pics from Duluth week 9

Ethan's zone in Christmas sweaters

Duluth week 9 (sorry I missed this one)

I just want to let everyone know that I have a strong testimony that God answers prayers. He hears every single one of them and answers them in his own time. Why do I bear such a testimony at this time? Well... IT IS 40 DEGREES!!!! FOURTY! :D I have been praying for 10 months for a warmer winter and now it is 40 degrees and raining in December in Duluth. God is real. I probably just jinxed us.

So our lessons with SI and RE are going pretty well. They asked about the Holy Ghost so we taught them about that this week and showed some sweet mormon messages. We read from the BoM and they told us they need to read it daily and pray together every day to have more of the Spirit. Then at the end they asked us when they can baptize their 1.5 year old daughter. We explained about the age of accountability but the intent is there, right?

We had a sweet lesson with a LA, TM. Our day had been nuts and we got there a few minutes late. When we got in the house he told us he almost called and canceled. We assumed it was just because it was getting late. Then we watched He is the Gift and talked about how to embrace the Gift. The Spirit was pretty thick and at the end of the lesson he told us he almost called and canceled because his PTSD was acting up real bad but us coming and sharing a message made his symptoms disappear. So cool!

We also had a lesson with RE, a LA we have been reactivating. He doesnt really believe that God loves him and talks about how his trials are too great. So we watched The Refiner's Fire and Mountains to Climb, two mormon messages (go watch them; they are super good) and the Spirit slammed him nice and good. Needless to say, the next time we went over he had a change of heart and doesnt think his situation is so bad. It was tight

Cool miracle: we dropped by a less active and it turns out they had moved.... but someone who has taken the missionary lessons moved in! And we are going to teach them now!

We had Christmas Conference this last week and we watched "It's a Wonderful Life." I was the only missionary who had seen that movie. It is a classic! Come one! So thanks Dad for educating me in the classics

So this last week all of the missionaries in Duluth went to a branch in Carlton and helped out with a christmas party there. We sang a few songs and dubbed ourselves the Carlton Carolers. We also all got (ugly) christmas sweaters for the occasion. Mine was voted to be the most particularly awful (i mean absolutely no offense if anyone reading this takes a fancy to my sweater in the pictures i send out...) A girl played the cello very well and i had to re lock my heart after that one because i wanted to play that cello so badly. 

thought: 

Mosiah 1:14 

 14 For I say unto you, that if he had not extended his arm in the preservation of our fathers they must have fallen into the hands of the Lamanites, and become victims to their hatred.

I really enjoy the part about the Lord extending his arm to preserve his people. How often do we forget that the Lord is constantly helping us? That he is supplying us with grace sufficient for us to overcome our trials? Without Him we are nothing. Remember Him! And share Him with others. #ShareTheGift

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Damron 

pics from Duluth week 10

"Brother Will Williams wearing his favorite shirt!"

"We volunteered directing traffic at a light show called "Bentleyville." Google it!" 

Duluth week 10

oh hai there, we had a great week!

We had a pretty good week! Not as much proselyting time as we would have liked because we had to drive to the cities for a new missionary training meeting, but we utilized the time we had!

We managed to teach a former investigator. He took us to a perkins for hot chocolate then he told us his life story. he said he has studied for awhile but he isnt the type of person who will just jump into anything. he said it takes 4 years to get a college degree, so why would he make a huge religious decision in 2 weeks. Anyway, a joint teacher the previous missionaries brought over like a year ago did a number on this guy and offended him in quite a few ways and then the missionaries never came back. So we did some damage control. At the end he was almost in tears and he begged us to not give up on him. it was quite tender

We met with a member this week to talk about getting in contact with a less active woman who has 7 kids at home (quite a few of them are unbaptized, which we dont mind too much...) so he gave us 40 dollars, all in $2 bills, to go buy a turkey and some other stuff to go and drop off to her from him. (the checkout lady at the store was a little shocked when i handed her only twos, ha ha) so we bought the goods, dropped them off, and she looked like she was about to cry. it was quite the tender experience. she wants us to come back and share a christmas message! #ShareTheGift

Another cool experience we had was when we drove back from Minneapolis we got back to duluth at like 9:30. anyway, we hadnt really shopped yet and we thought about buying milk at a gas station. i was like eh, it is late. and kept driving. well for some reason i flipped a u-turn and we ended up inside that gas station with milk in our hands. Just then a former investigator who moved walked in the door. you know where this story is heading! we talked with him and we are going to teach him now. He told us that we had changed his life since last meeting and he is so much happier. I could see it in his eyes. 

We also went by a less active family that has quite the testimony but they just... dont come. i asked if we could share a mormon message and he said sure. I put the disk in and really had no idea which one to show and just started toggling through. I ended up playing "wrong roads." before we had entered we felt prompted to talk about acting in faith. so i testified of that, the room got filled with the spirit, and he said, "even when you act in faith sometimes you still get lost in the dark." the spirit told me to ask a question about that statement. So i asked, "what do you think you can do to prevent getting lost?" he looked at me and said, "you know the answer to that question just as well as i do." I smiled and just looked a him. The Spirit then taught him and he broke down and told us he was in a hole and wasnt sure how to get out and he just didnt know where to start but needed to change. So now we are going to meet with his entire family once a week!!! Woot for teaching by the Spirit

We met with another member who is starting to slip into inactivity. It breaks my heart each time we go over because he tells us he is just too tired and depressed to read, pray, and make it to church each sunday. but he assures us his testimony is strong. well this last time when we went over the Spirit prompted me quite frankly to be bold. I resisted a little because perhaps i was afraid of offending him, but the Spirit urged me a second time, even stronger. So i opened up to a scripture about being filled with the Spirit and finding joy and i was pretty straightforward in testifying that he would not find the joy he is seeking until he beings to take the sacrament each week. The Spirit burst into the room like a gust of wind and he sat back a little shocked and you could tell that our testimonies had pierced his soul via the Spirit. it was pretty fantastic 

On Sunday I had quite the experience during Sacrament. I am somewhat of a perfectionist and i was a little down and frustrated at my imperfections and how i felt like i should be doing a lot better and how i was not following the Savior the way i should. i was reading in mosiah 14, like i do each sunday during the sacrament, and the line, in verse six, "all we, like sheep, have gone astray," pierced my heart. i checked the cross references and was led to Alma 5:37: " O ye workers of iniquity; ye that are puffed up in the vain things of the world, ye that have professed to have known the ways of righteousness nevertheless have gone astray, as sheep having no shepherd, notwithstanding a shepherd hath called after you and is still calling after you, but ye will not hearken unto his voice!"

As i read this i was overwhelmed by the love that God has for His children and how he never will abandon us, no matter how far we stray he is still calling after us. Never forget this!

I love you all! Have a Merry Christmas!

Elder Ethan P. Damron 

Duluth week 8

I'm feeling a lot better this week! So this letter will make a little more sense than the last. :D

So We had some pretty sweet miracles this week. We got in contact with a LA who I have spent 2 months trying to contact but he has never been home. He is super receptive and now we will start meeting weekly! Sick! he also has a super nice non-member girlfriend, we dont mind that too much either

We also had one of the craziest miracles ever the other night. our 8 pm lesson fell through and our backup at 8:30 was to contact on one of the main streets of Duluth. The streets were absolutely barren. But we kept walking. We stopped and looked around and Elder Zerkle asked if we should leave because the streets were barren. I turned to him and said we had planned to be there, so God would provide. Literally 5 seconds later a bus pulled up and dropped a family off 15 feet in front of us. After i was done picking my jaw up off the floor we went and talked to them. The father has a son that is a mormon in Utah! They were pretty receptive and we have an appointment with them tomorrow! #miraclecity

we also had a cool miracle with the Share the Gift initiative.  A member we challenged to share the gift with shared the gift and his friend is coming to church Sunday! woot woot!

Funny story: we were at a members house sharing a message and out of nowhere the 2 year old grandson ran up and slapped elder zerkle in the face with a wet slipper. it took all my willpower to not die of laughter. It left a shoe print on his face. ha ha

While on exchanges with the district leader this week we went to an appointment with a less active. I have been trying to set up an appointment with him for a few weeks but he kept bailing. I quickly realized why... He REALLY did not like a previous missionary. He told us about it for about 10minutes. He also really doesnt like a few members. he talked about that for about 25 minutes. He told us how much he doesnt like mitt Romney, which he spent 25 minutes to tell us about. And then we talked for about 5 minutes. It was intense. But he is a really nice guy and we are happy we are meeting with him now. All is well that ends well. 

We got back in contact with SI and RE. They are a couple from Chicago that came to church last transfer but we lost contact. They are still super interested just working 2 jobs causes a lot of craziness. We picked yo RE from walmart at 9:30 for church. he had worked the day shift saturday and the night shift saturday night/sunday morning and still wanted to come to church. Then he and SI came to the Christmas Devotional Sunday night! So tight. 

So a few more funny stories, because we all like those. 

We had dinner with a Member, Mikki Taylor, and a YSA girl, Josie, and another family yesterday. Funniest dinner of my mission. So Mikki is a little bit of a jokester. So at the end of dinner we were all done with clean plates and he started poking fun at Elder Zerkle and telling him he didnt eat enough. So Elder Zerkle slapped another chicken breast on his plate and stared him down. a few minutes later Mikki starts talking about how you can trust people who eat all the food off of their plate. Then he said, "For example, Elder Zerkle has been too busy staring at Josie all of dinner to finish his food." Elder Zerkle about choked on his chicken and Josie freaked. out. ha ha ha Elder Zerkle was like no no no i swear I was not. and Josie freaked and was like "He is not! oh my gosh he is a missionary he is not. he is looking at someone else." And Mikki was quite adamant that there was no one else at the table who Elder Zerkle would be looking at. Then, like 5 minutes later Mikki was trying to think of the name of an ice cream shop in Vegas (where Elder Zerkle is from) and he couldnt think of the name. Elder Zerkle kept throwing out some ice cream shop names. Then mikki said, "no, the shop was a woman's name.... no elder Zerkle it was not Josie! GEt her out of your head!" Josie freaked again and was like, "He is NOT thinking about me. He isnt even my type. He couldnt even get me if he tried." i was crying i was laughing so hard. ha ha ha. oh man. 

Fun fact I learned at dinner this week and I will probably ruin a lot of cool movies that you want to see: So we had dinner with a brain researcher guy. I asked him if it was true that we only use a small percentage of our brain's full capacity. He shot that down real quick. He said that we use our whole brain, but just not all at once. When you use all of your brain at once (meaning your whole brain is firing neurons off at once) you actually are having a seizure. So this is not a good thing. So the people in movies that "unlock" the full capacity of their brains shouldnt actually be super geniuses, they should be convulsing on the floor and then pass on to the realm of spirits, if you catch my drift... who knew?

Well last week i sort of talked about Sharing the Gift. The Church has produced a brilliantly easy way to share the gospel and christmas spirit with all of the people we associate with in everyday life. The Lord is hastening His work and right now He is really utilizing the social media realm. check out christmas.mormon.org and take up the challenge! Print off a sign off when you will share the gift by and stick to it! The Lord will lead His prepared children to you. 

I love you all! Have a great week. 

Elder Ethan Damron

pics from Duluth week 7

"me with my hmong tie with a hmong girl in the ward"

"me with Elder Schmidt and Elder Teo"

"me with Elder Wilcoxson the night he died (missionary lingo for when he went home)"

"thug lyfe district"

"Turkey bowl! Elder Zerkle is in the back"

Duluth week 7

So i will probably keep this short today because i feel like i might die i am so sick, but i decided to come email anyway. And we bought super ugly christmas sweaters for the ward Christmas party. im pretty stoked :)

So this last Sunday-Wednesday I was with Elder Schmidt, who is part of the other set of missionaries in Duluth since we both didnt get companions till Wednesday. WE had a ton of fun! It was pretty crazy because we were covering two areas so we basically taught all day. No complaints :) A deaf couple that Elder Schmidt knows well drove through Duluth so we went and signed with them for about an hour. Im pretty rusty, but it was pretty fun. Elder Schmidt interprets Sacrament meeting each week and he wants me to get into it, we shall see. 

We had a crazy sick miracle this week where we found some lost sheep. We walked out of this apartment building in which we were dropping off something to a member and then this guy was walking by us. The Spirit told us to talk to him so we did. He was like, "you two mormons?" we replied of course. He was like, "no way! Me too! I was baptized in Midvale, Utah!" What the freak. Then he took us back to his house and we taught his family. They want to come to church! It was insane. :)

Wednesday night I met my new companion. Elder Zerkle! From Las Vegas, Nevada! My streak of having very little companions from Utah continues. He is such a stud. You really wouldnt be able to tell he is a new missionary very easily because he is confident in talking with people and speaking up in lessons. We are going to do some work here. im pretty pumped. The ZLs have a sauna in their apartment complex so he got here then we went straight to the sauna and had a conference call with the zone to introduce new missionaries. Welcome to the mission! ha ha

Thursday was.. COLD. We played the turkey bowl at about 2 degrees. But it was super fun. I caught a few TDs and had a few good runs. The first game i somehow ended up on the team with all the young kids and all the adults were somehow on the other team. So that was not too fun. Second game was more even. 

Then we ate dinner at the Davis family's house. WE joked around and had a good time. Elder Zerkle made a bet with the father (who is bald) that he wouldnt go bald or else he owes Brother Davis a coke. It was a pretty funny conversation. 

The rest of the weekend was nuts with appointments since i hadnt really been in my area for half the week. Sunday night we went over to a member's nieghbor they referred and we ended up upstairs in one of the bedrooms with the 23 year old son who makes music. He showed us some of the beats he has made (which were actually pretty sick) and then he basically opened up and told us about how he wants to make a lot of changes in his life. So we watched a mormon message and committed him to read the BoM. It was pretty sweet :D 

Well if y'all havent heard about the church's christmas initiative you should check it out! christmas.lds.org #sharethegift 

have a great week, Elder Damron