Duluth week 13

Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone :D I had a sweet birthday. We went to our ward mission leader's house and had dinner then he played happy birthday on the piano. He has like a PhD in piano performance so he spiced it up quite a bit. it was epic. Why did i quit piano again?

So we had a pretty sweet week. We saw a returning member, TM, who is about to go down to the cities for 7 weeks for cancer treatment. it is going to be rough. He was feeling really sick and so we didnt have too much of a lesson. But hedid EMP one of our CDs in his microwave... ha ha

We had a lesson with a member referral who is about 23 years old. He is doing everything wrong morally you can think of and has decided he needs to change his life. We had a pretty cool lesson with him where we read Alma 29 and he recognized the Spirit teach him that change starts with him taking the first initiative. So he wants to do more. He said the prayer at the end of the lesson! He has never prayed vocally in his whole life and he hasnt prayed at all in the last decade. He said a fantastic prayer! He also dropped a swear word or two in it, but baby steps. 

We also went to a less active family's house. Well, they arent completely less active but they are slipping into it and they dont realize. Last time Elder Zerkle was pretty bold and committed them to pray about the Book of Mormon again. I had done this before he got here but the Spirit was much stronger this time and they did it! For the first time in a long while they have read their scriptures and they are doing it regularly now. When we enter their home we can literally feel more happiness and peace. It is pretty cool. 

On Thursday we did a teaching evaluation with a member in the ward. That is where they pretend to be an investigator and we teach them and then they tell us how we did. Well the person we did it with is pretty sassy so i thought it was going to be pretty tough. It was. Elder zerkle was testifying of God's love to His children and the member butt in and said, "is that why God killed all the first borns of the egyptians?" Elder Zerkle's face dropped and he looked at me. I just smiled back. ha ha. oh man. Then later the man asked why God doesnt just wipe all of the false churches off of the earth and Elder zerkle said it was because there are good people in all churches. And then the member said, "oh so the egyptian babies weren't good?" And then Elder Zerkle said, "no of course not! all of those babies were innocent." Then he realized he agreed with him and again looked at me. I just smiled. Dont worry, i bailed him out... eventually. 

We were teaching a man a few nights back when all of a sudden we heard a few pounds on the door. Elder Zerkle opened the door and there were five cops standing there. The cops asked if Elder Zerkle's was the son of the man we were teaching and he stumbled over his words for awhile and then I said no he wasnt. I think elder zerkle was surprised a bit to see five cops. Then the cop asked if the Girlfriend of the son was there and the member insisted she was not. the awkward part was that i could hear her talking in the back bedroom... so it got a little wild and the cops were very persistent in trying to get in the door. Then finally the man we were teaching said, "we are having a bible study here and you are interrupting, could you come back another time?"

So the cops left and Elder Zerkle just looked at me, and I him, and we were just like what the freak just happened.

Last night we were able to attend the CES devotional by Brother Ridd and it was fantastic! He talked a lot about how we need to have real intent and the patience to see the hand of the Lord in our lives. The greatest intent we can ever have is to do things to show our love for the Lord not for some reason centered on ourselves. if we lose ourselves in His service, we will truly find ourselves. 

Love you all!

Elder Damron