Duluth week 15

We had a pretty interesting week here in Duluth. The two sets of missionaries in my district are going to have baptisms pretty soon so I will need to do some interviews. So i spent a lot of time teaching their investigators this week. it was a lot of fun.

One investigator of theirs is Brother K. He grew up in an LDS home but told his parents he didnt want to be baptized and fell into drugs in high school. He has had a wild life and then he and his wife showed up at church one day to fix their lives. The wife is set for baptism and he is super happy for her and supports her, but he is really struggling with testimony problems. We gave him a blessing for some guidance and afterwards you could see on his face he was feeling something different. We brought it up to him and he denied it and changed the subject. It was pretty cool. Gotta love the Spirit!

So on Thursday our WML called us and asked us to go give a blessing to a member who was in the hospital. on wednesday he had been to the ICU with a blood sugar of 1500!!!! By the way, normal sugars is roughly 100 from what i am told. That is insane! He was facing organ failure. We gave a blessing to him and on Saturday he got released straight from the ICU and went home. Flippin insane stuff right there

We also had a super fantastic lesson with the G family. Bishop had asked us to teach a lesson on Ether 12:6 and 12:27 and how trials of faith take time. Faith isnt built overnight. At the end i bore my testimony on God's will and talked about my experiences learning to accept His will, even when we dont want to. I told him we need to set goals and work after we learn what God's will is. Apparently that is what the Spirit wanted me to say because the goal thing hit him and he told us that is why he was slipping with his testimony. He hasnt set any spiritual goals. So he made some with us right on the spot and asked us to keep him accountable! it was pretty sweet. 

Thursday night the Sister Missionaries in Carlton called me and said their male investigator who is a date set is really struggling with family opposition and they wanted me to call him and use a football analogy to help calm him down. I was more than happy to oblige that request... ha ha. It worked!

Sunday night we had a great lesson with Brother M. He is about to head down to the cities for cancer treatments. We werent sure what to share with him but we ended up reading moroni 10:32-33 with him and I bore testimony on how i used to be a hardcore perfectionist and i felt like i needed to be perfect before Christ could help me. Then i bore testimony on how the process actually works. He told us he felt the exact same and he was struggling with it. Then his girlfriend (who isnt actually a member so that was cool) bore powerful testimony of that truth and the Spirit was pretty strong. It was a great lesson and i think he will be able to move forward now. 

well, time is up for the week. i love you all! Make this week the best week ever!

Elder Ethan P. Damron

Duluth week 14

We had a dang good week! Monday night we went to a less active's house and we met their cousin. She is from Billings, MT and her mother is actually a member! We talked for quite awhile and then we invited her to take lessons from the Sister Missionaries. She told us yes and then said,"you know, i have always had a feeling that when i made the decision to be baptized it would be mormon." boo yah

We had dinner with a YSA this last week from the ward and he made the spiciest chicken i have ever eaten in my entire life. It was this ghost pepper based sauce that had a wicked afterburn. it just burned and burned and burned and burned. So i wanted to clean my plate off quickly and get it over with and i shoved like 4 pieces in my mouth and chomped them. bad idea. there were a few minutes where the possibility of my death actually seemed like a pretty reasonable outcome. I couldnt eat the food on my plate for another 20 minutes because my mouth was so roasted. Since i am the bets companion ever i dared Elder Zerkle to try it because he was talking a little smack about how it wasnt too bad. So he shoved in 4 pieces and 4 minutes later he was crying. i, too, was crying. but only because i was laughing so hard. ha ha ha. oh man. im awful. but what can i say, you can either humble yourself or be compelled to be humble, right? :D

We also had a sweet miracle where we got into a part member family's and their daughter just turned 9. we have been trying to set stuff up with them for awhile and then the mother said,"we have been meaning to call you. our daughter turned 9 and she needs to be baptized!" so their reactivation has begun!!!

We had another sweet miracle where after 4 months of trying to get set up with a part member family to reactive the mother, baptize the kids, and get them to the temple we got and taught! that isnt so much the miracle part for this week because we taught them the last 2 weeks, but a few nights ago the 12 year old daughter called and left a message announcing she wanted to be baptized! ah yeah. so that process has begun. 

On saturday a member called us and asked us to help her move just a few things. we showed up and there was a massive u-haul. of course her apartment is on the third floor. 4.5 hours later we finished. im still tired and sore... i guess i should lift more in the morning time

On friday night i went to teach one of the sister's investigators who is 11. she is slated to be baptized in a few weeks so i will interview her. i wanted to get to know her a little before that happened. so this girl has a lot of attention issues with ADHD and a bunch of other things. she is quite spunky and sassy. i have never been more insulted within the time frame of one hour in my entire life than that lesson. and all the jabs were pretty clever and stopped me dead in my tracks. she even came up with a quite clever nickname centered around my last name. i thought i had heard them all but apparently i just need to get dissed my by 11 year old girls. But the lesson went pretty well still and we taught the 10 commandments. she really has a quite good heart and is very kind and loving, she just likes to have a tough girl attitude. I am excited to interview (pray for me, ill need them in that interview)

Mosiah 15:7 "Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father." 

 This past week I was taught quite the lesson on being swallowed up in the will of the Father. I have worked quite hard to take this area into a particular direction and this past week the Lord abruptly changed that direction for me. Then i had a decision to make. i could either be quite mad about the whole situation and pout and put up a fit, or i could kneel in humility and accept this new path and ask the Lord to direct me. After much difficulty, and about 12 hours of being stubborn, i chose the latter. and i feel a lot of peace right now. I know that as we seek to do the will of the Father each and every day we can have fulfillment and peace. Our life might not turn out the way we want or expect it to, but it will go where He needs it to go. 

I love you all! have a great week

Elder Damron

Duluth week 13

Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone :D I had a sweet birthday. We went to our ward mission leader's house and had dinner then he played happy birthday on the piano. He has like a PhD in piano performance so he spiced it up quite a bit. it was epic. Why did i quit piano again?

So we had a pretty sweet week. We saw a returning member, TM, who is about to go down to the cities for 7 weeks for cancer treatment. it is going to be rough. He was feeling really sick and so we didnt have too much of a lesson. But hedid EMP one of our CDs in his microwave... ha ha

We had a lesson with a member referral who is about 23 years old. He is doing everything wrong morally you can think of and has decided he needs to change his life. We had a pretty cool lesson with him where we read Alma 29 and he recognized the Spirit teach him that change starts with him taking the first initiative. So he wants to do more. He said the prayer at the end of the lesson! He has never prayed vocally in his whole life and he hasnt prayed at all in the last decade. He said a fantastic prayer! He also dropped a swear word or two in it, but baby steps. 

We also went to a less active family's house. Well, they arent completely less active but they are slipping into it and they dont realize. Last time Elder Zerkle was pretty bold and committed them to pray about the Book of Mormon again. I had done this before he got here but the Spirit was much stronger this time and they did it! For the first time in a long while they have read their scriptures and they are doing it regularly now. When we enter their home we can literally feel more happiness and peace. It is pretty cool. 

On Thursday we did a teaching evaluation with a member in the ward. That is where they pretend to be an investigator and we teach them and then they tell us how we did. Well the person we did it with is pretty sassy so i thought it was going to be pretty tough. It was. Elder zerkle was testifying of God's love to His children and the member butt in and said, "is that why God killed all the first borns of the egyptians?" Elder Zerkle's face dropped and he looked at me. I just smiled back. ha ha. oh man. Then later the man asked why God doesnt just wipe all of the false churches off of the earth and Elder zerkle said it was because there are good people in all churches. And then the member said, "oh so the egyptian babies weren't good?" And then Elder Zerkle said, "no of course not! all of those babies were innocent." Then he realized he agreed with him and again looked at me. I just smiled. Dont worry, i bailed him out... eventually. 

We were teaching a man a few nights back when all of a sudden we heard a few pounds on the door. Elder Zerkle opened the door and there were five cops standing there. The cops asked if Elder Zerkle's was the son of the man we were teaching and he stumbled over his words for awhile and then I said no he wasnt. I think elder zerkle was surprised a bit to see five cops. Then the cop asked if the Girlfriend of the son was there and the member insisted she was not. the awkward part was that i could hear her talking in the back bedroom... so it got a little wild and the cops were very persistent in trying to get in the door. Then finally the man we were teaching said, "we are having a bible study here and you are interrupting, could you come back another time?"

So the cops left and Elder Zerkle just looked at me, and I him, and we were just like what the freak just happened.

Last night we were able to attend the CES devotional by Brother Ridd and it was fantastic! He talked a lot about how we need to have real intent and the patience to see the hand of the Lord in our lives. The greatest intent we can ever have is to do things to show our love for the Lord not for some reason centered on ourselves. if we lose ourselves in His service, we will truly find ourselves. 

Love you all!

Elder Damron

pics from Duluth week 12

Filibertos!

We made a blanket for President and Sister Forbes' Christmas present!

District picture

We had a hot cocoa making competition on Christmas.

Gotta love cats!

New Year's Eve Party #DuctTape

Duluth week 12

Transfers are in! And I am staying in Duluth. Woot woot! I am also the District Leader again because our current District Leader just got transferred. I wasn't quite expecting that but I am excited for the opportunity again. 

So this week we saw one of the craziest miracles of my mission. We were driving down the road and we stopped to eat dinner at a fast food place because we had quite a few lessons and not enough time. It is a good problem to have :) anyway, we walk out of the food joint and low and behold there it was: a holiday gas station with a sign that said 1.99 per gallon. :D

So I want to give a shout out to my wonderful father for sending me the best birthday present ever: Filibertos Burritos. He iced them up and sent them in a cooler. The fiery goodness of those God sent burritos warmed my soul in the midst of the horrors of a lake Superior winter. 

We had a pretty sweet New Years day. in the morning we went and played basketball. The elders from Ashland Wisconsin were there and then the WML and his sons came. They are all pretty good so we balled pretty hard. Im still pretty bad but oh well. ha ha. Then we played games at the church with our entire district until Dinner. I have gotten a little sassy while playing card games and things got a little wild. it was pretty fun ha ha

We also had a super cool lesson with a less active native American woman (who is from Pryor Montana! which is close to Billings). She was in quite a bad mood and not receptive at all. Then a little voice came into my head that said "compliment her." My companion was talking at the time. A second time I felt I should compliment her. So I talked about how we loved coming to their home because of the loving environment it is. They absolutely love their two kids and are wonderful parents. I thanked them for their examples. Her mood changed completely and we taught a pretty powerful lesson. Moral of the story: follow the Spirit!

We had a LEGIT lesson with our investigator GP. So we found him in our area book 2 weeks ago and he was quite surprised to see us on his doorstep because a joint teacher and the last missionaries said some pretty uncalled for things to him. Anyway, we played damage control with him and started teaching him. Well this last week we went to our lesson and he put the BoM on the table and told us that his new years resolution was to find out if that book is true or not. Then he told us that you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink but he is thirsty and ready to drink. He put his arms up in the air and said "convert me." it was pretty sweet. then he came to church Sunday!! he loved it. so good things are happening in Duluth :D

So the Saturday before transfers if we get a new assistant in the mission then President calls them Saturday afternoon. Friday night we slept at the Zone Leader's apartment and I told Elder Roose to make sure to keep his phone off of silent so he could hear President calling. He didn't like that joke. I kept getting some good one liners in about him becoming the new AP. then Saturday during correlation guess who called? President Forbes!! Elder Roose's face dropped like the thermometer in January. President was calling about something completely different but oh man it was hilarious. I got him good. 

It was -40 with windchill this morning. yep. Elder Zerkle is a little bit cold... 

We had another cool miracle. A less active lady randomly called us and asked us to visit her step father in the hospital with her! And she is pretty receptive to meeting. So yeah. We like getting calls like that. 

Anyway, we are driving 2 hours north to do some winter hiking with a member so we must be off! love you all!

Elder Damron

I just got word that Duluth was voted the coldest place in the United States or something like that. woot!

pics from Duluth week 11

We weren't so happy about this picture...haha (Ethan is NOT serious by the way.)

"What can I say...missions change you..." ;)

Duluth week 11

Well this is my last email in the year 2014.. what the flip. Anyway. I'll stop freaking out about time now.  

So this last week was a LOT of fun. On Monday we went to our ward mission leader's house and baked cookies for a few hours. Then after dinner we went caroling and handed out the cookies we made. Our group had golden pipes so all was well. #CookieCarolers all 4 of us Elders went with the Bishop's son. On way home, right before we got onto the highway, the son hit something in the road. we pulled over in the parking lot and somehow a flippin bolt had gone straight into the tire. The head of it was the size of a nickel, it was ridiculous. It was freezing and changing the tire was a interesting because the lugnuts were basically frozen on. it only took 4 missionaries like 25 minutes to change a tire. no biggie. we may or may not have gotten home a little late.... 

On Tuesday we wrapped up some RC planes we found in our apartment and gave them to some kids in the ward. They had a lot of fun chasing their siblings around with them from what we here. 

Christmas eve was really fun as well :) i woke up pretty sick and i wanted to die in a hole for a few hours, but i put myself together and we went out. We went to the Carrillo family's house and took their dogs for a walk through the snowy woods with the husband. It was quite a bit of fun! Then we had two rounds of dinner. I was so stuffed...

On Christmas we went to a YSA girl's house with the other missionaries in the ward. She wasnt able to make it home for Christmas so we made pancakes, played some games, and had a hot chocolate making contest. My hot chocolate won the style award but no one seemed to like the taste... lame. Then we played some games and of course i talked a little bit of trash and lost.. i got one of the sister missionaries to brush off her shoulder just like the nfl players do when they score touchdowns. i felt accomplished. 

Saturday was basically miracle city here in Duluth. I went on exchanges with Elder Roose, one of the ZLs, and we went to town. So all of our plans fell through. 3 pretty solid appointments down the drain. But we didnt get discouraged, we went looking for the miracles that God had prepared for us. At 4:45 we ended up at a less active member's house who i was pretty sure wouldnt be home but i felt like we should knock it anyway. we had a lesson at 6:15 pretty far away so things were getting tight if we wanted to eat dinner. We knocked and he was home! So we went in and his dad was also there. I have been wanting to teach the son alone for awhile now because his dad has been causing disturbances during lessons. The dad told us he would be leaving to go to the store soon. So we patiently waited. After about half an hour he left and then things got real. We began to teach and the Spirit flooded the room. Elder Roose asked some quite bold and very inspired questions and the less active told us all of his concerns and pains. I felt we should watch the mormon message "The Hope of God's light" and so we did that and then we committed him to fast to feel God's love. We also promised to fast with him. Then he came to church yesterday for the first time in a long time! Our lesson with him ended at 6:10so we rushed off to our next appointment and we ate a few cookies we found in the back of our car for dinner. So worth it :D I just look back and see how miraculous the events were that led to us being there at his doorstep at 4:45 to teach him. Sometimes we think we know how things should pan out and when things dont pan out the way we imagine we get discouraged. if we but have faith we can recognize that God's plan is much better than ours.

To end this letter on a spiritual note I wanted to talk about a miracle that occurred for Christmas. So i woke up Christmas Eve feeling like i might die and i was very worried. i was coughing and couldnt speak too well. Christmas night we had a very important lesson with a family that is struggling. The wife has cancer and if i was still sick we would have to cancel. So Tuesday night i asked for a blessing from our WML so that i might be healthy enough to teach that family. I pleaded with God in prayer to allow us to teach them. I asked not to be healthy for my sake, but for theirs. So i got the blessing and i was promised that i would be healthy enough to teach them. And as i walked away the phrase "my grace is sufficient for all men" from ether 12:27came to my mind and i was unsure why. I was expecting to be fully healed from the blessing. the next day i felt much better. i didnt cough too much and things went really well. i was healthy enough to teach the family! But on Thursday and friday, i still was not 100% better and i felt like i was getting worse. i realized the Lord was teaching me a lesson here. The reason that scripture came to my mind was quite apparent. He was teaching me that i must rely upon him in times of distress and in times of plenty. My problems will not always just go away, but He will provide the strength to do His work. His grace will be just enough for us to accomplish great tasks and still grow from it. 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Elder Damron