Andover week 15

Well this week was flipping nuts in just about every way. The first rather crazy turn of events is that President Clements is gone. So... yeah. I guess I should explain that statement... ha ha. So he had a mission wide conference call early last week and he reminded us how lucky we are to be here on missions at this age because we can put all of our worldly worries aside. He said he is not so fortunate in that regard and that due to a "great trial" in his life dealing with some business matter. After counseling with his Priesthood leaders, the Quorum of the 70 and then 12, he was advised to take a 3 week leave of absence and take care of this pressing matter. So one of the counselors in the mission presidency, President Ken Ehlert, is our acting mission president. He is acting in full authority as if he was out actual mission president. Pretty nuts. I bet President Clements is the only man in the country who desperately wants to return to Minnesota in February.. ha ha. But President Ehlert is the MAN so we are in very good hands. yay for having 3 mission presidents (sort of) on my mission!

Monday night we went and knocked on a less active member's door and met Brother CL. He is the son-in-law of the member and let us in. He is Hmong and follows the Hmong religion, Shamanism, and talked about the laws of sacrifice in his culture. It sounded like straight up Law of Moses. The Great Apostasy is real!

I went on exchanges with my zone leader, Elder Cluff, and we had quite the action packed day. At one point he saw a Liberian woman drive by us and flip around in a culdesac. So he chased down the car and got a return appointment with the woman. That was pretty impressive. We do anything to teach Africans here in the MMM! We also dropped by this house that Elder Cluff had tracted into and the couple had said they really wanted to talk but they were busy. So we went back but alas, they were busy again. Something was fishy though... things seemed too easy... Anyway their cat ran out the door so we ran it down and the husband came out to thank us. Then my suspicions were sadly confirmed. He basically confronted us about how our views "jack-knife the bible" and yelled at us for like 10 minutes. We tried to politely explain some of the misconceptions that he had about us but he just kept yelling and whatnot. I politely thanked him for his time and said we teach people about the Restoration of the Gospel. So if he just wanted to argue it would be in neither of our best interests to further the discussion since contention is of the devil. He demanded we come back later so he can open our eyes to the reality of the bible but we gave him a Mormon.orgcard and left. It was intense.

We had a heat wave this week! 2 days straight of 41 degrees!!!! But thenon Thursday/Friday we had a massive storm and got like 10 inches of snow. Total white out blizzard. We weren't allowed to drive for 2 days and it got complicated getting to lessons and whatnot. We just cant catch a break.. ha ha. Worst winter in 20 years! Woot! Bring it on Mother Nature. If I am going to have a record breaking winter it might as well be super record breaking, you know? Besides, people call this a bad winter. But if you think about what winter actually is, this is actually a really good winter! ha ha. Maybe I overthink things.

So we had some fantastic lessons with Brother L This week! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he instantly accepted it. He has tried living it once before and struggled but he asked for a blessing and so we administered to him before we left. He was confident that the Lord would help him quite. He also is understanding more and more the role of obedience in happiness and I think he really wants to be happy.

Saturday we had a lesson with Brother G. His roommate, Sister O., was in the kitchen. She doesn't like our religion at all and usually she hides in her room. But this time she just stayed in the kitchen. I thought it would end up being a problem and turns out I was sadly correct. She kept throwing jabs at us and our beliefs while we were going over baptismal questions. She also tried changing the conversation a few times. At one point she interrupted to say "Faulkner (she always forgets Elder Foggin's name) have you heard the joke about sending Justin Bieber back to Canada (E. Foggin is from Canada)?" Anyway, then Brother G. said, "You hear that O.? You gotta get baptized!" She didn't like that very much. She flipped out and said she had been baptized and that we were all brainwashed and a bunch of stuff (although she has a thick Minnesotan accent so it actually sounded like "brainwarshed" so it was hard to take her seriously ha ha). She yelled that we don't believe in the Trinity or in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I agreed with her that we do not share the Trinitarian view, but bore testimony that we believe in the God Head. Just not the one she worships. Well things were getting nuts and we needed to leave anyway so I asked if we could pray before we left. I knew EXACTLY what Brother G. would say if he said the prayer so I was about to say it but before I opened my mouth he had already started the prayer. And, sure enough, he said exactly what I knew he would say. He prayed that the Lord would open Sister O's eyes and she would realize she needed to be baptized. He asked that her heart might be softened and stuff like that. Well she flipped out and while we were praying she was yelling at him. Then she yelled, "my grandmother would roll over in her grave if I became a Mormon!" Brother G. closed the prayer, we thanked Sister O. for her time and asked if we could do anything to help her and left. So intense.

Saturday night the two wards that met in our building had a musical fireside as a finding activity! It was pure music. I played the cello with Sister Miller, one of the sister missionaries. It was so nice to people to perform after 9 months. I guess we are playing in sacrament in a few weeks too, so that is fun :)

Sunday was seriously so flipping fantastic. It was ward conference so the entire stake presidency was on the stand. President Elhert was on the stand too because he came to our ward so he could talk to Brother G. It was the dream team up on the stand. Bishop and President Toronto Spoke, and President Elhert gave a testimony as invited by President Toronto. Brother G. was there. The sisters walked in 10 minutes late with a family of 5 they are teaching! Then, Brother L walked in late with his 3 kids and one nephew! We had 10 people to church between the 2 sets of missionaries, 5 each. The theme was fantastic too. They spoke on not procrastinating repentance and sharing the gospel. The Spirit flooded the room. To make things even more fantastic, in our lesson with Brother L earlier we asked him what his purpose here in life was and he said to share the gospel. We read alma 34: 32-33 and talked about not procrastinating repentance, either. He agreed. Then all 3 speakers spoke on sharing the gospel with your family first then friends and not procrastinating repentance! So fantastic. Brother L was really moved by the Spirit. After his Interview with President Elhert we found out that BROTHER G CAN GET BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! We have been waiting for this a long time. A lot of praying and fasting has taken place.

After church we stopped by a Liberian investigator's house but he was cooking. He wouldn't let us leave before we ate so he fed us fried Spring Fish and told us about African societies. Wow it was so flipping good. I love this place <3

 My thought comes from Alma 30:24

 24 Ye say that this people is a free people. Behold, I say they are in bondage. Ye say that those ancient prophecies are true. Behold, I say that ye do not know that they are true.

Korihor, the anti-Christ is teaching that religion is binding the people down. I drew a parallel to modern times. Look at society today! Religion is a bondage to people! You cant have "fun" or live life! You cant be happy!

2 Ne 2 27 quickly came to mind

 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.

Religion and following Christ is actually Liberty! And true, everlasting happiness!

I love you all! HAve a good week!

Elder Damron