Andover week 21

So last Monday Elder Hawkes and I played some pool in our apartment building. After promising to wipe the floor with me I dusted him off a few straight games. I think I will name my pool stick "The Humbler." Ha ha. (Disclaimer: Im actually an awful pool player and probably got really lucky)

Monday night we had a really good lesson with a woman in our ward. We watched a talk by President Monson, then Elder Monson, on Patriarchal blessings. After the talk was over she looked at us and said she needs to set up an interview with the bishop and get her Patriarchal blessing! :)

So Tuesday Morning we got a media referral text. I then noticed the date on my calendar: April 1st. I immediately thought to myself, "oh man... it is April Fools..." but, determining to be optimistic, I chose to believe this was the real deal. I was REALLY hoping so because this person lived 13 miles away. Ugh. Anyway, we went out that direction and knocked on the door. No one answered. As we were walking down the driveway a boy around the age of 13, who had just gotten off the school bus, asked us what we wanted. We asked when his dad would be home, then we asked if his dad was Luke. He told us that he was Luke. We explained the referral process and he insisted that it was most definitely not him who referred himself and he didn't want anything to do with us, so he ran inside. Well I was determined to believe that there was a reason we were 13 miles away from our apartment at that time on that day, so we went driving through the neighborhoods to go tract near a member who lives there. I passed a street and it caught my eye in a way I cant quite describe, but we kept going. A few minutes later I flipped around and we went back to that street. The first door we knocked on we met Brother J! He opened right up and said he has tried just about every religion and hasn't really found one he likes too much, so he goes to some non-denominational church at the moment. he has not come to ours though! So we taught him about the Restoration. It was a pretty sweet lesson and he told us that he believes you can only know something is true by experiencing it. I LOVE it when people tell me that. So we set a return appointment. Unfortunately we could not make it because we had no car and we couldn't get a member to take us.

Which leads me to the next exciting event of the week. After being in the shop for 6 days, we finally got our car back today... Previous missionaries had put a large crack in the bumper and I called the mission office asking if they wanted it fixed. I now realize why no one wanted to call it in... So we were on bikes for 6 days. Normally I would not care, but this is a massive car area. All our investigators live like 6 miles away and so basically everything came tumbling down. All our time between conference sessions was spent biking between member homes. it also rained for 2 of those days. And on the third day it snowed ten inches so we had to walk through a blizzard to some local Less Actives. it was a lot of fun, let me tell you. But the Lord can do His own work, so it will all work out. The lessons we had to miss will be recompensed somehow. I must admit though, I do miss biking quite a bit. it is nice being that active again! And you can talk to people more easily on the streets.

Perhaps one of the saddest moments of my mission occurred this week. We have been teaching Brother E for about 3 months. He has been beating around the bush with truly finding out if the BoM is true and so we challenged him to finally figure it out for himself. When we arrived he told us God had indeed answered his prayers. God told him that the BoM was as true as the Bible!!!! He then explained to us that he would not join our church. He wants to learn more, come when he can, and come to some activities, but he will not join. He said unless circumstances change in the next decade, he does not see how it will be possible (he is not allowed to let his children learn about us or participate in ANY of our activities due to a crazy divorce agreement). A member in the ward has truly befriended him and is going to continue going over and reading with him and teaching him. We will stop by maybe once a month or so. It is hard when someone gets such a clear witness but chooses to not follow it.

We also had a lesson with the Z family this week in which we taught the Word of Wisdom. We committed Brother Z to live the word of wisdom, but he said he was going to wait until after they got back from vacation (they will be in Florida the next 5 days) because he doesn't want to have coffee withdrawals while on vacation. We then read from the WoW pamphlet and we read the sentence that says if you are currently using any of these items, "Stop Now!" I put a little bit of emphasis on those two words and he started laughing. But oh well, he gets back Thursdaynight and then we are taking his coffee maker as a trophy. The member we were with was about to ask for it anyway, ha ha.

Saturday morning we went to go perform some service for a woman that one of the members here knows. He told us she needed a bed moved. That isn't hard, right? Well we got to the apartment and she had a giant picture of Jesus on the door. Score one for the republic. Anyway, we knocked and she finally came to the door. We go to the area where the bed is and my jaw dropped a tad. This sucker was a solid wood, king sized bed frame. At each corner there was a giant pillar with a diameter of at least 6-8 inches of solid wood that went from the floor to the ceiling. we had to take the bed and box spring off and we could still barely move it. the woman is deeply religious (she has a bible in every room, including the bathroom. she made sure to point that one out to us) and kept yelling "PRAISE JESUS" the whole time we were there. She is pretty awesome. We actually had tracted her apartment building out a few days ago and we told her we met her son-in-law upstairs. She felt so bad that she didn't answer and told us we could come back any time so talk about Jesus. She is an African American lady from Chicago and is quite the character. I am excited to teach her. And by excited to teach her I mean let the sister missionaries teach her... but oh well, we all play for the same team, right?

So conference was pretty legit! President Uchtdorf's talk on gratitude resonated within my soul. Gratitude has been my big focus for the last few months and it has really changed my life. I am excited to have a new talk to apply into my life to take the next step.

Elder Christofferson's sermon on the Living Christ was phenomenal and I cant wait to show Elder Corbridge's talk on the restoration to basically everyone. Elder Oaks' talk on the priesthood session on the priesthood was one of the cooler talks I have ever heard.

In another talk in priesthood session one of the members of the 70 said that general conference is essentially pointless if we do not apply these things into our lives. Food for thought.

PMG Chapter 8

"The attitude you have toward your mission experience is a reflection ofyour love toward your Heavenly Father and His Son and your respect forthe priesthood."

I love this quote! I think it extends to everyone, regardless of whether or not you are on a mission. I think it applies to your attitude towards your calling, ward, home teachers, etc etc. Is our attitude towards these things positive and uplifting? or do we feel that there are things within the Church that are a burden to us?  

I love you all! have a good week!

Elder Damron