Andover week 19

It is dumping snow again today. yaaaay....... People keep telling us it will warm up. then 2 days later the temperature drop 30 degrees and it snows. blah.

well Elder Foggin is gone and off down south. I have Elder Hawkes with me now! He lived in Colorado his senior year, but before that he lived here in Minnesota for 5 years! he lived in a city called Chanhassen. Elder Berg, my first companion, served there and actually reactivated Elder Hawkes' brother and baptized his brother's girlfriend! So it is pretty cool that we are serving together now. He is pretty upbeat and we have a good time. muy bien.

Well we met a new Liberian investigator this week, Brother H. He is in his 60s and super humble and nice. We went there looking for his son, who we met last week. brother H let us right in and asked us to talk to him about Jesus! We taught a wonderful restoration lesson and gave him a book of Mormon. Unfortunately his eye sight is not good and he told us he cannot read something that small... he said a closing prayer and thanked God for sending us to teach him about Christ since he hasn't been to church all winter due to the cold. (this is his first winter outside of Liberia and oh man did he get quite the shell shock. ha ha). So we went to the store and bought one of those magnifying glasses made for reading. At our return appointment he was waiting at the door and we gave him the magnifying glass. He was so excited! he sat down, opened up his BoM, and immediately started to read it with his magnifying glass. He loves the pictures in the resto and kept asking which of the apostles was James. I guess he really likes James. We will hopefully soon start teaching the whole family (there are 2 other brothers and one of the brother's families there).

We also had some legit lessons with The Z family this week. We taught Brother Z the last part of the plan of salvation and he just kept saying how "it made so much sense." He has also read the entire 1st book of Nephi in the last 2.5 weeks and has the goal to finish it before he is baptized. unfortunately he is on probation and cannot be baptized for at least 5 months. Sunday night we went over to tell him. I have never been so nervous before heading into a lesson my entire mission... but luckily he didn't have any problem with it! He understood and said this gives him time to fully commit to it. he said he would be going to church anyway so it doesn't make a huge difference. man I wish I could be here for his baptism... but hey, I could still be here in 5 months, right? 10 months in one area would be pretty cool!

We took a priest joint teaching and he drove us around. his door had this piece of metal stuff sticking out and totally sliced my hand open. So we were walking up to an appointment and I realized my hand was covered in blood. That created a few problems. Luckily a member lived close by so I got bandaged up. oh how I sacrifice my body for the sake of the ministry... ha ha.

We also taught brother L this week. we talked about needing to have the right desires for our actions. We have talked a lot about matching our works and desires so that they are consistent and so when God judges we will know if our righteous desires were proven by righteous actions. he started bawling as he realized he did not serve his wife out of the love Christ but instead out of duty before she died of health complications last summer. it was really sad to see. I think he served her a lot better than he thinks, but we told him to find solace in God through the atonement and prayer. It was remarkably spiritual.

Alma 22:18  

18 O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck ^aas if he were dead.

king Lamoni's father told God that he would give up all his sons to know the reality of God's existence. Do we feel the same way? Are we willing to give up our sins to know God and serve him with our whole soul? we all have things we do, some big and others small, that we know are not pleasing to God. Sacrifice is an expression of love for our Savior. Do we love him enough to sacrifice these things in our life?

I love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Damron

Andover week 18

PRESIDENT CLEMENTS IS BACK!!!!!!! After what he said was the "three hardest weeks of his life" he is back! HE has ben dealing with this great trial since just after his mission began and things got so bad he had to go take care of it. we still don't know what it is, but im glad he is ok.

Well transfers were today and I am staying! President called me and told me he had originally planned to make me a zone leader but made a last minute decision to leave me here. im also no longer the district leader so for the first time on my mission I am a normal missionary. Elder Foggin is leaving though and Elder Hawkes is coming here.

This week on exchanges I met man named Brother R. He had met the sister missionaries, who referred him to us, and then he called us and said he believed that the BoM was translated correctly and wanted to be baptized. He had gotten the BoM the night before... so we went over to his house. I must admit I thought it was a trap. In the elevator up to his room he said, "there is a friend in my apartment, I hope you don't mind." I was getting worried. but it turned out to be legit! sort of... we quickly realized that he is... not completely sane. He opened up the Restoration pamphlet and pointed tot he word "melchizedek" and told us it was in tongues. then he told us about all the crazy vision she has seen (including talking to God through the burning bush). It was interesting. But hey, the Book of Mormon has the power to change lives! So good things can happen.

We also went and stopped by a man named Brother H. who Elder Foggin met on exchanges. This guy is legit! He let us right in, told us he has been reading the Book of Mormon, and told us he looked up a Mormon church right next to his house in Florida. THen he told us he was going back to Florida the next day and he was only here for a few weeks to work. I was really sad... but some missionaries in Florida got a sweet referral, at least...

We also stopped by Brother T, a semi active Liberian in our ward. He told us about when he was a district missionary in Liberia and he was in charge of a compound where members of the church were living. Rebels stormed the compound and held him hostage at gun point while they looted the whole place. So crazy..

We went to Brother L. with the Manion family. Sister Manion talked to Brother L about smoking and said that she cold turkey quit smoking a carton (not a pack) of cigs a week. that is nuts! She said that was the best thing she ever did and challenged Brother L to do it. He wants to quit pretty bad, so hopefully he will let the Lord help him quit.

I played the cello on Sunday in both sacrament meetings. Sister Miller served in both wards at different times on her mission and since she is going home Wednesday she was asked to sing so i played the cell with her. the first time I didn't have a lot of room and couldn't extend my bow arm very far so that made playing the cello VERY hard. the second time we played i had a lot of room and it was fantastic! i miss the cello a lot.

Well Elder Foggin needs to go pack so i have to make this short. sorry!

I love you all! have a great day :)

Love, Elder Damron

pics from Andover week 17

Ethan and his iPad (He's pretty excited about it.)

President Ehlert (acting mission president), Ethan, Brother G,
Elder Foggin, President Toronto (stake president)

Brother Oelkers and Brother G (next to Ethan) before baptism

Andover week 17

So Elder Foggin and I fry up some fish filets, rice, and vegetables every day for lunch. I never thought I would eat a lot of fish but I must admit, it is quite good! I bet this will be quite the surprise to my parents, ha ha.

So Brother Z is coming along quite well! we had a lesson with him this week where he said he felt that he had an emptiness inside him he cant fill and he basically keeps doing crazy things to try and fill that void. We read the bread of life scripture with him and testified that if he partakes of the bread of life he will never be hungry. that space in him will be filled. it was pretty sweet! he has also read the first 14 chapters in the first book of nephi in only a week, which is VERY impressive. I have never had an investigator do that before. He LOVES the tree of life vision and he called nephi a gangster for slaying laban, ha ha. we committed him to pray with his wife every night before bed and they have been absolutely loving it. their countenances are already beginning to change a little bit :)

We had a lesson with Brother S. this week again. He is less active and trying to get to the temple with his wife. We have been going over for 5 month and he still hasn't come to church. He is doing everything he needs to do to be able to go to the temple but attend church so we basically called him out on it and said, "brother S., how will not coming to church affect you getting to the temple to be sealed to your wife?" he basically had a melt down. he just kept saying, " I know ok! I know! I need to go! no bishop in their right mind would give me a recommend if I don't come to church." it was so awesome! as missionaries we love when people have melt downs. it is kind of sad really... but then they become so teachable and receptive to the spirit. then the member with us testified of how church attendance helps his temple attendance. so powerful. he committed to church! brother s. asked me to say the closing prayer so I opened up and then was silent. I prayed in my head (so I guess a prayer within a prayer.. prayer-caption!) to know the Lord's will for what I should pray. then words just flowed from my mouth. I don't remember all that was said but I will never forget the feeling that was in the room. it was absolutely powerful. I looked up at the end and brother S was crying.

sunday morning we were waiting in the foyer and HE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!! not only that, but without his wife! she comes almost every week but was sick and he came without her! an absolute miracle.

we also had a lesson with Brother E. he is struggling with accepting the reality of the priesthood. we watched the Mormon Message "Sanctify Yourselves" which is about a boy who got hit by lightning getting a blessing. then I felt inspired to ask brother E if he wanted a blessing. he looked a tad shocked when I asked him and he sat there with his thinking face on. he told us he was scared. he was scared it might not work. we testified of the power of blessings and then gave him one to help him quit smoking. After he said, "WOW. just wow. I feel... charged right now." The Spirit was thick. so great!

So I was want to talk about the absolute miracle of brother G for awhile. his baptism was this weekend and it was a beautiful service. A lot of people came, including the stake president and president ehlert, our acting mission president. as I reflect on his conversion I marvel at the miracles. when I first met him he was a broken man. his spirit and mind was in a dark place. the previous missionaries thought he was crazy and almost didn't go back to teach him. But I told my last companion that this man needed the gospel and we were going to teach him. the absolute miraculous change I have seen from him in the last 3 months is something I will never forget. he went from a rambling, sometimes incoherent and very depressed man to a vibrant, lucid, and absolutely joy filled man. and it all came from him reading the book of Mormon every day. the Spirit of God literally started to heal this man in so many different ways. I have such a strong testimony on the ability for the Book of Mormon to change lives.

 He is so humble and full of love for the Savior. when he prays I know he is talking to a dear friend. Another miracle was the fact he got baptized in the first place due to his unique living situation. mission rules said he had to move, which he could not due to money, to be get baptized. we fasted and told brother G to ask the Lord for His help. As I listened to him plead with the Lord to help him I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that he would be baptized. his prayers are so full of faith and the Lord answers those prayers. a few weeks later a clarification was made in mission rules and he got baptized. the Lord can do His own work!

 As I watched him come out of the water and hug the member that baptized him I was filled with an absolute pure joy. I was a tool in the hand of the Lord in bringing this man more fully unto Christ. I will never forget that moment. He is a rockstar now! he was telling us he was at the grocery store and saw this man who looked quite sad. he started talking about Jesus with him and told him he needs to read the book of Mormon. he is so awesome!

We also had a cool miracle happen while at the food shelf this week. We were signing people in at the front desk when a woman walked in and said, "it's the Mormon boys!" We started talking to her and found out that she is actually an inactive member! She told us she stopped going when she moved out of Brooklyn Park because she was afraid of going to a new building. She also said she doesn't want to drive all the way to Shingle Creek for church, which was like 30 minutes away. We asked where she lived and she told us Coon Rapids. We then informed her she was in the Anoka ward, which is like 7 minutes from her house! The same ward she was baptized into at the age of 17! We got her information and the Anoka elders will be seeing her this week!

President Toronto also came out with us again this week!!! He is the man. Seriously so humble and full of love. We have been trying to get in contact with a less active for about 3 months now and we went over there with president Toronto and the husband pulled up right as we arrived. President Toronto then got a return appointment for us when we have been trying to do that for forever... yep. he is awesome. ha ha.

so... I GOT MY iPAD THIS WEEK! Woot! So now every sunday I have to run around the church building tracking missionaries down to get them to sync their pedometers with an app I have and some other stuff. muy bien :)

We also had a cool experience on Sunday that was definitely not expected. We went to a gas station to use the restroom. We hadn't plan on going to that gas station but just kinda said whatever and went. then we ran into an investigator we haven't been able to contact in like 7 weeks! he doesn't live anywhere near that gas station so we don't know why he was there but we didn't mind. now we are going to see him! yay!

alma 41:9

 9 And now behold, my son, do not risk ^aone more offense against yourGod upon those points of doctrine, which ye have hitherto risked tocommit sin.

This hit me pretty hard this morning. We all do little things here and there, and sometimes even big things, that we know we should not do. Things that displease God. I know that sometimes I get overwhelmed and don't work as hard as I should at changing, but we cannot risk waiting to change! repent now!

well, I love all of you. have a fantastic week!

love, Elder Damron

Andover week 16

So remember that one time it is March? wow. I had a strange experience this last week where my companion told a member I had about a year left on my mission. It hadn't really hit me that I am almost half way done until then. How strange... I feel like I have only been gone a few months!

So Brother G. is all set for baptism this Saturday. This will be the first baptism in the ward in 13 months so everyone is pumped. We were told that we will meet in the chapel, which is going to be needed because of how many people will be there. Brother G. is integrated into the ward quite well! He has practically been a member for the last month. In his baptismal interview Saturday he just kept talking about how much he loves the Book of Mormon. He already has plans to share it will all his friends once he gets his license back! he told us that he meets people at the store and invites them to church. your willingness to share the gospel is a reflection of your conversion! He is elect.

During one of our lessons with him a member asked him how he felt about being baptized. He teared up and said, 'aint nothing stopping me not. Aint nothing" (in his thick southern/Minnesotan accent). I seriously feel so blessed to be able to be a part of this man's conversion process. He is 1/3 of the way done with his second read through of the Book of Mormon in 3 months and he just cant get enough!

We had a wonderful lesson with a less active, Brother S, this week. Brother S. had a MAJOR heart attack last March and was basically dead for a short time. he got a priesthood blessing that basically helped him come back to life and now he is trying to return to church and get sealed in the temple. His big issue is repentance. he doesn't believe everyone can be forgiven. at one point in the lesson he cut me off and said, "you speak so nonchalantly about repentance." and then proceeded to basically stop listening to me. it was quite frustrating. I really love this man! I want to see him at the temple more than anything. then he went off on how really bad people cant be forgiven. now this lesson actually ended really well. Why? because we brought a joint teacher that we knew would fit the situation. the member we brought is a convert who had to overcome some really hard things to get baptized. he looked Brother S. right in the eye and said, non verbatim," just STOP! you keep saying you are a bad person but you worked at the post office your whole life. you have no clue how long it took me to get to where I am but the atonement of Jesus Christ works for EVERYONE. Don't you dare sit there and tell us that not everyone can be forgiven because I have been there." this kinda rattled the less active, in a very good way, though. I then whispered to Elder Foggin to talk about how you must want to be forgiven to find forgiveness (I ddint talk because he stopped listening to me). The less active prayed to end the lesson and thanked God for opening his eyes to some things he was confused about. he thinks he has a lot of faith in Jesus Christ but the reality is he doesn't actualy believe Christ did what He said He did. So here is a question: Do you believe He did what He said he did? Or do you just believe He exists.

I want to throw out a testimony on home teaching and visiting teaching: it is so inspired and even if you don't think that it is having an effect please do not EVER stop. it works. it softens hearts in ways we cannot do. This past week a wonderful member of our ward, who is a great member missionary, went to go visit teach a less active woman in her 20s who married a non-member. the non-member once looked into the church but got anti'ed. this wonderful member gave the visiting teaching lesson and then asked the husband, who was close by, if he had any questions. he started asking a few! 2 hours later the member left after testifying that if you truly want to know if we are a hoax or from God that you must ask God in prayer and also find out our beliefs from our own mouth. the less active woman later called her mom (who is in the ward) crying and said that her husband wanted to be baptized. the non member husband, Brother Z, then called us Saturday and said, "I don't know how this works, but I want to start taking the lessons. I need to be baptized so we can raise our little girl in the church." !!!!!!!!!!! Elder Foggin is the one who took the call and his jaw dropped. Please never stop visiting teaching and home teaching! it makes a difference!

We then met with the Z family sunday night. the lesson was fantastic! he asked for chapters to read from the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized soon! he asked us what he needed to do and so we briefly went over a few things. unfortunately he is on probation so that complicates things, but we will work that out. He told us he has made a lot of mistakes in his life and learned the hard way but he is tired of dealing with the consequences. he said he really wants to change. He told us he really gets sucked into instant gratification too much. i testified to him that happiness found through Christ is deep and abiding. it is everlasting, not momentarily. he leaned forward in his chair and said, "do you actually believe that or are you just saying what you need me to here. don't BS me right now." I looked him right in the eye and told him I most definitely believed it. I told him the happiness of the people in the church is one of the major reasons that drew me to find out if this Church is really true. the Spirit bore witness to my soul that what I was saying was true. Sister Z was nodding her head in agreement. the Spirit flooded the room. So fantastic!

 

We had zone training with President Ehlert this week. Wowza. He is legit. He had an interview with one of the other elders and he told that elder about his business successes. He has started and sold 12 companies and is working for a fortune 20 company along with running another company he started. he took his iPad and put it on the table, looked at the elder right in the eye and said, "i have done all these things and guess what. None of it matters. Not a single thing. the only thing that matters is The Most High God." So humble.

All of the priesthood leaders in my life right now are really epitomizing what i want to be some day. A combination of President Toronto (our stake pres), President Clements, President Ehlert, and of course you dad, would probably lead me to be a perfect human being and i would be translated so i know I will never reach it, but these men are shaping my life. aren't missions great?

Also at zone training we all got these fancy pedometers to track our steps to make sure we are mentally healthy. long story short, it is scientifically proven that if you walk throughout the day you are happier and you learn more effectively. so this pedometer tracks how many times a day you walk at least 5 minutes. The number is actually surprisingly low. most missionaries think they move around a lot, but in reality, do not. President Ehlert is the one heading this and he is talking with Salt Lake to get it to more missions. each week the data from our pedometers are synced for observation. Which is where i come in as the district leader. They gave all the district leaders iPads!!!!!!!!!! eachsunday we have to take the iPad to church and sync the missionary's pedometers. Only naturally my iPad was the only one that wasn't working so they couldn't give me one yet, so Im the only district leader in the mission without an iPad right now. i guess the Lord knew i would probably become guilty of idol worshipping... haha. i should get it soon. but don't worry, the thing is completely locked down. You cant use most the features. It is mission proof.

This week I thought a lot about the Restoration and how Satan has changed his tactics throughout the years. During the time of Joseph Smith everyone was arguing about the one true church. I bet Satan was quite happy with himself because everyone was arguing to find something that wasn't even on earth. but then along came Joseph Smith and all of a sudden the true church was back! the truth about the church people were looking for was back! So Satan changed his tactics. what is the common theme these days? You don't need to be in a certain church. everyone is right. it doesn't matter what you do, if you are a good person you go to heaven. a clever shift in though pattern, eh?

Mormon 9:9 brings me a lot of clarity on the matter

 9 For do we not read that God is the ^asame ^byesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no ^cvariableness neither shadow of changing?

God is the same! He does not change! Christ instituted one church, or group of beliefs, while He was on earth and therefore there is one group that has all the right ordinances and whatnot today!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Damron