaceful. He begged the Lord for patience to handle his burdens. He is seeking peace in his life, yet he is refusing take the steps to get the peace. My soul breaks for him.

Well, thus concludes my saturday email. The holidays are over and so proselyting will now return to a somehwat normal schedule. Although our president texts us and tells us not to go finding outside on colder days in the week. And we literally have 0 apartment buildings so finding new investigators has been difficult. But the Lord can do His own work. I am confident of that.

My thought comes from Hel. 5: 9-10

10 And remember also the words which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom,^ain the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins. 11 And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath ^asent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls.
I have recently begun reading the Book of Mormon and looking for the elements of the Doctrine of Christ. faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am amazed at how much repentance has come up. This scripture, to me, emphasizes the importance of repentance. We are redeemed because of repentance! One of the primary duties of the Book of Mormon is to declare repentance! For the big and small things, along with everything in between, repentance is a mandatory thing we must all do.
I love you all! Happy new year!
Elder Damron

pics from Andover week 7

Merry Christmas!

Ethan's true love

Ethan and his companion Elder Foggin

Andover week 7 (sent Dec. 30)

So this email will be short again, as today is not Pday. Wednesday will be. And so I do not have much email time. Sorry to all of you who have emailed me.

On Christmas eve we went to our Bishop's house and played card games most the afternoon. WE PLAYED THE BEAN GAME!!!! I play this game a lot at the McRae home back in Mesa. One of the Sisters in the ward here actually reminds me a lot of Emily McRae in the competitive nature she has in card games. She wiped the floor of me most the day, so I switched games because my pride can only take so many hits in one day. Then we played the bean game and I won. :) Then we went to Brother G. and taught him the word of wisdom. It was a great lesson! He told us he drinks 5-6 cups of coffee a day and he said it would take him awhile to quite. But as of yesterday he hasnt touched coffee!! Absolutely remarkable. We also taught him the The law of chastity. He lives with his girlfriend of 20 years and wants to get married, but she does not. He has a lot of faith and we told him that the Lord uses faith to create miracles. We asked him to fervently pray for the Lord to provide a way for this marriage to happen. I have complete confidence that the Lord will provide a way. This is His work. As President Uchtdorf said one time in Priesthood Session (I think..) "Brethren this is the Lord's work. Let Him do the heavy lifting."

On Christmas we got up and went to the church. We opened presents with other missionaries, listened to a conf call by president, and then went home to open the rest of the presents. Thank you so much for all the gifts and cards! I think I got like 6 ties. Muy bien. I like a lot. Then we went to a family's home and skyped our families. That was a lot of fun. That was probably the fastest 40 minutes of my life. Afterwards, they let me play their cello <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 The sister missionaries had told them I played so as I walked into their house they informed me I could play before dinner.

We also went to a member's home this week and taught the Plan of Salvation to his sister and her kids, who are from Virginia. They did not know we would be teaching the lesson until we showed up. Classic. It went really well and they enjoyed it a lot. The 14 year old daughter asked us for a BoM. So that was cool. We invited them to church and they said they didnt have dresses or anything. We told them we really didnt care and that God would rather have them there in jeans than not at all. They came sunday and loved it!

Friday night we knocked on the door of a potential and an 18 year old african american boy opened up the door. This kid was freaking JACKED. so big. We asked him what he did for fun and he said he plays football. He humbly told us he was about to go play runningback at Michigan State. My jaw dropped. We taught him the restoration and he found it pretty interesting. He took a Book of Mormon. So yeah, if he goes pro, I taught him the restoration. no big deal. ha ha.

Saturday it was in the 40s here and super nice. We talked to a lot of people and made appointments for next week. We knocked into Brother D. who is in his early 20s. We talked about faith and he gave us a 20 minute sermon on faith that was 100% doctrinally correct. It was profound. He talked about how God can easily move mountains. But the miracles he produces in our lives are often small. He moves pebble by pebble until the mountain is moved. Are our eyes open enough to see these little pebbles moved?

 

My thought comes from 3 Nephi 1:19-21

 19 And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day. And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be ^aborn, because of the^bsign which had been given.
 20 And it had come to pass, yea, all things, every whit, according to the words of the prophets.
 21 And it came to pass also that a new ^astar did appear, according to the word.
The New Star was visible in the Americas too! This is another evidence, to me, of the reality and divinity of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The whole book truly testifies of Jesus Christ. I am thankful for its pages and teachings. I know that as Joseph Smith said, we can draw closer to God through it than by any other book.
HAve a good week! Love you all!
Elder Damron

pics from Andover week 6

Ethan and Elder Garrett with the ties Dad and LeAnn sent

Ethan and his new companion Elder Foggin with their tree (presh)

Ethan and a giant icicle

Andover week 6 (sent Dec. 23)

So this email will be short again, as today is not Pday. Wednesday will be. And so I do not have much email time. Sorry to all of you who have emailed me.

On Christmas eve we went to our Bishop's house and played card games most the afternoon. WE PLAYED THE BEAN GAME!!!! I play this game a lot at the McRae home back in Mesa. One of the Sisters in the ward here actually reminds me a lot of Emily McRae in the competitive nature she has in card games. She wiped the floor of me most the day, so I switched games because my pride can only take so many hits in one day. Then we played the bean game and I won. :) Then we went to Brother G. and taught him the word of wisdom. It was a great lesson! He told us he drinks 5-6 cups of coffee a day and he said it would take him awhile to quite. But as of yesterday he hasnt touched coffee!! Absolutely remarkable. We also taught him the The law of chastity. He lives with his girlfriend of 20 years and wants to get married, but she does not. He has a lot of faith and we told him that the Lord uses faith to create miracles. We asked him to fervently pray for the Lord to provide a way for this marriage to happen. I have complete confidence that the Lord will provide a way. This is His work. As President Uchtdorf said one time in Priesthood Session (I think..) "Brethren this is the Lord's work. Let Him do the heavy lifting."

On Christmas we got up and went to the church. We opened presents with other missionaries, listened to a conf call by president, and then went home to open the rest of the presents. Thank you so much for all the gifts and cards! I think I got like 6 ties. Muy bien. I like a lot. Then we went to a family's home and skyped our families. That was a lot of fun. That was probably the fastest 40 minutes of my life. Afterwards, they let me play their cello <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 The sister missionaries had told them I played so as I walked into their house they informed me I could play before dinner.

We also went to a member's home this week and taught the Plan of Salvation to his sister and her kids, who are from Virginia. They did not know we would be teaching the lesson until we showed up. Classic. It went really well and they enjoyed it a lot. The 14 year old daughter asked us for a BoM. So that was cool. We invited them to church and they said they didnt have dresses or anything. We told them we really didnt care and that God would rather have them there in jeans than not at all. They came sunday and loved it!

Friday night we knocked on the door of a potential and an 18 year old african american boy opened up the door. This kid was freaking JACKED. so big. We asked him what he did for fun and he said he plays football. He humbly told us he was about to go play runningback at Michigan State. My jaw dropped. We taught him the restoration and he found it pretty interesting. He took a Book of Mormon. So yeah, if he goes pro, I taught him the restoration. no big deal. ha ha.

Saturday it was in the 40s here and super nice. We talked to a lot of people and made appointments for next week. We knocked into Brother D. who is in his early 20s. We talked about faith and he gave us a 20 minute sermon on faith that was 100% doctrinally correct. It was profound. He talked about how God can easily move mountains. But the miracles he produces in our lives are often small. He moves pebble by pebble until the mountain is moved. Are our eyes open enough to see these little pebbles moved?

 

My thought comes from 3 Nephi 1:19-21

 19 And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day. And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be ^aborn, because of the^bsign which had been given.
 20 And it had come to pass, yea, all things, every whit, according to the words of the prophets.
 21 And it came to pass also that a new ^astar did appear, according to the word.
The New Star was visible in the Americas too! This is another evidence, to me, of the reality and divinity of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The whole book truly testifies of Jesus Christ. I am thankful for its pages and teachings. I know that as Joseph Smith said, we can draw closer to God through it than by any other book.
HAve a good week! Love you all!
Elder Damron