DISASTER STRIKES!!!

Hey yall 3/26/12
 
This was another good and busy week. You may have heard about the fire in Charleston, its just a few miles from our apartment and actually the Landlord of the apartment is a member. It was a big blow to the whole city. Really sad story. Also there have been floods throughout the state over the last few weeks. One of the most devastating was in Logan, just about an hour away. On Saturday we loaded up the 12 passenger van with missionaries and went volunteered for the day cleaning up flood damage. We spent most of the day shoveling mud out of peoples yards. You always hear how incredible the church is when there is a natural disaster, and it is true. On short notice we had 70 people in 2 days with new wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, gloves, masks and goggles. It was a super neat experience and another testimony of the church. The Protestant church we were working with said it was the best organized group that had seen. It was tons of fun!


 
Earlier this week we also went to help our investigator Fred clean his house a little bit. He has terminal lung cancer and has a hard time getting around to pick it up so we offered to help him out. It was a big boost for him and gave him a much better environment to live in. Then a few days later he called us and said he was feelin better then he had ever felt and he wanted to come to church. Yesterday he came and loved it!. He has an extreme fear of large groups of people, but in priesthood he stood and introduced himself and said, "Hi I am Fred, I live in Kanawha City and I am planning to be baptized April 15th, as soon as I quit smoking." It was kind of a shock because we set him with a date a few weeks back but hadn't shown much progress until now. Keep praying for him.
 
We weren't able to see Pam this week because her 90 year old father fell and she spent most her week in the hospital, but after not being at church yesterday she texted us and apologized for not coming. I really do love teaching her, because she cares about finding the truth for herself. Sure it is patience trying, to have it a slow process, but she will be a stalwart member.
 
While on exchanges this past week we were able to give two very different people Book of Mormons. My morning studies each day start by first asking a question that we often get and then studying it out in the Book of Mormon for an answer. That morning I studied "If I am happy without God in my life, why do I need to believe in Jesus Christ?" Not a super common question considering we are here in the Bible belt, but interesting none the less. Well we ran into Atheist Lawyer that day and I was able to call on my study that morning and he was very willing to read the chapters we left and to check it out for himself. Next door was a lady who was fed up with churches, but read her Bible daily. She explained her fascination with the John the Baptist and we explained the priesthood and the restoration and she was pretty ecstatic. What a wonderful to share the gospel!
 
The trees are greening and it was beginning to be so beautiful! It hit the 90's this last week already. Excellent driving weather ha. We drove nealy 600 miles this last week and visited all but one companionship within the huge zone. I was aching to get out and knock some more doors. There are just so many miracles everyday. I am amazed how well things work out, when we trust in the Lord. I love yall so much and hope you have a blessed day!
 
Much Love,
Elder Dumke

Blessings

Hey there! 3/19/12
 
The included pictures are us at the dump! Elder Wiederholt and I went a few weeks ago, but had to go again this last week. It took me right back to the Montana days huckin barbed wire, same smell and everything. What a load of fun that was. I got sick for a few days this week as well. (not connected) It was actually the first time on my mission that I have had to stay in because either me or my companion have been sick. Definitely a something I am grateful for. We also had a specialized training meeting that Elder Butler and I had to teach at for an hour about teaching to peoples needs. I was really nervous, because I didn't have a voice hardly at all and I was going to have present to the whole zone. President and Elder Hilton gave me a blessing that I would be able, according to our faith, to speak as the Lord would have me. I was so anxious to say Amen to the blessing, because I knew it would be fulfilled. As it was and I was able to teach for that hour. It was so neat.
 
Yesterday at Church Pam came for the 3rd time, but she split right after the closing hymn again. We even had a member assigned to catch her, but she was too quick. It was a bit discouraging. The meeting was sweet for her too. She has two major concerns before baptism. Baptisms for the dead and she still feels that she will study her Bible during the week and the sermon at her church will fit in perfectly, almost as if the Lord is still directing her to her old church. Well when we taught her earlier in the week we left her to pray about baptisms for the dead and to read 3 Nephi 11. At church one talk the speaker read almost the entirety of 3 Nephi 11 and the other talk was on the temple and doing work for the dead. We thought it would have really touched her - Nope. But we went and taught her with President Pitt and it was amazing! She seemed like in the past that she was almost begrudgingly taking it in. As President shared experiences of others conversions Pam talked about the loss of her husband more and more and her tears flowed as she intently listened to each of his words. She began to feel the impact and joy that comes from the gospel. She won't be baptized next sunday as we had planned, but she will be truly converted when she does.
 
Also continuing to teach vince and luke. Vince is getting stronger in the gospel and we met with his girlfriend this week. We also met luke's girlfriend, but Luke isn't as strong as he was before. We are keeping the faith though! Yesterday the ward had a baptism of the elders that were just put in 4 months ago in a new area. She was a 70 year old woman that went into a members grocery store and heard the book of mormon playing. He has played the book of mormon on his stereo for the last 6 years and hasn't really had anything come of it. This lady ruth however heard it playing and felt something she hadn't felt in 30 years. She had been meeting with elders in Virginia 30 years ago and was set to be baptized and then she moved and she lost contact with the church. This brother gave her a Book of Mormon and an audio cd and then contacted the elders. They went over to her home 30 minutes later and she was already listening to it. Yesterday she was baptized and it was so neat to see a real testimony of how the Lord knows and loves his children and wants them to return to live with him.
 
Looking forward to another great week!
Love yall!
Elder Dumke

Update!!!

Hey Hey 3/12/12

Sorry it has been a little while since I have been able to email. Last week was transfers as yall expected, but I wasn't moved. I am still here in Charleston, we just had to run around all day on Tuesday, because we weren' t really expecting Elder W. to move. Now I am serving with Elder Butler from Aurora, Colorado. I got a couple of new roomates too. We no longer live with the Assistants they have moved to an apartment closer to the mission home, and now we live with the Westside Elders, but we will be sharing a ward with the Assistants. President wants Charleston to be the Nucleus of the mission, so he will be coming to our ward every other week. We will begin teaching investigators in his home, and us and the assistants have some pressure put on.

The last weeks have been good. We set Pam with a date for the 25th of March. Keep our fingers crossed she makes it! She seems to be progressing, but not really accepting the message with gladness. Not really sure. Yesterday she came to church, but bolted after sacrament, to go to her church. I have faith that she would be ready if she chose to be, but there is still somethin holding her back.

We have continued teaching Vince and things are going real well there. He is so sweet. I included pictures of them both. I also put in a photo of Elder Wiederholt and I. There is definitely a funny but scary story behind it. Something to do with going down a one way in downtown Charleston. AHHH! We are alive and well.

I love yall and thanks for your prayers and support!

D&C 29:11

D&C 29:7 2/27/12

"And the elect harden not their hearts"
 
This week we were able to teach Luke again with his fellow-shipper. It went really well and was grateful we came over. The next day we went to a members home for dinner and the family called up Luke on our phone (without our asking) and invited him to join us for the meal. He and his son came and had a great time. They ended up staying later than we did. On sunday they came to church and really enjoyed themselves. That was the amazing part, not because church was boring, quite the contrary actually. I was white knuckled and on the edge of my seat the whole time! Sacrament meeting was all about service and how the church organizes service opportunities. That was fine. The second hour was on the Word of Wisdom. Luke's son stayed with him in the class and was giving his dad the guilty look over each principle of it. He is a heavy smoker and moderate drinker. Thankfully he talked to us after and said that every time we had been coming over, he didn't have the desire to smoke and he continued to lose his lighters over the last few weeks. One more sign of him being prepared. The final hour  was about the godhead, he was raised Catholic. It made sense to him immediately. He has really opened up more and is drinking it all in. It has been amazing to see him recognize the truth. We are eating dinner with him at a members home again on thursday, and he is set to keep coming back to church.
 
We taught Pam on Friday and it was by far the best lesson, me and Elder Wiederholt have had together. She expressed that she felt she was getting closer to God and she was finding hope that she thought she had completely lost. She was set to come to church again, but she had to help her friend with a prayer at her church. She seems to grasping more on to the gospel. Especially the way the members have been helping her. One of the sisters gave her a daughters in my kingdom RS book without us even knowing. We have a good feeling about her.
 
We also began teaching two Part member families together and their kids will be baptized in june. They are getting reactivated and the bishop has asked that they are active for 4 months beforehand.
 
Unfortunately we will not be able to have the baptisms the ward has been fasting for, but the missionary work has never been stronger in this area. We have continued to get people at church, so the trust is continually building. March should be a very good month. I sure love yall. And I am doing well. Just feeling a lot of pressure as a Zone Leader.
 
Much Love
Elder Dumke 

Foundation Laid, now to Building a House

2/20/12

Gospel According to Luke:

Monday - Our Preparation Day and just a few hours to work. We had one
appointment with Mahendra our south African martial arts friend and
some tracting. We had been knocking doors on this street the last few
days and hadn't seen too much success, but for whatever reason we felt
confident there was more to be done. So we continued onward. We hiked
this big staircase and to a house that looked like it was just being
remodeled.A guy named Luke came out and we figured he was just working
there and we told him that. I am not sure if he just wanted to prove
to us that he lived there or he was just friendly, but he let us in
showed us around. We offered our help and then shared a little bit of
the first lesson. Luke told us he was raised Catholic and hadn't
prayed in months, but this morning in distress he told the Lord he
needed help. He needed his house finished by Saturday and there was
still a long way to go and his Landlord wouldn't return any of his
calls.

Thursday - Our appointment falls thru with a potential investigator
while we are with our Elders quorum President. We took him to Lukes
instead and showed up the exact same time as the Pizza guy. Remember
that long hike of stairs. Yep hiked them with the delivery man. We
went in and talked with Luke for a good while and he told us that 5
minutes after we left on monday his landlord called and helped work a
bunch of things out. Luke knew at that point that God knew him and he
was willing to learn more. We taught him more about the book of Mormon
and invited him to read and pray.

Saturday - 4 brothers from the elders quorum and us came to his house
at 8 am to help hang sheet rock and cut trees. He was very impressed
and we got to know him much better. He does fatality recovery for the
FBI and has served overseas 3 times in the Air force. He has a 9 year
old son, he would give his life for. He hauled him thru night school
and has been a single father his son's whole life. He is an awesome
guy. Unfortunately he pulled 2 all nighters to finish his house and
slept thru church. He called us during the service and apologized
profusely.

We are so excited about him and was definitely the highlight of the
week. We also had Pam over for dinner with the RS president and a few
other sisters. She had a great time and opened up a lot more. She said
she isn't quite ready for baptism, but she said that God has been
telling her that there is more. It surprised her because she has gone
to 4 years of Bible school and 2 years of prayer school, so she is
very learned in the scriptures. She really understands the commitment
and is growing more and more daily! A member actually gave her a quad
on sunday without telling us, so we are praying that it will be a
benefit not a detriment.

Valentines was great! We were on exchanges and contacted a former
investigator. She is a lawyer at a local law firm and a devout Lutheran.
She has been taught everything so it is kind of hard to go in and re
hash it, so we really just bore testimony of the message and the Book
of Mormon. The Spirit was very strong and she agreed to read one
chapter and really pray about it. We came back on saturday and found
out she read it twice and prayed both times. She didn't feel she
received an an answer, but, almost right before our eyes, her desire
to know if it was true grew. Vince and Brenda fell off the face of the
earth this week. We can't seem to contact them. . Just teaching "those
that harden not their hearts" for a few hours really can make up for
the week.
Much Love
Elder Dumke

Blessings of a Fast

2/13/12
This was a great week. I have such a testimony of fasting. Last week was the beginning of our ward missionary fast. Each day someone in the ward fasted and the next 3 weeks there will continue to be one family fasting everyday. Well last week was the best week for each set of elders in the ward. We taught many more lessons and made some very good progress with our current investigators. We had a lesson with Pam on wednesday with one of our ward missionaries it went really well and we invited her to church, and wouldn't ya believe it, yesterday she came. We have really only been able to meet with here once week and sometimes less, so the progress has been slow, but steady. She came and really enjoyed relief society. She works for the state as the head of the optometry department and the church speakers were perfect for her. Pam's hold up for baptism is recieving an answer if the Book of Mormon is true and the talks yesterday were on reading the scriptures and one of the speakers related it to his humanitarian trip to El Salvador with a group of optomologists! It was great! The releif society president invited her over for dinner on wednesday with 5 other single sisters and we are teaching her afterwards. She has really come out of the woodwork.

We also saw Vince this week. He is doing really well and is on track for baptism except for not being married. He has not gotten married to his 15 year girlfriend because she has her college paid for because her father died in the military so her schooling is paid for. Their combined income would be too much for her to recieve those benefits if they did get married. On Thursday we fasted to overcome it, but it is going to take a lot of faith for him to do it. The ironic thing is, how nearly quoted Doctorine and Covenants about how important it is to receive a good education while we are still here. Satan is putting some tough stumbling blocks in front of him.

Zone Conference was also this week. It was focused how we build others testimonies thru improving teaching - clarify, simplify, verify, tesify. As well as changing perspective by teaching doctorine then aligning commitments. You might not think it is useful unless you are a missionary, but the more I think about it, the more I realize those are the basics of communication. It is understanding why someone has a particular belief, how it relates to how they act and then clearly sharing why you choose to act differently. It was a really good conference.

We are excited for another faith building week. I sure love yall and have a Happy V Day.
Much Valentine (in an elderly (missionary) way) Love,
Elder Dumke

The Weekly Report

This week in a nut shell

Missionary Work is really beginning to erupt in this area. Yesterday the entire ward fasted for missionary work in the ward, and on top of it Elder Wiederholt and I passed around a calender for members to sign up to fast an extra day this month. From this past Sunday to the fourth of march we are hoping to have someone fasting everyday during that time, and then on that day have 3 baptisms (for the 3 sets of elders). The ward is enthused and supportive. On Friday we set a date with this man Vince. He has been taught by missionaries in the past and he has good promise. After reading a scripture from Doctrine and Covenants, he said he wanted his own set and got online and ordered a quad, right then and there. It was way cool. We also taught Brenda who has a date in mid march. She missed her appointment because she was in Florida, but when she came back we met with her. She was very distraught because she found out she is pregnant, and because of her epilepsy it is a very scary situation. We gave her a blessing and the Spirit was so strong. Her friend that was against us meeting with Brenda was there and after the blessing she asked us if we could pray with her for her family. Brenda is bringing her boyfriend to the next lesson, and he is excited to meet with us too. I am very grateful for the priesthood. We found a new investigator from South Africa, he is good friends with a member currently on a mission and is having dinner with us and his family this week. Things are looking up and we are really confident in the people we are teaching.

Oh boy I wish I could just talk to you in person, because there are a lot of circumstances surrounding this story, but I will try my best. So over the past week Elder Wiederholt and I have been really searching to find an elect person to teach. We both felt impressed to try this one member family to go ask them if they knew anyone. We don't know them that well, they are not very missionary minded and very private people, so we were kinda hesitant. We got the impression almost every time we prayed as a companionship so we thought we ought to do it. We made up some sweet thank you cards (I will send one home) and we went to go drop it off at their house for some work they did on my comps suit. They invited us in, we chatted for 20 seconds and we asked if they knew anyone we could teach. Immediately she said, "yes, actually I work with this woman who has asked quite a bit about the church and I have given her some church things. I will invite her over for dinner." Wow that has never happened, but it did. It was definitely a reaffirming witness, that the Lord is waiting for us to ASK. We are looking forward to hopefully meeting her this week.

I love you friends and family and thank you for your prayers.

Much Love,
Elder Dumke