Duluth week 26

So this letter won't be too long because he had a slow week... The best way to adequately describe most of my week is Alma 12:17 "Then is the time when their torments shall be as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever; and then is the time that they shall be chained down to an everlasting destruction..." I got the flu and basically was done from part of tuesday to saturday. Im still a little tired but feeling a lot better. I can't really remember a time in the last 7 years of my life being more sick than I was this last week. But we had some sweet miracles because this is God's work and He took care of us :D

On tuesday I had the prompting to call a semi active man we have helped a lot spiritually in the last few months who has a trucking job and is gone a lot. Well, he happened to be in town for only a few more hours so we went over. He was in a pretty down mood and we were able to share a message with him to lift him out of his state of depression and give him a little bit of hope and light. Gotta love the Spirit!

A LA, TM, returned from the VA hospital in the cities this week. the last 10 weeks he has been getting cancer treatments down there. SO i saw him for the first time in a few months and man his treatments did a number on him. It was a sad sight to see. But he has an iron will and he decided he was going to use his afflictions to become more acquainted with God and I can tell he is different spiritually. He looked me in the eye and told me he made an oath to God to be back in church the day he is healthy enough to do so. 

After many months of patience and planning I managed to set up a dinner appointment with a member in the ward with a LA family. The dinner happened to also be a birthday party because the daughter was turning 8. I had been sleeping all day and at 6:30 i managed to drag my sorry soul out of bed and pray for strength to go to this dinner because there was no way i was going to miss it. We were able to make a pretty good relationship with the LA family and the daughter wanted us to show her the "movie" we had shown her when she was being babysat by the members last week. She was talking about Because He Lives so we showed it to the family and the mother said she almost cried. then the 8 year old daughter told us she wants to be baptized! So yeah. we will work on that.

Sunday was a super cool day. First, Brother K got to bless the sacrament. he was baptized 2 weeks ago and that warmed my heart. In sunday school we had a super awesome lesson on sacrifice that the sister missionaries had prepared (yesterday when our WML asked all of us missionaries what lesson should be taught the thought "sacrifice" came into my mind so i suggested it and everyone liked the idea. oh boy was this inspired). A few people in class said they felt this lesson was meant for them. The R family was there, they have the 9 year old child of record who will be baptized may 3, and i knew it would be good for them. later that night we went to the R family's home to teach them and i felt prompted to teach tithing. I had been waiting for the husband to be sufficiently humbled enough for the lesson to be meaningful and after the sacrifice lesson yesterday i felt the ground had been tilled and they were ready. So we go in and the first thing Brother R said is that he felt the whole reason he went to church was to hear the lesson on sacrifice. He told us he hadnt even wanted to go to church yesterday because he wanted to sleep so that lesson humbled him quite a bit. then i told him we would be talking about tithing and he chuckled and said of course. the lesson went great! THe husband said that tithing just adds up little by little and sometimes it is hard for him to part with. I challenged him to pray specifically to notice the blessings of paying tithing and notice how those start to add up. he agreed and committed to pay tithing. I love missionary work!

Well i forgot to mention two things last week. one, Elder Vern P. Stanfill was called to the first quorum of the 70. I heard him speak at the St Paul stake conference in my last area and I wrote about him in my letter. He was an area authority and he is from Kalispell, Montana! Cool stuff. 

Also, a member of our mission presidency, President (now Elder) Rulon Stacey was called to be an area authority in Minnesota. He spoke at a missionary meeting last week and he told us the brethren are really concerned about a few things right now. one of those things is all of the members, particularly the youth, having a meaningful, spiritual sacrament each and every week. So that is what i want to challenge you all to think about. How meaningful is your sacrament? are you early to the meeting or are you running in five minutes late or even right as it begins? are you on your phone? thinking about football? the cute girl down the aisle? basketball? school? the sacrament period is the most important part of your week. you need to think about the Savior and what he has done for you! ponder the covenants you have made. commit weekly to live them again. 

i love you all! have a great week

Elder Ethan P. Damron