Monday, December 2, 2013

Andover week 3

So it is getting a tad chilly. We have had some single digit days, which isnt too bad really. But the wind. Oh the wind! Basically it doesnt matter what you are wearing. The wind just dominates your soul. ha ha.
Well I had the opportunity to teach the B. family on exchanges with my zone leader this week. They are the family I interviewed for baptism. they are so flipping legit, I love them. We talked of the covenant of baptism. I kept trying to share a scripture but their son went insane and for 20 minutes the children were just bouncing off the walls and causing havoc, so the lesson was... interesting to say the least. Oh man. kids.
While talking to a Sister training leader about some sisters in my district over the phone, Elder Garret snuck up on me and barraged me with rubber bands. he was flinging them across the room. I then returned fire and we had quite the war. All while on a phone call. It was quite impressive. She didnt even know. im pretty sure i won.
Wednesday night we went over to this family's house for dinner. We knocked on the door and the 5 year old son answered. We asked if the parents were there and he said they were busy and slammed the door on us. we stood there like did that just happen? after a few minutes we knocked again. The same boy answered. He said, "did you knock again????" He went for the door slam again but then an adult saw us and let us in. ha ha. I then met the sister-in-law of Sister H., the member who lived there. She looked at me for a minute or two and then said," Damron! You lived in Billings!" A little taken aback i told her I indeed did. She introduced herself as sister Gilstrap (sp) and told me that she served her mission in Billings and had eaten at our house quite a few times. She told me she remembered my mother well and asked how my family was doing. Small world. and oh how the tides have turned... we had a pretty good discussion on billings. It was a lot of fun.
Thanksgiving was definitey muy bueno. We went over to a member's house in our ward and they are FANTASTIC cooks. They are Hawaiin and so there was a unique twist in there as well. Bro. G. let us play his ukuleles for awhile and then we had dinner. we hung around for awhile and chatted and also had some trivia questions. I came up with a trivia question to ask and then immediately one of the daughters, who is in her 30s, was like that is a lie! And googled it. Well the question i asked was a question that my friends and I looked up at BYU or something and we got some answer that made partial sense. i was not actually the one who looked up the answer... well turns out i was dead wrong. So they called me out on that one and then the daughter googled everything else i said the rest of the day. blah. I hate being wrong. :)
That night from 6-9 pm we were supposed to visit less active and active members of the ward that might be alone. We had set up appointments but they all fell through. We were not allowed to tract so we were thinking it was going to be a LOOONG night. But then we felt as if we should go and visit Sister E. She lives quite far away but we committed to it and went. We got there about 20 minutes later and the family let us right in and we had a wonderful talk. her youngest son has been asking about God and Sister E. knows he needs to be in church. This was such a miracle! our plans fell through and then we felt we should go visit this woman! Not a coincidence.
We were teaching Sister W. and we had challenged her to pray to know if Christ was the Son of God. She prayed about it and was shocked to recieve the answer that He was indeed sent her to earth with a purpose. Before she wouldnt even acknowledge He existed. that was a cool experience. She really hates how a lot of churches and a lot of her friends always badmouth our church and this is one reason she is attracted to it. While talking about faith I said something silly like, "all churches require faith. except the golden plates, we need to see those to believe that." She found that quite hysterical. it is slightly true though.
We visited with a less active man who is returning to the gospel after a health scare kind of reality checked him. We were teaching the restoration and we got to Christ's earthly ministry. The atonement obviously came up and he just kept saying how bad a man he really was. it was such a sweet experience to testify that through Christ, all can be made right. he can change. He can feel the peace of forgiveness.
We went to our Bishop's for dinner and the topic of musical instruments came up. Their kids play band instruments and Elder garrett plays the trumpet. Elder Garrett declared the trumpet to be the Celestial instrument since angels play them in most pictures and the trumpet is mentioned in the bible. I responded that the bible uses a lot of symbolism and that angels are not of celestial glory yet and so obviously the cello will be played in the Celestial kingdom. he he
During gospel principles in church we were talking about the priesthood. At one point the teacher said, "if i ran off and tried to start my own sect using the priesthood while also having my children in cages in the basement, what would happen?" I immediately understood what he was trying to get across. That priesthood power is only obtained through personal righteousness and whatnot. Well the rest of the class did not realize this and hilarity ensued. oh man. Im glad we didnt have any volatile investigators who would flip out. ha ha.
 
D&C 59:7 Thou shalt athank the Lord thy God in all things.
2 nephi 9:52 Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give athanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts brejoice.
The Lord has commanded us to be thankful. It is a commandment! And with every commandment there a blessing. He has promised that as we are more thankful, we WILL be happier. Not only that, but we will be more humble as we recognize how much the Lord actually does in our lives.
 
i love you all! Have a good week!
Elder Damron

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