Dinkytown week 17

Hey y'all, this email might be a tad short today. we are going to the state fair and we had a miscommunication on picking some elders up which caused us to lose a bit of time...sorry! If i dont reply to your emails this week i will for sure next week.

 

So a super sweet miracle that happened this week was with an investigator that the spanish elders in our zone are teaching. He has been in a limbo stage for the last few weeks where he wanted to get baptized but he didnt want to set a date and the elders wanted some help. We all felt strongly impressed that elder wall should go teach him. So we exchanged and elder wall went to go preach the good Word. I went with one of the spanish elders to our own lesson. When we got out of it at 9:00 I read a text that said something like this: we will meet you at the institute at 9:45. The investigator is getting interviewed for baptism right now. what. (also, dont worry about us being all disobedient and being late and whatnot. President Forbes said we can get home any time now if we are teaching a lesson. we just have to be in bed by 10:30). Elder Wall later explained that they went in to teach and Baltazar said he was just full of fear. So they quoted President Clements' and said "dont take counsel from your fears. have the faith to fail." the investigator thought about it for awhile and said he wanted to get baptized. So elder wall interviewed him on the spot and he got baptized a few days later. so sick :)

 

So i got to eat hmong food this week. i didnt particularly like what i ate due to the fact that the pork i had still had hair on it. I like my animals de-haired before i consume them... but i ate some really yummy purple rice!

 

I also had some liberian pepper soup. it is a really tasty and spicy soup that all the africans love. It is really convenient i finally got to eat some because if you tell an african person you like pepper soup they immediately love you. In andover i had been teaching a Liberian guy for 3 months and we were good friends. Then Elder Hawkes came in and told him he LOVED pepper soup and our invstigator liked him more than me. Elder Hawkes accomplished more in ten seconds than i did in 3 months... that dawg.

 

I also played a cello duet in church on sunday! A cello Major from BYU was back for the summer and he has 2 cellos so we played an arrangement of "Love One Another." oh how i love playing the cello...

 

We also got to teach a super sweet guy named DH. He is a PhD student here and is probably one of the most humble truth seekers I have ever met. We taught the plan of salvation and he stopped us after the Pre-earth life and told us he was on the completely same page as us. Which is incredible because a lot of other churches have very different doctrine on that subject matter. After we taught about adam and eve he gave the same response and then he said, "yes! I agree! Adam was one of our spiritual leaders before we came to earth. He were very supportive of him being the first man on earth. We trusted him to make the right choice." My jaw dropped a little after he said that. i have never heard anyone outside of our church say anything remotely similar to that. So sweet :)

 

As always I had a run in with a few drunk people this week. One of them kinda freaked out that we were proselyting because the bible apparently says that is sin. The elder i was exchanging with quoted a scripture about how sharing the gospel is a commandment (from the bible) and the man was quite literally dumbfounded. He was like, "that is really in there...???" so good.

 

i would love it if everyone would think about the aforementioned quote from President Clements: Do not take counsel from your fears. Have the faith to fail.

What does this mean for each of us individually? How does fear affect our faith?

If we succumb to fear we cannot complete the will of God each day. We cannot be his tools in the work of salvation.

 

i love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Damron

pics from Dinkytown week 16

Ethan went to the St. Paul Cathedral 

Brother MW at his baptism

Dinkytown week 16

We definitely had a good week this week :)

 

I went on exchanges with an Elder in the St Paul area and got to be on a bike all day for the first time in awhile. We saw some pretty cool miracles! We taught the non-member son of a less active at his mother's house while we were waiting for the LA to get home. He is probably in his 30s and was pretty skeptical of us. We just took the time to get to know him as a person and learn about what made him him. He opened up and then started asking questions about our church. He had a lot of misinformation and we were able to clear up a lot. Then his girlfriend, who didnt really like us at first, came out and she asked a few questions. We bore testimony of Christ and she was utterly shocked that we even believed in Him. She asked us if our belief in Christ is what fueled us each day. We both replied an affirmitive yes. Missionary work is too hard to do on your own. Both of them apologized for making a lot of bad assumptions and then the boyfriend told us that he had actually met missionaries last week! And that they had actually called him earlier that day! So we got them all lined up and he is going to get taught by them. :D

 

We also met this guy on his lawn who at first was pretty skeptical. We shared the Restoration with him and he became quite fascinated with what we were telling him. Then he asked for a Book of Mormon. So we gave him one and then he said, "time for the test" and he opened it up to a random page, put his finger down, and started reading. The verse he read was Mosiah 4:11. Go read it. Seriously so unreal that he opened up to that scripture. He closed it and was like, "yep, it agrees with the bible. Ill read it." so incredible.

 

While flipping through our area book this week (a book that has records of lessons and stuff) I tried to flip to the back of the book and my fingers caught on a paper and I accidentally ripped it out! I analyzed it and realized it was a paper from 4 years ago that had the information of a less active man who was trying to come back to church. But he wasnt on our records and I had never heard of him. So i called him. He told us that he is going through a rough time and is making some big decisions in his life right now. He said he was even thinking of coming to church! He said he probably wouldnt have come if we hadnt called and then committed to church! So sweet. Gotta love crazy miracles.

 

Brother MW also got interviewed for baptism this past week! His bus got stuck and he ended up getting to the interview 2 hours late (which was a source of great stress to me. Especially since President Forbes had come to interview him) but he finally got there and it all worked out. On saturday he was baptized!!! He was grinning ear to ear and he gave a fantastic testimony at the end of the service. He told everyone he wants to go out and help other people find the joy he has right now just like we helped him. He has overcome a lot to reach this point. His neighbor dropped off a stack of anti at his apartment 2 days before his baptism and he just laughed at it and set it aside! He is going to be a solid member here in the YSA ward.

 

In chapter 1 of Preach My Gospel there is a line that reads: “Happiness in family life is most likelyto be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ." I love this line a lot. A constant battle amongst God's children is trusting that putting God first, even when it is hard, will lead to happiness. Being a disciple of Christ is not easy; it was never meant to be easy. But when we can take the leap of faith to truly live by the precepts which Christ has taught and now does teach through his living apostles and prophets, we can have a deep abiding happiness even amidst the storms of life. I know this is true!

 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week. Just FYI, I will be emailing next tuesday instead of monday.

-Elder Damron

pics from Dinkytown week 15

Top, me, Brother MW, Bridger, Elder Wall

bottom: Talise Duboise, Ryan Checketts (who was a missionary in this YSA ward for like a year! he has been home for a year), Aaron Rumbaugh, Jessica

Dinkytown week 15

We were able to teach a friend of a member last week, Brother F. He asked to meet with us after one of his favorite band members died and he realized the afterlife freaks him out. He doesnt understand it and sometimes he gets anxiety at night and cant sleep because he doesnt know what will happen after we die. So we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He LOVED it! WE shared a lot of scriptures and the Spirit was pretty strong. At the end he said, "i feel peace right now. This is true. Thank you so much." It was sweet :)

 

I also had probably one of the most profound spiritual experiences of my life on tuesday. I was on exchanges in Shoreview minnesota when a member called us and asked us to go help give a blessing to his nonmember son in law who will die within the next 2 weeks of lung cancer. His wife is less active. So we drove to a hospice center and the member sat down and taught the son in law about the temple and told him that he would do his temple work next year. he also told his daughter to get worthy so she can be sealed to him. She started crying and said that God was telling her she needed to. Then the member explained to the son in law that after he died he would be taught the Gospel and he needed to decide right now to accept it. my companion annointed the son in law and the member gave a blessing. In that blessing the member told the son in law that God was pleased with the life he had lived. He had been kind and compassionate his whole life. the member blessed him with a knowledge that God loves him. At this moment the Spirit broadsided me and I was completely overwhelmed. I feel like i felt an smal, small portion of God's love for this man at that moment. I realized even more fully that God loves each of his children equally. No matter if they are Christian or not. it was an incredible experience. i was humbled.

 

A funny story of the week was when a man wearing ONLY those super small running shorts ran up and hugged my companion as my companion was talking to a chinese guy. The chinese guy got a little freaked out and ran away. I think my companion freaked out too. haha. oh man. i love this place. So nutty.

 

On friday night I GOT TO GO TO A VIKINGS GAME!!! We got permission to bring our investigator, Brother MW, and we went with some members of the ward. It was SICK! Gotta love football :D we definitely had a super sweet time. We handed out a few mormon.org cards and told a drunk guy that we were not actually hiring anyone at the moment but told him to call us later. So it was a pretty good night. And the Vikings won.

 

Brother MW should be getting baptized this saturday! Woot! We had a lesson with him last night that went well. At the end of it this super old guy with a walker that had john 3:16 on the front of it walked up to our investigator as we were getting up to leave and started yelling all this anti at him. He wouldnt even let us open our mouths and just kept screaming we were a cult and some pretty ludicrous stuff. Luckily, MW is a kool kat and he just said the old guy was off his rocker and didnt pay any attention to it. He said, "anyone who believes in Christ like you do cant be a cult." phew.

 

My thoughts this week have rested a lot upon Charity.

1 Corinthians 13:8 "  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whetherthere be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."

 

Charity never fails! What does this mean? As I pondered and discussed with Elder Wall i feel like this scripture can be applied to motivation. When our motivation is anything but Charity and the pure love of Christ, we will falter. We will not accomplish what we were sent here to accomplish. We will not influence the lives of those God would have us minister to. That scripture says that everyone fails, but Charity. If our motivation in life is to better ourselves, or get rich, or whatever it may be, it is not Christ centered and therefore we will not become who God would have us be.

 

i love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Damron

Dinkytown week 14

Wowza it is August apparently.

 

We had a pretty good week! It was a little quiet, though. Most of our investigators decided to take summer vacation the same week so we had a lot more time this week on campus.

Tuesday we had a leadership meeting where all the leaders in the mission were in attendance (this happens once every 3 months). President Forbes announced some policy changes and it got western at one point. He was trying to emphasize the rule that we work till 9, then drive home instead of working till 8:45 and then driving home to get home by 9. we can be out till 9:30 if we are teaching. Well the way he emphasized it confused us and we all thought he meant we need to work until 9:30 and be home at like10:00 or something, but still be in bed by 10:30. the room broke into pandemonium and lots of disagreements and dropped jaws and a lot of craziness. I was pretty shocked. But after a pretty big discussion we realized we misunderstood president and he was just emphasizing what was already in place. so much stress.  haha

 

We taught our Liberian investigator MW a few times this week as well. He is seriously so solid. He is still set for the 16th. We taught him the law of chastity and he told us that he really needed to hear that because he had struggled with that in the past and he was confused about it and we basically answered a few prayers. He told us how every time he prays and asks a question we usually answer that question during the next lesson. Weird how that works, huh. :D We also had a fantastic lesson with him after churchsunday in which we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He told us he has felt a cleansing effect in his life the last few weeks and we explained that the Gospel of Christ is what will allow us to feel cleansing for the rest of our life. Our joint teacher linked our purpose in life (to draw closer to God) to the Gospel and how it is how we can accomplish what we have set out to do. All in all, quite the powerful lesson.

 

I also went on exchanges with a spanish missionary who has been out for only 2 months in his area. We visited this old spanish guy in a retirement home who didnt know a lick of spanish so i just sat there looking pretty and all that good stuff. He fell asleep during the lesson, it was pretty amusing. I was quite impressed with the new elder. He has been out a few months and he handled the spanish that day with ease. We taught there investigator, who will be baptized soon, at a members home and it was pretty tight. He used to be a pro wrestler so he showed us some moves. We taught him to follow the prophet and at the end I felt inspired to leave him an article from the ensign about President Monson and how to follow his example. The joint teacher spoke up and told us he too had felt impressed to talk about the ensign. Later that night Elder McFarland told me that in his personal study he had felt impressed to bring up the ensign in the lesson. All 3 of us got that impression. Pretty cool!

 

We also had the opportunity to go to a Baptist bible study thursdaynight. It was pretty interesting. We agreed with a lot of what was said and we could tell that the person was trying to teach to our beliefs (well, he was trying to teach to what he thought our beliefs were) and help us "see the truth" so to speak. He was shocked when we told him we believe the same thing as him. After the study we stayed after a little and he asked us some pretty ridiculous questions about some crazy Anti stuff he had heard. We briefly taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and endure to the end) and he was shocked. He said: "i have read a lot about your church and everything you have told me just now is completely different than what I have read." It was a cool experience. the next day he sent us an audio file where he had learned a lot about what we apparently believe and it was essentially a persecution sermon against the church. I heard the nuttiest things you could imagine on that file. I cant believe he even believed that stuff.

 

Saturday we went over to a less actives home and he told us that a few nights ago an evil spirit invaded his room at 3 in the morning. He told us he was paralyzed and could not speak. We read from Joseph Smith history with him right before the First Vision and he told us that was similar to his experience. It was eerie and pretty creepy. So we dedicated his apartment. I havent had to cast any devils out yet, so hopefully we wont have to go back and do some laying on of hands action on unhappy spirit folk.

 

Thought:

The importance remembrance has really sunk into my soul throughout my mission. It is strongly correlated to gratitude. Often when we are unhappy it is merely because we have forgotten how merciful God has been to us. Lets look at Mosiah 4:11-12

 11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye havecome to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known ofhis goodness and have tasted‍ of his love, and have received aremission‍ of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy inyour souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and alwaysretain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your ownnothingness, and his goodness‍ and long-suffering towards you,unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths ofhumility, calling‍ on the name of the Lord daily, and standingsteadfastly‍ in the faith of that which is to come, which was spokenby the mouth of the angel.
12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall alwaysrejoice, and be filled with the love‍ of God, and always retain‍ aremission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge‍ of theglory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which isjust and true.

We need to remember the greatness of God! If we do this we will always rejoice and be filled with the love of God! How often does the Lord give us blessings, both big and small, and a few days later we are mumbling about something or the other which in the long scheme of things is quite trivial anyway? This is not conducive to happiness. Not only that, but is this the attitude that will bring additional blessings from the Lord?

I love you all! Have a miraculous week!
Elder Damron