Happy Father's Day!

6/18/12

Seems like just yesterday I gave a father's day talk in Roanoke, reflecting on the love of both a earthly and heavenly father. I am so grateful for them both this week. It felt like the flood gates opened and it has been the best game of sink or swim I have ever played. After emailing last Monday we went to Walmart to go shopping. After finishing the checkout line and heading towards the exit we passed by customer service. There was a line of people waiting and one of the guys stopped us and says, "Hey, what does your church think about the Book of Mormon musical?" Thankfully we did know the church's statement - You have seen the play, now read the book! We talked with him some more and asked if we could come by and give him one. Come to find out a member gave him a book of mormon at work three years ago. Well on Saturday we went up to see him and he immediately let us in. His name is Chip and he has a 15 year old son and is a single father. He has a very good heart.  He said he couldn't find his Book of Mormon, so he downloaded it on his kindle and had been reading it all week. He had highlighted a bunch of things a made a list of questions. We had a great first lesson and invited him for church the next day. And yesterday he came, and stayed the whole time! He really loved it and knows one of the recent converts really well! They played in some kind of a band together 20 years ago. He thanked us for inviting him and said he would definitely be back. But it doesn't stop there. With the talk of exact obedience and sacrifice, as a mission we decided that on P Day we would always be done with dinner by 6 so we could have full proselyting time, unless we had an investigator to dinner with us. The member that is feeding us tonight couldn't do it until 5:30 so we would not be finished by 6. With faith we told we could find an investigator. We called Chip and he was amped to come with us. We are really excited for this evening. It just goes to show that rules and commandments are put in place to afford us the greatest opportunities for happiness.

We taught the wonderful Ghana family last week and they were very kind, but very enthralled with their church. We are seeing them again tonight. They did commit to reading the Book of Mormon. They are so sensitive to the spirit, they cannot help but feel its divinity. As for Jerry, the man we taught last sunday. He called us midweek and cancelled our appointment and said he wanted to read more of the Book of Mormon, before he comes to church or meets with us. We are praying that that is a good thing. Hopefully we will get to see him again this week.

Liz had her baptismal interview on Saturday and she is all set to be baptized next Sunday. She is really happy to finally get to be able to do it. A lot of the family active and less active will be participating in the program.

Hope the world is well. 

Love yall, Elder Dumke

Week 2

6/11/12

       

This week was full of meetings, travelling, finding and rewarding teaching. I have had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for the opportunities the Lord has afforded us. He blessed us to meet a wonderful family from Ghana who used to live right next to the church in Africa. They said (and I guess it is a common presumption) that over there everyone thinks you must be rich to visit that church, because the buildings are so nice and they are putting up new ones every 3 or 4 months. How great to hear, how successfully the work is going forward! We are excited to teach them again tonight.

Zone Leader Council was this week as well. It was weird being one of the oldest ones there, but neat to see how President is refining the culture of the mission. We learned a lot about obedience and sacrifice. I have always been confused with the defining of the word sacrfice. A common definition is to give something up for something better. Well if that is the case, what exactly are we sacrificing, nothing is ours to begin with. He explained that sacrifice literally means "to make sacred." With that redefinition in mind the only we can sacrifice is our actions and thoughts, therefore obedience is the way we make time and resources sacred. The scriptures mean what they say when we read that Christ was the great and last sacrifce (and might I add the only sacrifice). He was the only one that had anything to give because he was the creator and giver of all that is ours. We went from district meeting to district meeting this week teaching the importance of making this time sacred and committing each missionary to exact obedience. It is so excting to see the mission on the brink of total complete unity, "a zionistic mission!"

Vince came to church this week! He missed sacrament because he had to watch the kids in the morning, but he came and stayed for the following two hours. He really enjoyed it. One of the members used to be his landlord 4 or 5 years ago and shared an awesome testimony that he was in the right place. Vince very much agreed. He has a baptismal date for July 8th. Additionally we went out with a young man in the ward that is getting ready to head out on his mission. It was his first time in a lesson and it  really built his faith to to be able teach him, see him excited for baptism and then actually come to church. Vince continues to read and watch conference talks daily, on his own initiative.

Last night Elder Syndergaard and I taught this older man Jerry. He has a cousin this is a member in Ohio, though we just tracted into him. We taught him a few weeks ago and weren't really sure if it sunk into him. Last night we were able to finally see him again, he was very receptive and we had a fantastic lesson with him. At the end I asked, "What questions do you have about what we discussed tonight?" He responded, "Where is and what time is your church?" Not such a bad question. He said he would like to be baptized and we plan on having him attend church next week. I guess you never really know how interested someone is until you give them a chance to hear the gospel and feel the spirit.

The zone is doing really great and we are excited for the next few months. I hope I get to stay for another transfer or two. Thanks for the package with a little fudge and cookies! It was delicious and great to hear from you! I love you so much!

Love yall

Elder Dumke