Dinkytown week 11

This week has been absolutely insane. But it was a good insane.

We spent time with a differnt companionship every single day going over their progress this transfer so we could report to our mission president by saturday. We also had to prepare a training for the zone conference we had on thursday. and we had to work through a less active list. And that doesnt even include teaching our investigators!

 

We had a super sweet miracle happen last week where we called up a less active man and asked if we could meet up with him sometime. He told us that he gave his roommate a book of mormon and that he would feed us on wednesday and then we could teach the roommate a lesson! So we went over and had a great meal and then got to know them and taught a lesson. he is in the marines. He dropped out of high school September 12, 2001 to join and has been in the marines ever since. He told us he hasnt been able to be at church a lot because of his travels, but no matter where he went he always carried a book of mormon and placed it on his nightstand. His roommate is actually Navajo and she grew up on aNavajo reservation in Arizona! She is also in the military. We taught the restoration and talked about the book of mormon some more. She told us that she has read some of it and she wants it to be true, but she wants to ask God first. :) we dont mind that answer too much. We will see her again this next week.

 

We also taught Sister PB this week. She gave us a little bit of a scare when she told us that she wants to be baptized but something came up in her life and she might not be able to do it anymore. We pulled out all the steps and made a beast of a lesson plan to help her understand the importance of baptism in allowing Christ to heal our pains. At the lesson we found out she just has to move in a few months a few blocks away... so yeah. not an issue. ha ha. oh man was i worried.

 

Another super cool thing that happened is that on Thursdaynight two sisters called us and told us that a man just moved into minneaplis who is a YSA that they had been teaching. His name is MW. So we went over and talked with him. He is from Liberia and is 27. He has had all sorts of humbling experiences in the last 6 months and then the sisters popped up in his life and he didnt feel that that was a coincidence. We talked with him and he told us he really struggled with guilt of some things he has done and he really wishes he could change some aspects about himself. we read both Ether 12:27 and 3 Ne 9:13-14 and testified that Christ could help him overcome those weaknesses. We told him that baptism was the only way those guilts would be truly lifted and we explained how it heals us and then allows Christ to make us strong. Then we committed him to baptismAugust 16th. before we left he told us that had we not talked about those things he would have said no to baptism. But now he is really excited!

On Sunday we went to pick him up for church but there was no answer from his apartment buzzer. Someone else let us in and we went and knocked on his door. He had slept through his alarm and we waited 30 minutes while he got ready and then we drove with a member to church. We got there 25 minutes late... but he LOVED it! The ward really embraced him and he was invited to some social activities. He told multiple people he would be back. SO COOl!

 

At zone conference we gave a training on the Trinity! Sort of. So when we go and contact people we have broken our conversation down to 3 parts. The initial conversation to get to know the person, a transition question that transitions the conversation to a gospel convo, and then the actual restoration lesson itself. We compared this to the trinity. They are 3 ideas in 1. they are interelated. You cannot have one without the other. And a few other things. So now our zone is out doing Trinitarian Contacts. boo ya!

 

Sunday night we had the opportunity to teach a girl from Togo in the institute building. My nationality list is now at 56!

 

This week we found out what happened with brother TO. He is the one that lives with members and he came from Kentucky. Well he fell off the map and we couldnt get ahold of him so we talked to the members he lived with. He recently had started staying up all night and sleeping during the day and ever since he did that he wast super interested when we went over to teach. Turns out he was sneaking off in the middle of the night to do drugs and now he is back in Kentucky to do rehab... but he wants to try and come back in 2 months!

 

Another cool thing that happened is i had the opportunity of teaching and baptizing a girl in my first area who was from Brazil. Well, she moved to minneaplis and now she comes to the YSA ward!!! so cool. Anyway, the other night she brought her boyfriend, from River Falls, to the institute and we taught him and we will be going over the lessons with him! It was fun to reminisc about River Falls. And we have another investigator.

 

So a lot happened this week and I am full of gratitude.

 

Thought:

So this sunday I will be giving a talk in church (the first time on my mission!) on gratitude. In President Uchtdorf's conference talk "Grateful in Any Circumstance" he says we need to be full of gratitude in our circumstances, not of our circumstances. If we are only grateful for what we have, we will run out of things to be grateful for and when times get tough our faith will weaken. Of course, we should still be grateful for what we have. But, more importantly, we need to be grateful in our circumstances. he says this:

    "In any circumstance, our sense of gratitude is nourished bythe many and sacred truths we do‍ know: that our Father hasgiven His children the great plan of happiness; that through theAtonement of His Son, Jesus Christ, we can live forever with ourloved ones; that in the end, we will have glorious, perfect, andimmortal bodies, unburdened by sickness or disability; and thatour tears of sadness and loss will be replaced with anabundance of happiness and joy, “good measure, presseddown, and shaken together, and running over.”

 

As we seek to be grateful for how the gospel has blessed our lives each individual day we will find an incredible amount of joy and happiness! Our faith will remain strong and we will continually receive a remission for our sins.

 

I love you all! have a fantastic week!

Elder Damron