River Falls week 16

On Monday we had district P-Day. Once a transfer all the missionaries in the district can get together and have some fun. So we went bowling! Man I am terrible. One Elder, he is from Mesa too, bowled a 219. He knocked down every pin but 4 in the last frame on a 3rd roll. He said he has never done anything like that before in his life, ha ha. Then we had Elder Lotulelei, who I mentioned last week, who basically started throwing bowling balls down the whole lane and getting strikes. It was insane. That kid is a BEAST. 

While contacting at a college apartment area I met a girl who has been to Montana. She had the nerve to call South Dakota better than Montana! Blasphemy! I told her she had just plunged a knife in my heart and she chuckled and went back inside to finish her agriculture homework. Fun. 

We went to dinner at a member's house this week and while waiting for the food to be ready E. Cole and I started talking to one of the daughters, who is 9, about school. She mentioned she had not gotten any tickets yet at recess. Then her father walked into the room and said she broke the record for tickets in a year last school year. We then asked her how to get tickets. She got a big smile on her face and said," by punching people until they get bruises, by hitting people in the face, by pushing people to the ground and kicking them really hard, stuff like that." E. Cole and I stood there mortified as she started laughing and went into the other room. Oh man. 

We went to to a New Missionary Training meeting in Bloomington for Elder Cole on Wednesday. We got a ride with some other Elders, the driver was Elder Silva. While driving down the high way there were tons of people on the bridges over the road waiving flags for 9/11. Elder Silva kept rolling the window down and screaming/yelling "MURRICA". It was an interesting car ride. Anyway, President talked about how we need to stop being so critical of ourselves. Some self criticism is good. But if we are always dogging ourselves this is actually being very selfish and prideful because we are always thinking of ourselves. I had been thinking about this for a few weeks so it was a nice reminder. I just want to be President someday. That would be cool. He knows everything. 

We also got in contact with some old investigators, an unmarried couple in their late 20s. They were outside so we talked to them. The man told us life was going ok but they were moving at the end of the month, so things might get tricky. That was the first time we had heard anything about moving. Unfortunately, that was also the first time the girlfriend had heard anything about moving (they live together). Needless to say it got quite awkward when they started arguing and so we told them we would drop by later...

We went to the River Falls campus and contacted a little bit. Something cool happened! This girl named Anna walked up to us and said asked us if we were the ones that stops by her apartment every once in awhile (we have talked to her roommate a couple times). We told her yes. She got excited and told us that she had been to Nauvoo and wanted us to go over the next day to talk with her. E. Cole and I were ecstatic! So we went over. The moment my foot stepped into the doorway of that apartment I knew it was a trap. They were sitting at a table with their bibles out and ready. They had a carefully laid out game plan on how to trip us over our words. They asked all the perfect questions to steer the conversation the way they wanted it to go. They even had read a lot of JST stuff and told us to look at the JST footnotes in some places. They then proceeded to absolutely rail us for about an hour on our beliefs on grace and whatnot. I kept trying to explain our beliefs but they didn't listen too much and just kept on going. At one point Anna told us she was sorry for what she was about to do, and then she turned to Moroni 10:32. I know that scripture quite well and I told her I loved that scripture. She read the second half of it and told us that we contradicted ourselves about being by saved by grace alone. I told her she skipped the first half. There is a clear if-then statement in the first half of that verse. IF you come unto Christ and deny yourselves of ungodliness, THEN you are saved by grace, or something like that. The more creative argument that her friend, Hannah, made was one I had never heard before. We talked of being here on earth to grow, experience, and learn to be like God. She opened up to Genesis and told us we sounded like Lucifer and the First Lie. Eat of the fruit and ye shall surely not die, but become as Gods. I almost wanted to give her a slow clap for the creativity of that one. But I didnt know that trying to develop the Christ like attributes of patience, humility, knowledge, etc was of the devil... anyway, E. Cole got pretty heated up and so I kneed him really hard under the table. He realized his error and then bore a very humble, powerful testimony that while we did not know everything, we did know this was true by the power of the Holy Ghost. We left with a prayer. During the prayer I said Anna started crying because she felt so sorry for us. Anna truly wanted to help us see the truth. Hannah didnt like us at all. Then Hannah informed us they would say their own prayer because "we do not worship the same God." And I might agree. The God they described is a deterministic God who choses who he saves, therefore he is not all loving. The God they described was also slightly vain, and I am not trying to be blasphemous. I walked out of the encounter absolutely dumbfounded over the words which they had spoken. They had not shaken my testimony at all, they have strengthened it. We have the truth about the nature of God in this Church. There is no doubt in my mind about this. I just don't understand why more people don't realize what they are actually saying when they declare their beliefs to us. Later on in a phone call with Elder Mattison he asked me if they had called me  "Elder Damwrong," then he burst into laughter. Kudos Elder Mattison, I have never actually heard that one before. 

We also brought a couple investigators to a baptism in the ward on saturday. One of the investigators had not wanted to be baptized until a special day such as Christmas, her birthday in march, or July 25th (we have no clue why the latter is special, ha ha). But after going to the baptism, she woke up the next morning and knew she needed to be baptized. She will be baptized November 9th. If you ever have friends you want to share this gospel with, bring them to a baptism. Like 80% of people who attend a baptismal service join the church. The Spirit at a baptismal service is so powerful. 

We talked to this guy named Herbert for awhile on Sunday and he went off on a rant about how God is a woman because there is no way a man is that nurturing. We opened up a Restoration Pamphlet and showed him a picture of the First Vision and we told him this is God the FATHER and HIS son Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph Smith. Our next appointment with him might be quite entertaining. 

In 1 Nephi 1:19 the Lord tells Nephi he is blessed for being diligent and lowly in heart. Diligence is so critical for becoming converted to the Lord. Not just having a testimony, but being truly converted! These are two separate things. Go read E. Bednar's talk on conversion from the 2012 general conference (fall, I believe). Anyway, think about all Nephi went through and how diligent he was. Twice he and his brothers went unto Laban to try and get the brass plates, and twice they fled for their lives. His older brothers were about to go home and Nephi said no, the Lord will provide and on that third visit, he did just that. The Lord blesses those who are diligent. But we must also be diligent because we want to honestly serve the Lord. What is our intent on following God's commandments? The Lord looketh upon the heart. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

-Elder Damron