Duluth week 5

Well this Monday hasn't had any crazy storms, so that is nice. Last week we got stranded at the church because things got so crazy with the storm. There was no way we could drive home. Luckily the Zone Leaders literally live right next door to the church and they have spare mattresses so we slept there. We had to cancel all of our appointments. So lame. We made a lot of calls and then the senior couple that lives in the same apt building invited us up for some home made apple sauce. yum

The next day we were going to visit a less active and we started talking to an 88 year old man who lived next door. He was out shoveling his driveway. Well, he told us he goes to the YMCA every day to stay fit so I asked him if he even lifted. Yep. I asked an 88 year old man if he lifted. I am pretty proud of that one. He does, if you were wondering. 

We also taught a LA, RE, this past week. When I got here we were able to start getting him to come to church every week. But he is going through a LOT of trials and just doesn't feel like God loves him or answers prayers. So we went over and we read from D&C 121 and we read all of section 122. The Spirit bombed the room. He was really silent for quite awhile. We testified pretty strongly and left him Moses 1 to read and pray about God's love. It was pretty sweet :)

We also went by a guy that Elder Wilcoxson taught on exchanges. he let us in and i looked around to see that he has bible verses and other stuff written all over his walls. All of his windows were boarded up and he doesn't have a single light bulb. Yep. 

We also did 5 hours of dry walling this week with a less active. It was about 33 degrees in his house he was fixing up and I couldnt feel my hands or feet for a few hours, but hey, it's Duluth. That is normal, right?..

So the Zone Leaders took our car on their trip to Canada to do exchanges with the Thunder Bay Elders and they took our car because their brand new truck doesn't have license plates yet. The day before they came back I texted them and said, "on a scale from 1-10 how mad would you be if we put a dent in the truck?" They texted back a bit freaked out and inferred they would be pretty mad. So i just said never mind. ha ha. Well we didnt actually dent their truck, but they freaked and thought we did. So they put flour in all of our air vents and turned the air on high so when we turned in it seemed like a smoke bomb went off. Those punks. we are plotting with the sisters how to get them back good. 

While we had the truck we went out to Solon Springs, WI. Population of 600. Probably less than that. We knocked on a door and this lady answered and demanded to know if we were Jehovah Witnesses. We replied no and she said she wasn't interested if we were Jehovahs. we again told her we were not and said we were Mormon! She said, "no you arent! Im not interested in Jehovah Witnesses!" ha ha

We were tracting in the flipping cold one day and Elder Wilcoxson randomly turned to me and said, "my least favorite thing is knocking on a door and having someone get mad at us for waking up their kids during nap time." you can probably tell where this story is going. The next door he knocked on a very angry woman came to the door and got upset that we woke all the kids up. As we were walking down the drive way we realized it was actually a home day care. oops. 

We also got to help a member kill some chickens this week. It was pretty nuts. Oh the service opportunities you get up here. Tomorrowwe are splitting wood for like 5 hours. 

Thought: 

Alma 42:23   But God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice.

I LOVE this scripture. So let us think about this. The atonement is what causes the resurrection of the dead. Think about how many people have ever lived. There are 7 billion people on earth right now. Think about all the people that have inherited the earth since the days of Adam that have passed away. The atonement is going to bring about the resurrection of ALL of them (except a select few, but we dont need to get into that here). Think of the magnitude of the power the Atonement must have to do that. In my mind it seems like resurrecting one person would take an incredible amount of energy, let alone billions of billions of people. If the Atonement of Christ the Lord can do that, then what can't it do? What are we going through in our lives that we seem is too hard to bear that we forget to include Christ in? He has the power to help us overcome literally anything. My plea is that we remember this and allow Him to share our burdens. 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Elder Ethan Paul Damron