River Falls week 6

So today is transfer calls and Elder Berg was called to be a district leader..... but he is the district leader here in River Falls! And I am staying with him here! I am so overjoyed, I do NOT want to leave Elder Berg. Like ever. We went on 48 hour exchanges monday/tuesday so I wasnt with him for 2 days and I realized how well we work together. So that makes me happy. THe two elders we went out with are quite quiet and I found myself doing most the talking and approaching people, which I havent dont much of out here. It is good for me. 

When President called E. Berg to tell him of his DL assignment he asked if he gets up on time every morning. E. Berg gave us a 4 out of 5 (we have been getting up at like 6:35ish, not bueno) and president then committed him (and me) to getting up at or before 6:30 every morning the rest of our missions. We have to text him whenever we get up late. So the alarm will be going off at 6:15. ha ha

While on exchanges with Elder Denney (very quiet kid from Nevada) we knocked into these 2 boys and started talking. They are quite religious and actually use the King James Bible (first people in 6 weeks I have met that actually do that). We believed basically everything the same, they accused our church of not being of the bible pattern and I explained we very much so are, and i cited Articles of Faith I think to back it up and i explained our church's structure. we went back and forth, and finally we asked if we could pray. I have never seen any 2 people look more uncomfortable in their lives. I asked them what was wrong and they said the bible tells us to specifically pray only in private. I definitely remember a scripture in the bible going something like "pray over your crops" and all else you have or something, but i couldnt remember where it is and didnt want to argue with them anymore so we were like ok. They said the only way they would speak with us again is if their pastor could sit in with us. yeah, no thanks. That would be fun and full of Spirit fed teaching. Maybe we will give them a call one day....

So one of our investigators Chris has been avoiding us for a couple weeks. Elder Berg texted him with much boldness and asked him what was up. He said he read the whole book of mormon and that it made him realize there is no God and that religion is all for profit. He called us foolish for not seeing that. Elder Berg basically called him a liar without being so rude about it and said if he had truly read any of it, not to mention the whole thing, he would not have those feelings. elder berg then managed to get Chris to want to learn about God and he begged us to help him find God. On one condition: E. Berg goes alone. He does not want to see me ever again. He said I was extremely disrespectful (apparently I tied my shoe on his kitchen table. I never tie my shoe on anything so I find it odd that I actually did do it this one time. And the one time I did the person got offended. oh well.) and that I messed up the lesson a whole ton and he just never wants me to go back (I think he was like my 3rd lesson in the Mission field so maybe I messed it up. Regardless, I did ok and the lesson was powerful and I felt so happy during it). This made me quite... irritated. Respect is like my life motto. I like to think that I am pretty level headed most the time but the one thing that sets me off in about 2.84749384 seconds is disrespect, so I always strive to be as respectful as I can. So to have this kid call me out like this when I tried so hard made me quite unhappy. Regardless, I decided I needed humbling. I immediately got on my knees and begged the Lord to not cause my imperfections to keep this man from hearing the Gospel of Christ and asked for my heart toward him to be softened. Usually I just simmer in bitterness for awhile, but this worked much better. 

While on exchanges we also met this woman named Amy, who is Lutheran. We talked for awhile and she talked about how Luther started her church and she didnt need Joseph Smith. I pointed out that Luther didnt actually start the Lutheran church (his followers started the church. at least I am 90% certain of this, maybe I preached false doctrine.). she got pretty mad. We also explained the BoM clarifies the bible, such as things like baptism. She explained her bible taught it very clearly: older people go down into the water and babies have water sprinkled on her forehead. My jaw dropped. I was like the bible does not say that. She said her bible does and that it was re written to be easy to read and that her church translates it to be "as close as it can be" to the original. I told her that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever and thats why we could do that. She didnt like that either. But she still took the BoM and promised to study it and we will see her tonight. WE talked to her drunk husband a couple weeks ago, so it might get... interesting tonight. 

So we taught Jamie Halfen this week. We brought a member, Sister Dixen, with us to teach word of wisdom. We watched President Monson's talk on obedience and then tied it in. She does not want to quite. finally at the end after a bunch of subject changes I remembered the words of Elder Holland a couple weeks ago when he told us we had power authority from God. So we need to act like it. Far too many missionaries are too lax about this. Anyway, something came over me (Spirit, obviously) and I looked her straight in the face and told her I was a representative of Jesus Christ and because of this I have the authority to promise blessings to those who will keep the commandments. I told her that if she would truly commit to try and quit smoking and ask God for help with all energy of heart, that it would happen ( i said some other stuff too). She just looked at me. it was so powerful and awesome. she committed. Next time we met with her she made me a little irritated again because she denied ever committing to quit and she remembers telling us she probably wouldnt quit and so she had been smoking the whole week. But she is down from one pack to 3 cigs a day, so i guess we can work with that... 

We also met this less active named Andy. Now what I saw what he opened the door might remain in my head for the rest of my life. He opens his door without a shirt, and the portion of skin between his ribs is removed because of a surgery he had recently. So it is all nasty and healing. He also has a stoma (i think it is called this) on his chest. basically it looks like one of his intestines is poking from his chest. He was so casual about it and just sat there talking. I actually didnt get too bothered because thankfully my loving father has set me up job shadowing and i have seen some surgeries. But elder denney looked like he might lose his stomach contents. ha ha

We also talked to this lady on the doorstep who basically believes the plan of salvation without knowing what it is. She is catholic. We asked what her belief on hell/heaven is and she said that her local catholic church has basically stopped preaching that there is a hell. She believes there are different places for good people and bad people, but not hellfire and brimstone. How does a local church just stop teaching their doctrine? We also talked to this other catholic man who had been going for 35 years and we asked him some pretty simple questions and he couldnt answer any of them. Our church truly can answer any question we have and it blows my mind whenever I think about it.

So this week Jamie also told me that it took her 2 weeks to get a good read on me. She can read people she meets pretty well but she said that my dead straight face that I have most of the time just totally threw her off. Ha ha. Me, hard to read because of lack of facial expressions? Never. Im working on it though, she says she can tell im genuine and gave me advice on that if i cant show people im interesting in what they are saying by facial expressions, use my eyes. So i appreciated that. 

well, I have written a solid amount this week but want to write so much more! But alas, time is short. I shall share a quick thought before I head off.

In Alma 56: 47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the ^aliberty of their ^bfathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their ^cmothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

 48 And they rehearsed unto me the words of their ^amothers, saying: We ^bdo not doubt our mothers knew it.

And then in Alma 57: 21 Yea, and they did ^aobey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their ^bmothers had taught them.

The stripling warriors, who had never before fought and none of them died in their tremendous battles, learned from their mothers the things of God. Their exceedingly strong faith came from the teachings of their mothers! To me this is powerful. I feel as if motherhood is often overlooked and mothers are not given enough credit for raising children. I have grown SOOO much appreciation for my mother as I have been with families with small children on my mission. Fathers are incredibly important as well, but apostles and prophets have often spoken that the teachings of mothers to their children is vital and has a lasting influence on the lives of their children. Everyone be grateful to their mothers! (I love you mom)!

I feel like my above paragraph is kind of scrambled and incoherent, but i hope you all get the point. Have a good week everyone :)

Elder Damron