Dinkytown week 21

We had a pretty good week! I exchanged with Elder Tseng and we saw some sweet miracles. At one point we were contacting on campus and I felt inspired to go to another part of campus. So we walked there and the first person we talked to was a Chinese man who had come to church for a few months 2 years ago. Elder Tseng talked to him in Chinese for awhile and then we departed. He didn't want to meet again. Yet I felt quite confident that I was supposed to meet that man and give him the invitation. God really loves each and every one of His children and he wants to give them all as many chances as he can.

Perhaps the funniest occurrence on my mission happened the other night. It was about 10:20 and we hear a blood curdling scream from an alley next to our apartment. Then we hear a woman scream STOP IT. You don't just hear that and not do anything so we got our shoes on and got ready to go out and find out what happened. Elder Rudd tried looking for a flashlight but I said we would be fine and we ran out. Well elder rudd was leading the way and we crawled through a crack in a fence in the alley because we could see people at the far end of the other side of the fence. We ended up in a dark backyard and the people were on the other side of the fence at the end of the yard. So elder rudd started walking quickly to the other side. All of a sudden he disappeared. and then I heard a loud splash. I ran forward and he was scrambling to get out of a pretty deep pond. So he jumped out and we ran back to our parking lot and he was soaked from his neck down in mud and algae. I died laughing. ha ha. so good.

On Friday President Forbes came and taught a lesson with us. Then he came out on campus with us! It was so much fun! He has an air of authority about him and everyone listened to him intently. We also got to know him a lot better so that was pretty fun. I love that man!

We have been teaching a woman named DF. She just got back from summer break. I taught her before she left. She has had a lot of hard things happen in her life and she has turned atheist, but is trying to figure out if there really is a God or not. We realized she hasn't been praying with very much intent so we taught about prayer. We then watched the new Mormon message about the man who fasts and learns of God and we committed her to fast. She is expressing a lot of faith, she just doesn't realize it.

Elder Vern P. Stanfill of the 70 ( I don't think he is in the first or second quorum) came and spoke at our stake conference this last weekend. He is a rancher from Kalispell, Montana! I  told him I grew up in browning and he said, " I didn't know white people grew up there.. what in the world were you doing there?!" it was pretty funny. I really liked his talk.

My thought for today will stem from his talk. He talked about unwritten stories in our lives. Also stories we have helped write but we have no idea about. He gave instances where a small act of kindness led to someone joining the church. He told of a woman in Canada who asked a stranger in a park if their kids could play together. the woman had just moved to Canada and had no friends. she got baptized. He told another story where a little girl on a school playground invited a lonely girl to be her friend and play. years later she got baptized, went to byu, and married Elder Stanfill. he said in many instances we don't realize the extent in which our small acts of kindness affect people. Often we do some act of kindness and that act goes off to really help someone's life (he talked about how it helps create a story we have no idea about) and we don't realize it. He told the members that we don't have to pound on our neighbors doors to share the gospel with them. We just need to start by doing small acts of kindness in the moment the Lord needs us to do them.

I love you all! have a great week!

Elder Damron