Andover week 7 (sent Dec. 30)

So this email will be short again, as today is not Pday. Wednesday will be. And so I do not have much email time. Sorry to all of you who have emailed me.

On Christmas eve we went to our Bishop's house and played card games most the afternoon. WE PLAYED THE BEAN GAME!!!! I play this game a lot at the McRae home back in Mesa. One of the Sisters in the ward here actually reminds me a lot of Emily McRae in the competitive nature she has in card games. She wiped the floor of me most the day, so I switched games because my pride can only take so many hits in one day. Then we played the bean game and I won. :) Then we went to Brother G. and taught him the word of wisdom. It was a great lesson! He told us he drinks 5-6 cups of coffee a day and he said it would take him awhile to quite. But as of yesterday he hasnt touched coffee!! Absolutely remarkable. We also taught him the The law of chastity. He lives with his girlfriend of 20 years and wants to get married, but she does not. He has a lot of faith and we told him that the Lord uses faith to create miracles. We asked him to fervently pray for the Lord to provide a way for this marriage to happen. I have complete confidence that the Lord will provide a way. This is His work. As President Uchtdorf said one time in Priesthood Session (I think..) "Brethren this is the Lord's work. Let Him do the heavy lifting."

On Christmas we got up and went to the church. We opened presents with other missionaries, listened to a conf call by president, and then went home to open the rest of the presents. Thank you so much for all the gifts and cards! I think I got like 6 ties. Muy bien. I like a lot. Then we went to a family's home and skyped our families. That was a lot of fun. That was probably the fastest 40 minutes of my life. Afterwards, they let me play their cello <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 The sister missionaries had told them I played so as I walked into their house they informed me I could play before dinner.

We also went to a member's home this week and taught the Plan of Salvation to his sister and her kids, who are from Virginia. They did not know we would be teaching the lesson until we showed up. Classic. It went really well and they enjoyed it a lot. The 14 year old daughter asked us for a BoM. So that was cool. We invited them to church and they said they didnt have dresses or anything. We told them we really didnt care and that God would rather have them there in jeans than not at all. They came sunday and loved it!

Friday night we knocked on the door of a potential and an 18 year old african american boy opened up the door. This kid was freaking JACKED. so big. We asked him what he did for fun and he said he plays football. He humbly told us he was about to go play runningback at Michigan State. My jaw dropped. We taught him the restoration and he found it pretty interesting. He took a Book of Mormon. So yeah, if he goes pro, I taught him the restoration. no big deal. ha ha.

Saturday it was in the 40s here and super nice. We talked to a lot of people and made appointments for next week. We knocked into Brother D. who is in his early 20s. We talked about faith and he gave us a 20 minute sermon on faith that was 100% doctrinally correct. It was profound. He talked about how God can easily move mountains. But the miracles he produces in our lives are often small. He moves pebble by pebble until the mountain is moved. Are our eyes open enough to see these little pebbles moved?

 

My thought comes from 3 Nephi 1:19-21

 19 And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day. And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be ^aborn, because of the^bsign which had been given.
 20 And it had come to pass, yea, all things, every whit, according to the words of the prophets.
 21 And it came to pass also that a new ^astar did appear, according to the word.
The New Star was visible in the Americas too! This is another evidence, to me, of the reality and divinity of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The whole book truly testifies of Jesus Christ. I am thankful for its pages and teachings. I know that as Joseph Smith said, we can draw closer to God through it than by any other book.
HAve a good week! Love you all!
Elder Damron