Andover week 8 (sent January 4)

Today is saturday! Yay! So the next 4 or five days are going to be pretty flipping cold. Church meetings have been canceled tomorrow. Monday we have been told to not leave the apartment. The high monday is supposed to be between -18 to -25 degrees without windchill. Yum. So President instructed us to email and shop today.

To all of you who received a Christmas letter from my father, I would like to point out that I did in fact eat all 5 pounds of that ice cream :p whether I kept it in or not is another story...

So monday we attended a funeral at the church. WE were aksed to help set up and whatnot and the family wanted us to stay. The girl who passed away was only 27 and basically went to bed with the flu and didnt wake up. She has not been active in the church in over a decade and about 300 people showed up who were not members of our faith. The girl's step father got up and basically taught the Plan of Salvation to the whole crowd. The chapel was dead silent. The sniffeling stopped. I was borderline uncomfortable in my chair in the back just listening to how bold of a talk this was. Uncomfortable moments in missionary work are the best. :) He bore powerful witness of the fact that we will all be together again and he told the people that he felt sorry for them that they did not have the knowledge we have. He said he wished he could comfort them as best he could. The Spirit was strong. It was incredible. Lovingly bold is where it is at.

Our ward mission leader came and taught Brother G. with us this week. Brother G. is doing super well. He has such a strong tesimony that has grown so rapidly in the last few weeks. At the end of the lesson I asked Brother G. to give a prayer. His prayer was essentially a testimony in which he thanked the Lord for sending us and for the peace he has now. He said he knew this was the path he was supposed to be on and he choked up as he thanked our Father in Heaven. Quite remarkable. As we walked out our WML was amazed at how prepared he is and at how strong the Spirit was in that home. The only thing holding Bro. G. back is his girlfriend who is refusing to be married. I am confident this will be resolved. At a second lesson this week with him we talked about the 10 commandments. When we got to the whole "thou shalt not steal" commandment Brother G. started telling a story (he breaks into random stories a lot that sometimes does not make any sense). He starts talking about how he went to church one time and a man picked up the offering plate and ran out of the church. I sat there and thought of the different ways this story could end. Such as he came to church next week with a niec watch, or he felt bad and returned it, or he got arrested. Brother G. then exclaimed "he died that night!" I was not expecting that. ha ha.

Our mission set a record for the number of baptisms we had this year and december was our highest total for the last 10 years (which is what we have records for). We had quite a remarkable year in bringing souls unto the Lord here in the MMM! The numbers are not what matter, what the numbers represent is what matters. Souls came unto Christ.

Elder Foggin and I popped out the sparkling cider on new years eve. We definitely had quite the party as we got in bed by 10:30. ;)

On new years day we got a call from the sister missionaries asking us to come help move furniture at someone's house. I got quite a kick out of this because a few days prior when they volunteered to help move they told the person we were not needed because they were just as strong as us. Well moving a ginormous, solid wood dresser, in which the drawers cannot come out, down a loft and across an apartment complex was pretty brutal. Im sure the sisters found it quite amusing to watch.

I went on exchanges with Elder Hicken, one of my zone leaders, this past week. We were teaching a former investigator a lesson on scripture study. He has hit a low in his life and we showed him how the scriptures can guide us to all the answers we need in life. The lesson went well. His kids, not so much. They are borderline insane. The one son, who is about 7, was screaming in the back room. His father went to investigate and came back to tell us he was mad at his video game. 30 seconds later we heard the sound of an xbox being thrown against a wall. Oh man. Then the son came in and started fighting the other son, who is like 9. They went into a side room and we could hear the kids attacking each other. The dad looked exhausted and quite overwhelmed. His wife passed away a few months ago and he is struggling to keep up. We asked him to give the closing prayer and he literally gave a 10 minute prayer. It is one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard. The kids were destroying the house around us yet the prayer was peaceful. He begged the Lord for patience to handle his burdens. He is seeking peace in his life, yet he is refusing take the steps to get the peace. My soul breaks for him.

Well, thus concludes my saturday email. The holidays are over and so proselyting will now return to a somehwat normal schedule. Although our president texts us and tells us not to go finding outside on colder days in the week. And we literally have 0 apartment buildings so finding new investigators has been difficult. But the Lord can do His own work. I am confident of that.

My thought comes from Hel. 5: 9-10

10 And remember also the words which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom,^ain the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins. 11 And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath ^asent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls.
I have recently begun reading the Book of Mormon and looking for the elements of the Doctrine of Christ. faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am amazed at how much repentance has come up. This scripture, to me, emphasizes the importance of repentance. We are redeemed because of repentance! One of the primary duties of the Book of Mormon is to declare repentance! For the big and small things, along with everything in between, repentance is a mandatory thing we must all do.
I love you all! Happy new year!
Elder Damron