Andover week 13

So this week something inside of me snapped and now I am just sick of the cold. I didnt mind too much before, but THE SNOW NEVER LEAVES AND IT IS SO FLIPPING COLD. It is really fun. But hey, its no big deal. We still preach and teach and will hopefully baptize soon. 

So this past monday we had the opportunity to go and give a blessing to a woman who had her named removed from the church about 30 years ago. Her sister called us and told us she wanted a blessing because she was going in for major spine surgery. She had basically lost the use of the left half of her body. The sister promised the woman that we wouldnt preach to her, so we didnt get to share a message, but it was still a pretty spiritual experience! She was very appreciative. 

After that we went by and dropped by an investigator who we have been teaching. We have taught his mother a few times as well. Anyway, the daughter answers the door and says the brother is asleep. So we talk to her for a bit and then the mother Sister B comes to the door and just starts screaming at us to stop dropping by and to call first. We told her that her son had told us to come by at this time. She stopped with an "oh..." expression on her face. She said that was fine. Then started screaming at us again because he wasnt available and we were still here. We reminded her that we drop by because she tells us to come by at certain times. We also reminded her that we do call every time but she doesnt answer or return our call. She again stopped and had an, "oh..." expression on her face. Well she again started flipping out and screaming at us telling us that she will call us and for us to not come over. Then she yelled about something and she doesnt want to see the caretaker. Then it hit us: the caretaker of the apartments is a member of the ward. She has seen us with him. Problem: she REALLY doesnt like him because she believes he sabotaged her hot water heater after he fixed her AC unit. The whole situation is a mess. Nothing like get screamed at for like 10 minutes though. That brightens up the day. 

Tuesday we went and taught Brother E. This man is so legit, I just love his lessons. He still struggles with Priesthood authority and so we read some passages and had a grand old time. I then had a scripture pop into my mind about binding on earth and in heaven, but I could not find the reference! Luckily our joint teacher has an iPad and he looked it up. It was Mathew 18:18. We read it and Brother E. stared at it for almost an entire minute. Pure silence. The Spirit permeated the room. Oh man, I love lessons like that. 

We also taught Brother L. He is a former investigator who we have been working with for awhile now. We brought this member over this week who started talking about his conversion story. Brother L stopped him and said, "wow, I am so thankful you came tonight. Everything that you overcame to be baptized are exactly what I fear too." We then found out many concerns we had previously known nothing about. Most of the concerns were kinda silly and just things he had overthunk. A lot of misconceptions that werent true. He then committed to come to church! And he came! For the first time in 5 months! It was fantastic! 

Thursday was... not as fun. We had to go to the Chevy dealership to get our car checked out because it was shaking in weird ways. So we go in and they tell us it will be 1 hour. They asked if we would need an oil change. We told them no, we had one a few weeks ago and we just needed to figure out the shaking thing. Well, 1.5 hours later they brought our car forward and we paid. We looked at the receipt and saw that we had payed for an oil change. SO we asked about it. The lady said, "yes we change your oil just like you wanted!" Facepalm... we then explained everything we told them at the beginning and she was like "oh... well do you need to be anywhere any time soon?" So they took the car back in for another 1.5 hours and found the real problem. Our tires were bald, the alignment was off, and the tie rod ends needed replacing.( So now we are at a library in Brooklyn Park while our car is in the shop for 3 hours. We biked 2 miles in -5 w/o windchill so we could email instead of sitting in that stinking chevy dealership for another 3 hours. It was pretty horrible).

Saturday morning we knocked on the door of a Liberian potential that was met last year. We met the husband and he let us right in! We taught a fantastic Restoration lesson and he told us he would most definitely get baptized if this is the direction the Lord guided him to. He told us he knew that knowledge would come not from us but from reading and praying. We love it when people teach us what we are about to teach them. Ha ha. 

Saturday night we went and dropped by a less active who lives in a pretty sketchy apartment complex. He has a few roommates. One of them walked by the door when we sat down on the couch and he yelled, "come in here and learn how to repent! You dont want to go to hell do you?" So his roommate came in and we had a wonderful lesson. ha ha. 

Sunday was absolutely great as well. Brother G. went to a High Priest Group Social last night and had a BLAST. Before church he was out greeting ward members with us. He is loving the church!

My thought this week comes from a lesson we had with Brother Gray. The member we had with us piped up after we taught about the 3 kingdoms and said, "Robert, do you love God?" Robert said yes. The member then said, "No I mean do you REALLY love him with all your heart might mind and strength?" Robert looked at him and again reiterated his previous answer. The member then said, "imagine there was a glass wall right in front of you and Jesus Christ was standing on the other side. You could not hear him, touch him, walk with him, or interact with him in anyway. That would be pretty hard, wouldnt it? Well, imagine that the reason you were not on the other side of the glass wall because of your own actions. You love the Lord with all your heart, might, and strength yet you could not be with him because of a decision you made. But you knew you could have been with him. That, Brother G, is hell. Imagine if Jesus Christ walked in that door right now and you could not shake his hand. That would be hell, Brother G."

2 Ne 2:27

27 Wherefore, men are ^afree according to the ^bflesh; and ^call things are ^dgiven them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to ^echoose ^fliberty and eternal ^glife, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be ^hmiserable like unto himself.

The choice is really our own. We can choose to live with our Father in Heaven, or we can live with the knowledge that we could have lived with him if we had simply followed Christ's example.

Joshua 24:15
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, ^achoose you ^bthis day whom ye will^cserve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my ^dhouse, we will ^eserve the Lord.

i love you all! Have a good week!
Elder Damron