Dinkytown week 12

TRANSFERS!!!! And I'm staying with Elder Wall :D for the first time in 4 transfers I finally am keeping a companion. Maybe I should stop being so hard to deal with... just kidding. Anyway, our zone got switched up quite a bit and I know all of the missionaries coming in pretty well and they are all awesome! The Sister Smith that I served with in Andover for 6 months is coming into the zone so it is an Andover Reunion! Woo hoo!

 

Last Monday I had my interview with President Forbes. That basically took my Pday away but that is alright, he is so cool! He is quite a different personality than President Clements but he is very thoughtful and you can tell that when he speaks that he is being prompted. It is really remarkable to see.

 

Later monday night a missionary called us and said he needed an emergency exchange so we went over and elder wall interviewed him for 2 hours while I went to teach Brother SS with another missionary. The missionary had let a lot of anti get to his head and he was struggling quite a bit. But all is well now. With Brother SS we talked about faith and the different things he is doing to build his faith. He told us some of his concerns and he said he feels closer to God right now but it could be a coincidence. I asked him how he felt 6 months ago when he went to church with missionaries and took the lessons. He said he felt really close to God. Then I asked him how he felt when he stopped. He told us his connection with God decreased quite a bit. And then we pointed out that it is better and we testified that it was not a coincidence. He looked for a response and then said, "I cannot deny what you are saying is true.." then i felt super prompted to ask him a question so i opened my mouth to speak. But then the missionary I was with asked him literally word for word the question I was going to ask him!! It was a pretty cool experience. SS committed to church and finally came! And he really liked it!

 

Another cool miracle I saw was when I was doing something administrative Elder Wall texted some random people on our phone without asking me about any of them. He ended up texting brother SSC, who moved to Chicago. Elder Wall did not know he had moved so he texted him. Anyway, turns out SSC was back in town for a few days and he asked to meet up! So we met up later that night and he told us that the only reason he didnt get baptized was because he couldnt stop drinking and now that he graduated college he hasnt drank in 2 months! So we filled out a mormon.org referral with him in the institute and he will get baptized back in Chicago. So legit.

 

Funny story: a member showed up super late to a lesson and so he missed it. But then he handed us some roses. He said to make it up to us he wanted to give those to us. Then he told us he found them on the side of the road on the way here... ha ha. so good.

 

We have been teaching Brother MW the last couple weeks. He is 27 and from Liberia. He moved from Cottage Grove where the sister missionaries had taught him a few times. He is pretty solid. He came to church again and told a member of the stake presidency that he was going to get baptized. He told us about all of the mistakes he has made in his life and how a lot of guilt really burdens him. We taught him about the steps of repentance and committed him to go home that night and start the process. The next time we saw him he seemed a lot happier and thanked us that we had showed him how to start the process of healing. We again testified that baptism finishes the process. He is set for baptism on August 16th.

 

On Friday night we taught two seventh day adventist students. They explained that they strictly follow the health code from Leviticus 10-12 and we shared the restoration with them. they had some good questions and were pretty open. near the end they asked us what our belief on the afterlife was. I already knew that their belief is that the "dead sleep" (there is some scripture in the OT they quote this from) and that basically there is nothing between death and the resurrection, or something like that. I dont know all the details. Anyway, I opened up to 1st peter and read to them how Christ preached to the dead. then we testified of the Spirit world. They were utterly shocked that scriptures like that even existed in the bible they read. The Spirit testified of it. muy bien!

 

I was contacting with a missionary from another area on campus and we met a messianic jew. For reasons completely unknown to me the other missionary decided a good conversation starter with this guy would be polygamy. I face palmed a little bit but the guy was like, " i dont believe you would do polygamy, and i definitely wont either. the bible says you cannot serve two masters". then he smiled at us. ha ha. so classic.

 

Well yesterday I gave my first talk in church on my mission. my topic was gratitude! at the beginning of my talk I told the congregation I hoped to be here for a long while, then I turned and smiled at President Forbes (who randomly showed up for church). ha ha. well, im still here so i guess my plea was heard. anyway, i really loved studying about gratitude this week and I would encourage everyone to read some talks on the subject and then also study the quoted scriptures. Specifically I spoke up President Uchtdorf's talk, "grateful in any circumstance." my favorite quote from that talk is: "But those who set aside thebottle of bitterness and lift instead the goblet of gratitude can find a purifyingdrink of healing, peace, and understanding."

Gratitude is the key to happiness. And not just gratitude for temporal posessions, but spiritual things. This is how we are grateful in our circumstances but not of our circumstances. The difference is subtle, yet life changing. As we find gratitude for how the atonement has strengthened and helped us day by day our focus will change to that of the big picture of the eternities and nothing will ever be permanently wrong in life. We can find peace even amidst the storms of life.

 

I love you all! have a fantastic week!

Elder Damron