After 6 months in the Andover ward I am finally
being transferred. I am so sad about this. I will be going to the
University of Minnesota campus to be a zone leader! Basically I will be
running around the campus all day street contacting. It is going to be
nuts.
We had a pretty sweet week! On Monday
we went to a members house and had FHE with a former investigator,
Brother E, and the Stokes family. We a lesson on prophets and at the end
we played Prophet Says (aka Simon Says). Their 7 year old son got up
and was ordering us around as the prophet. I was the first one out...
haha.
We also had this neat experience tracting. The Lord
always pushes us. We must go the extra mile to receive the full
blessings He wants us to have. We had tracted these townhomes for awhile
and we had seen a lot of rejection. We had to leave soon to go to a
lesson and we needed to make a stop at our apartment to grab something
so we thought about leaving. But I wanted to tract the last two doors on
the row of townhomes. The last door we knocked we met a man in his mid
twenties and taught a sweet restoration lesson! It is always that last
leg where our reward lies.
We also had a few remarkable lessons with Brother L.
We taught about prayer and he was amazed at what he was learning. He
told us he needed to change the way he prays and he told us he needs to
start praying for God's will be done. He himself brought up the example
of a mother about to lose a baby child to death. He told us we need to
ask God what to learn from the experience and ask God to save the child
if He wills it instead of demanding God to save the child and being
infuriated if He doesn't. It was quite the powerful lesson. He thanked
us profusely for coming.
When we got home from Brother L's we locked our door
and started to plan. All of a sudden we hear someone at our door. They
unlocked our dead bolt and then fumbled with the door. We went to the
door and the person took off running and escaped down the stair well.
Management was basically like oh that stinks. call the cops next time.
Maybe it is a good thing I am getting transferred... ha ha.
So on Saturday
a member invited us to the baptism of their 8 year old daughter and
asked us to share a message after the baptism while people are getting
dressed. There were a few non-members and a good chunk of the ward there
and we taught a restoration lesson. At the end we challenged everyone
in the room to read the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony of its
truthfulness if they have not already done so or to gain an additional
witness if they have prayed about it. We also invited everyone in the
congregation who had not been baptized to be baptized.
Well Sunday
was testimony meeting (next week is stake conference) and a woman in
the ward got up and bore her testimony on how the Book of Mormon will
bring peace to our lives amidst confusion and fear. She told the
congregation she has been struggling a lot lately and she decided to
take up our challenge and pray about the Book of Mormon again. She did
and the peace she felt during that prayer bolstered her faith and really
helped her in a dark time. It was a touching testimony.
Elder Hawkes and I have had the opportunity to meet
people from Ghana and Kenya this week. I have now met people from Ghana,
Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, and the Republic of Congo. All in Andover
Minnesota. Pretty sweet, eh?
Sunday
night we stopped by a name of someone we found in our area book. A
Native American man stepped out. I told him I grew up in Montana and he
mentioned he had family in Browning. I informed him I was born there and
lived there for awhile and he almost didn't believe me. He showed me
his Blackfoot treaty card. So that was pretty sweet!
Well I am super sad to leave Andover. I love this
ward and the people within it. I have learned so much from the
leadership here. I have had the opportunity to joint teach with the
stake president 4 times since I have been here and each of those
experiences has taught me how to be a better missionary, man, priesthood
holder, and future father. But change is part of missionary work.
In Priesthood sunday
a man told a story of when he converted twenty years ago. right after
his baptism he was called to a presidency position. His bishop was
Bishop Holland, brother of Elder Holland. Every Friday
Bishop Holland would call his Brother to talk. This member in our ward
got to participate in a few calls and got to ask questions. As a new
convert this member had a lot of questions that were almost attacking in
nature. He demanded why he had to wait a year to go to the temple.
After a few weeks Elder Holland loving said, "Just who do you think you
are? Sometimes we have to just go and do. Just act in faith and trust
the Lord." I thought about that a lot. Who do I think I am to question
God and His ways? We must be obedient! Everything falls into place if we
will just act in faith.
I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Elder Damron
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