pics from Andover week 15

"me next to a flipping snowbank"

Ethan with Sister Miller and Sister Watts at a music fireside

Andover week 15

Well this week was flipping nuts in just about every way. The first rather crazy turn of events is that President Clements is gone. So... yeah. I guess I should explain that statement... ha ha. So he had a mission wide conference call early last week and he reminded us how lucky we are to be here on missions at this age because we can put all of our worldly worries aside. He said he is not so fortunate in that regard and that due to a "great trial" in his life dealing with some business matter. After counseling with his Priesthood leaders, the Quorum of the 70 and then 12, he was advised to take a 3 week leave of absence and take care of this pressing matter. So one of the counselors in the mission presidency, President Ken Ehlert, is our acting mission president. He is acting in full authority as if he was out actual mission president. Pretty nuts. I bet President Clements is the only man in the country who desperately wants to return to Minnesota in February.. ha ha. But President Ehlert is the MAN so we are in very good hands. yay for having 3 mission presidents (sort of) on my mission!

Monday night we went and knocked on a less active member's door and met Brother CL. He is the son-in-law of the member and let us in. He is Hmong and follows the Hmong religion, Shamanism, and talked about the laws of sacrifice in his culture. It sounded like straight up Law of Moses. The Great Apostasy is real!

I went on exchanges with my zone leader, Elder Cluff, and we had quite the action packed day. At one point he saw a Liberian woman drive by us and flip around in a culdesac. So he chased down the car and got a return appointment with the woman. That was pretty impressive. We do anything to teach Africans here in the MMM! We also dropped by this house that Elder Cluff had tracted into and the couple had said they really wanted to talk but they were busy. So we went back but alas, they were busy again. Something was fishy though... things seemed too easy... Anyway their cat ran out the door so we ran it down and the husband came out to thank us. Then my suspicions were sadly confirmed. He basically confronted us about how our views "jack-knife the bible" and yelled at us for like 10 minutes. We tried to politely explain some of the misconceptions that he had about us but he just kept yelling and whatnot. I politely thanked him for his time and said we teach people about the Restoration of the Gospel. So if he just wanted to argue it would be in neither of our best interests to further the discussion since contention is of the devil. He demanded we come back later so he can open our eyes to the reality of the bible but we gave him a Mormon.orgcard and left. It was intense.

We had a heat wave this week! 2 days straight of 41 degrees!!!! But thenon Thursday/Friday we had a massive storm and got like 10 inches of snow. Total white out blizzard. We weren't allowed to drive for 2 days and it got complicated getting to lessons and whatnot. We just cant catch a break.. ha ha. Worst winter in 20 years! Woot! Bring it on Mother Nature. If I am going to have a record breaking winter it might as well be super record breaking, you know? Besides, people call this a bad winter. But if you think about what winter actually is, this is actually a really good winter! ha ha. Maybe I overthink things.

So we had some fantastic lessons with Brother L This week! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he instantly accepted it. He has tried living it once before and struggled but he asked for a blessing and so we administered to him before we left. He was confident that the Lord would help him quite. He also is understanding more and more the role of obedience in happiness and I think he really wants to be happy.

Saturday we had a lesson with Brother G. His roommate, Sister O., was in the kitchen. She doesn't like our religion at all and usually she hides in her room. But this time she just stayed in the kitchen. I thought it would end up being a problem and turns out I was sadly correct. She kept throwing jabs at us and our beliefs while we were going over baptismal questions. She also tried changing the conversation a few times. At one point she interrupted to say "Faulkner (she always forgets Elder Foggin's name) have you heard the joke about sending Justin Bieber back to Canada (E. Foggin is from Canada)?" Anyway, then Brother G. said, "You hear that O.? You gotta get baptized!" She didn't like that very much. She flipped out and said she had been baptized and that we were all brainwashed and a bunch of stuff (although she has a thick Minnesotan accent so it actually sounded like "brainwarshed" so it was hard to take her seriously ha ha). She yelled that we don't believe in the Trinity or in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I agreed with her that we do not share the Trinitarian view, but bore testimony that we believe in the God Head. Just not the one she worships. Well things were getting nuts and we needed to leave anyway so I asked if we could pray before we left. I knew EXACTLY what Brother G. would say if he said the prayer so I was about to say it but before I opened my mouth he had already started the prayer. And, sure enough, he said exactly what I knew he would say. He prayed that the Lord would open Sister O's eyes and she would realize she needed to be baptized. He asked that her heart might be softened and stuff like that. Well she flipped out and while we were praying she was yelling at him. Then she yelled, "my grandmother would roll over in her grave if I became a Mormon!" Brother G. closed the prayer, we thanked Sister O. for her time and asked if we could do anything to help her and left. So intense.

Saturday night the two wards that met in our building had a musical fireside as a finding activity! It was pure music. I played the cello with Sister Miller, one of the sister missionaries. It was so nice to people to perform after 9 months. I guess we are playing in sacrament in a few weeks too, so that is fun :)

Sunday was seriously so flipping fantastic. It was ward conference so the entire stake presidency was on the stand. President Elhert was on the stand too because he came to our ward so he could talk to Brother G. It was the dream team up on the stand. Bishop and President Toronto Spoke, and President Elhert gave a testimony as invited by President Toronto. Brother G. was there. The sisters walked in 10 minutes late with a family of 5 they are teaching! Then, Brother L walked in late with his 3 kids and one nephew! We had 10 people to church between the 2 sets of missionaries, 5 each. The theme was fantastic too. They spoke on not procrastinating repentance and sharing the gospel. The Spirit flooded the room. To make things even more fantastic, in our lesson with Brother L earlier we asked him what his purpose here in life was and he said to share the gospel. We read alma 34: 32-33 and talked about not procrastinating repentance, either. He agreed. Then all 3 speakers spoke on sharing the gospel with your family first then friends and not procrastinating repentance! So fantastic. Brother L was really moved by the Spirit. After his Interview with President Elhert we found out that BROTHER G CAN GET BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! We have been waiting for this a long time. A lot of praying and fasting has taken place.

After church we stopped by a Liberian investigator's house but he was cooking. He wouldn't let us leave before we ate so he fed us fried Spring Fish and told us about African societies. Wow it was so flipping good. I love this place <3

 My thought comes from Alma 30:24

 24 Ye say that this people is a free people. Behold, I say they are in bondage. Ye say that those ancient prophecies are true. Behold, I say that ye do not know that they are true.

Korihor, the anti-Christ is teaching that religion is binding the people down. I drew a parallel to modern times. Look at society today! Religion is a bondage to people! You cant have "fun" or live life! You cant be happy!

2 Ne 2 27 quickly came to mind

 27 Wherefore, men are ^afree according to the ^bflesh; and ^call things are^dgiven them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to ^echoose^fliberty and eternal ^glife, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be ^hmiserable like unto himself.

Religion and following Christ is actually Liberty! And true, everlasting happiness!

I love you all! HAve a good week!

Elder Damron

Andover week 14

So Brother G. is super legit. During a lesson this week we were talking about baptism and he said, "I can feel the water already!" Oh man. I love him. We are close to resolving the legal issues around his marriage. We pray the Lord will provide a way. His girlfriend is amazed at the changes in Brother G. She does not like us very much, well, she is nice to us but looked up a bunch of anti and wont talk to us about it. She told a member on the phone this week that she is amazed at how much calmer and easier to deal with Brother G. is. She raved about how much he has changed for the better! The Spirit is so powerful in its refining effects.

We had a ROUGH finding week. We did have some amusing stories. One elderly man opened up the door and was quite kind to us. He said, "it is cold out here!" I made a joke about being from AZ and he chuckled. Then he realized who we were and then said, "its cold outside. Stay cold." And shut the door. In an apartment building with quite thin walls we knocked on one door and someone latched the door and then yelled "no one is home!" we could hear them laughing then we heard them tell someone "it is the Jewish people, they want to talk about God." I wanted to leave a Mormon.org card in the door to clear some confusion up, but I felt that was a tad sassy. So I fought the urge. That and I didn't have any on me....

We had a fantastic lesson with Brother L. Friday night he missed our appointment at 7 and then we went back at 8:30 to see if he was home yet. He let us right in and told us how glad he was that he didn't miss us. He took the lessons last summer and then got overwhelmed and backed out of the church a little bit. We have met with him a few times recently and we decided to teach the lessons over again. We taught the Restoration and talked for probably 20 minutes on how this gospel blesses families. After the First Vision we asked him if he believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet (he loves the BoM and D&C). He immediately said yes. We then asked if he believed Joseph Smith restored Christ's church. He was not sure. He told us that he believes what he reads he just isn't sure if he wants to act on it. He still isn't sure if this is the church he needs to be in.  We read Ether 12:6 and Matt. 7: 15-20 (by their fruits ye shall know them) and testified that only by participating and preparation would he know if this was the true church. We then committed him to start preparing for baptism March 22!!!! This was a miracle! Holy cow! The spirit was soooo thick in the room. We told us that he felt the last missionaries didn't care about him and just wanted to baptize him for the sake of it. He said he feels we actually care for him. It was a wonderful experience. One of the best lessons of my mission.

Sorry today is so short, because of the Holiday we email in the homes of members and get less time.

Alma 5:7

The Lord will change our hearts if we let him! The Book of Mormon is a powerful tool that allows the Lord to change our hearts. Brother G. has changed so much in the last 2 months that there is just no way I can deny the effect its pages can have upon our soul. He has gone from a broken man that the missionaries who originally found him almost didn't go back because he thought he was too crazy to a very lucid, loving, and humble man who would do anything to accomplish the will of the Lord. Our daily reading of this Book is truly holding to that rod which will get us back to our father. The very rod that will allow us to overcome all temptation and adversity. The very rod that is the key to happiness!

I love you all!

Elder Damron

Andover week 13

So this week something inside of me snapped and now I am just sick of the cold. I didnt mind too much before, but THE SNOW NEVER LEAVES AND IT IS SO FLIPPING COLD. It is really fun. But hey, its no big deal. We still preach and teach and will hopefully baptize soon. 

So this past monday we had the opportunity to go and give a blessing to a woman who had her named removed from the church about 30 years ago. Her sister called us and told us she wanted a blessing because she was going in for major spine surgery. She had basically lost the use of the left half of her body. The sister promised the woman that we wouldnt preach to her, so we didnt get to share a message, but it was still a pretty spiritual experience! She was very appreciative. 

After that we went by and dropped by an investigator who we have been teaching. We have taught his mother a few times as well. Anyway, the daughter answers the door and says the brother is asleep. So we talk to her for a bit and then the mother Sister B comes to the door and just starts screaming at us to stop dropping by and to call first. We told her that her son had told us to come by at this time. She stopped with an "oh..." expression on her face. She said that was fine. Then started screaming at us again because he wasnt available and we were still here. We reminded her that we drop by because she tells us to come by at certain times. We also reminded her that we do call every time but she doesnt answer or return our call. She again stopped and had an, "oh..." expression on her face. Well she again started flipping out and screaming at us telling us that she will call us and for us to not come over. Then she yelled about something and she doesnt want to see the caretaker. Then it hit us: the caretaker of the apartments is a member of the ward. She has seen us with him. Problem: she REALLY doesnt like him because she believes he sabotaged her hot water heater after he fixed her AC unit. The whole situation is a mess. Nothing like get screamed at for like 10 minutes though. That brightens up the day. 

Tuesday we went and taught Brother E. This man is so legit, I just love his lessons. He still struggles with Priesthood authority and so we read some passages and had a grand old time. I then had a scripture pop into my mind about binding on earth and in heaven, but I could not find the reference! Luckily our joint teacher has an iPad and he looked it up. It was Mathew 18:18. We read it and Brother E. stared at it for almost an entire minute. Pure silence. The Spirit permeated the room. Oh man, I love lessons like that. 

We also taught Brother L. He is a former investigator who we have been working with for awhile now. We brought this member over this week who started talking about his conversion story. Brother L stopped him and said, "wow, I am so thankful you came tonight. Everything that you overcame to be baptized are exactly what I fear too." We then found out many concerns we had previously known nothing about. Most of the concerns were kinda silly and just things he had overthunk. A lot of misconceptions that werent true. He then committed to come to church! And he came! For the first time in 5 months! It was fantastic! 

Thursday was... not as fun. We had to go to the Chevy dealership to get our car checked out because it was shaking in weird ways. So we go in and they tell us it will be 1 hour. They asked if we would need an oil change. We told them no, we had one a few weeks ago and we just needed to figure out the shaking thing. Well, 1.5 hours later they brought our car forward and we paid. We looked at the receipt and saw that we had payed for an oil change. SO we asked about it. The lady said, "yes we change your oil just like you wanted!" Facepalm... we then explained everything we told them at the beginning and she was like "oh... well do you need to be anywhere any time soon?" So they took the car back in for another 1.5 hours and found the real problem. Our tires were bald, the alignment was off, and the tie rod ends needed replacing.( So now we are at a library in Brooklyn Park while our car is in the shop for 3 hours. We biked 2 miles in -5 w/o windchill so we could email instead of sitting in that stinking chevy dealership for another 3 hours. It was pretty horrible).

Saturday morning we knocked on the door of a Liberian potential that was met last year. We met the husband and he let us right in! We taught a fantastic Restoration lesson and he told us he would most definitely get baptized if this is the direction the Lord guided him to. He told us he knew that knowledge would come not from us but from reading and praying. We love it when people teach us what we are about to teach them. Ha ha. 

Saturday night we went and dropped by a less active who lives in a pretty sketchy apartment complex. He has a few roommates. One of them walked by the door when we sat down on the couch and he yelled, "come in here and learn how to repent! You dont want to go to hell do you?" So his roommate came in and we had a wonderful lesson. ha ha. 

Sunday was absolutely great as well. Brother G. went to a High Priest Group Social last night and had a BLAST. Before church he was out greeting ward members with us. He is loving the church!

My thought this week comes from a lesson we had with Brother Gray. The member we had with us piped up after we taught about the 3 kingdoms and said, "Robert, do you love God?" Robert said yes. The member then said, "No I mean do you REALLY love him with all your heart might mind and strength?" Robert looked at him and again reiterated his previous answer. The member then said, "imagine there was a glass wall right in front of you and Jesus Christ was standing on the other side. You could not hear him, touch him, walk with him, or interact with him in anyway. That would be pretty hard, wouldnt it? Well, imagine that the reason you were not on the other side of the glass wall because of your own actions. You love the Lord with all your heart, might, and strength yet you could not be with him because of a decision you made. But you knew you could have been with him. That, Brother G, is hell. Imagine if Jesus Christ walked in that door right now and you could not shake his hand. That would be hell, Brother G."

2 Ne 2:27

27 Wherefore, men are ^afree according to the ^bflesh; and ^call things are ^dgiven them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to ^echoose ^fliberty and eternal ^glife, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be ^hmiserable like unto himself.

The choice is really our own. We can choose to live with our Father in Heaven, or we can live with the knowledge that we could have lived with him if we had simply followed Christ's example.

Joshua 24:15
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, ^achoose you ^bthis day whom ye will^cserve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my ^dhouse, we will ^eserve the Lord.

i love you all! Have a good week!
Elder Damron

Andover week 12

Transfers.... And Elder Foggin and I are staying!! Which I am really happy about. We had an absolutely FANTASTIC week. We knocked on probably 10 doors. The rest of the time we taught. Muy bien :)

Monday night was flipping cold again and we were relegated to the apartment. This cold weather should end. I miss arizona....

So we taught Brother T again. he is THE man. We started teaching him the Plan of Salvation and he stopped us, said, " you are telling me what I already know. The only new thing is the Book of Mormon." Then he summarized the first half of the PoS to us. My draw dropped, again. We then explained what the BoM being true meant for him. Sadly when we went over again on Sunday we discovered he has the flu... so we wont be over for awhile. Blah. Opposition is annoying.

On wednesday we volunteered again at the Food Shelf. Most weeks about 45 people are served. This week 71 people came (which is a LOT). That tied the most people they served in one session last year. It was pretty intense. I loved it!

I got this mysterious package from new Jersey with a little silver spray bottle in it. Elder Foggin and I examined it for about half an hour in every way possible but we have no idea who it is from or what it is for. Let the conspiracy theories begin.

We taught a Liberian less active member this week, Brother Th., and we talked about coming to church. He told us all the reasons he hasnt been to church in a few months, realized how awful his excuses were, then committed to coming. And he came! We asked him if he would go Joint Teaching with usSunday night and he was like, "no no no no! It's my superbowl! I was going to invite you over to watch it and have finger food!" ha ha. We thanked him for the offer but passed this round.

We went to visit another less active man, Brother AS, who lives in probably the sketchiest apartments in our area. Every time we go over there the people scatter because they know who we are and they know they shouldnt be doing what they are doing. Ha ha. Rather amusing, really. Anyway, one of his female roommates who usually runs away when we come around came out and invited us to dinner thursday to Surprise brother AS! We were surprised, but very happy!

We taught Sister J this week. She is a 20 year old Liberian girl whose father we taught about a month ago. She happily let us in and thanked us for shoveling her walkway a few weeks ago. We taught her and set up a return appointment. When we returned her father joined the lesson. He then told us he would never read anything but the bible and left. But he told us we could teach his whole family, he doesnt care. We were sad becaues we knew we would have to refer her to the Sister missionaries (mission policy. if there are sisters in the ward, all single women under the age of 35 must be taught by sisters. and vice versa). We told the sisters and they got super excited. The next day we found out that her apartment complex is about 100 yards out of our area and in another ward. We have gone to this area 2-3 times a week for the last 7 weeks and now we have to turn everything over to another set of elders. We know this is for the best but it also stinks because we worked hard there. Salt Lake City sent us a media referral there so we assumed it was our area. I guess not...

We also taught Brother S. this week, another Liberian man. When we walked in there was a man we had never seen before. He introduced himself as Brother F. I knew immediately who he was. My last companion warned me about him and told me to NEVER go visit him because all he would do was bash. He sat in on the lesson and 5 minutes before we had to leave he raised his hand and asked if he had a question. Well then all the stuff Elder Garrett warned me about came to pass. We didnt bash but just challenged him to find out if it was true for himself. He refused to even touch the BoM and then asked us to please stop reading from it. Luckily our actual investigator declared he was definitely going to read the Book and find out if it was true or not. the whole situation was a mess.

Sorry I cannot write a lot this week, transfers and a few other things caused email time to be short :/

Mosiah 23:21

23 For behold, I will show unto you that they were brought into ^abondage, and none could deliver them but the Lord their God, yea, even the God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob.

Even during the times of our life when we are following God's commandments we will still have trials and tests! Happiness is not dependent upon life events or absence of adversity, but upon the degree to which we are following His commandments. I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Damron