River Falls week 12

So today is transfer calls! *drum roll please* duh duh duh duh duh duh duh

I am staying in River Falls! And Elder Berg is going to the Anoka Zone in Minneapolis to be a Zone Leader! AND IM TRAINING. WUt! After a mere 3 months in the field, I have been entrusted with the opportunity to train a brand new missionary. I am super nervous and super humbled at this opportunity. I feel inadequate. But the Lord qualifies those whom He calls, so I know it will all work out. Im really thankful for my time with Elder Berg. He is my personality opposite and I have learned a lot from him on how to be bold, work really hard, and talk to people on the street at whatnot. In one of my interviews with president clements, he told me I would be very thankful for my time with Elder Berg for the rest of my mission. He was right, of course. 

So we had a fun week full of hilarity, as always. In church, Brother Mielke (an older man in the ward) walked past us and heard Elder Mattison (the elder from AZ) making some jokes. He stopped and asked Elder Mattison,"do you ever get on the telephone?" Elder Mattison looked quite confused and was like," yes..." Brother Mielke then asked," was it pretty high up there?" Then he started laughing and walked off. Elder Mattison isnt incredibly tall and is quite the jokester. Bro. Mielke got him so good. ha ha. 

We also went to a Twins game on Wednesday! Like half the mission went. President does this once a year and it counts as our P-Day for the week, except email on monday. It was a really good game! It went to 12 innings. In the 9th inning, the Indians got a homer to go up by one. Then Joe Mauer got up and hit a homer to tie it and send it into extra innings. The stadium went nuts. I jumped up and screamed, "Mauer must drive stick because he is CLUTCH!" Elder Mattison found that quite amusing. It was a lot of fun. 

Elder Berg and I were given some ties from one of our investigators. Two light blue ones and this crazy nice paisley tie. Now I wanted, and claimed, the paisley one. Elder Berg wanted it too. So after a bit of arguing we went back to the apartment and put all our chips on the table. We were making deals left and right.It was like Pawn Wars or something I dont even know. After multiple tie swaps, some money offers, and some yells of trades being a rip off, I emerged with the Italian Silk Paisley tie. I love it. A lot. 

But, as always, we did some missionary work too... ha ha. 

Jamie is progressing well towards baptism. She has read up to Mosiah and is loving the BoM. She will be baptized tomorrow. 

Jacob got anti'd quite hard by his family and church pastors. He told us this was not right for him, even though he knows it is true, and so our meetings will be postponed for awhile. I was so sad as we walked away. It felt like a funeral.

We also contacted a referral named Brian. He is a pretty old guy who we were warned could talk a LOT. And he can. he has some interesting religious views and we talked for about an hour. But the conversation started to turn to bible bashing and so I was like alright, we need to head home now (it was 9:05 and dont worry, i said it nicer than that). So I called on Elder Berg to say a prayer since he was trying to run out the door before he screamed at the guy. Then after E. Berg asked him a few more questions about faith without works. Brian believes in faith ONLY. Nothing else at all. I asked him if we could help him with anything. He mentioned he was staining his garage doors if we wanted to help. E. Berg said we didnt know much about that kind of stuff. I was already out the door but the man then said, "where are your works now, eh?" then started laughing. It was so freaking funny. Oh man. Elder Berg didnt like that very much. 

We taught another girl named Sarah. She has a book of mormon already and said she reads it some times. She says she opens up to a random page and always manages to read something she needed to help her no matter what page she turns to. Imagine that.. :)

Spiritual thought: 

Jacob 2:8
 8 And it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing^aword of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul.

The pleasing word of God is the gospel, as the footnote mentions. And the gospel is essentially the atonement. All things stem from that great and everlasting sacrifice by our Lord and Redeemer. The gospel, or atonement, will heal our soul! The scripture doesnt say "which can healeth" it says "which healeth". The scriptures were written with a flippin ice pick! The wording is very important in all cases. Embrace the atonement. Really. It is so powerful and so sweet. 

I love you all! I am happy to remain in River Falls for another 6 weeks. Have a great week :) 

Love, Elder Damron