March Forward!

This week was awesome.

Last monday after kind of a bummer day we went to follow up appointment. Billy and Eve are lifelong baptists very devoted to their faith. As soon as we got to the door Billy invited me in, looked me straight in the eyes and said I appreciate yall comin over but I don't want you Bible (Book of Mormon). We started asking him why, and he truly just didn't want to change. We turned to Eve and asked her about it. She had read the whole thing in just 3 days! We explained where it came from and it was clear it all clicked in her mind. We were all silent for about 20 seconds. Complete Silence... She said she had prayed about it and began making up excuses why she couldn't believe it, but it was easy to see she was putting on a show. Billy asked us to leave, but Eve showed us out. She closed the door behind her and started talking to us. She knew it was true, but had to follow her husband. It was such an amazing experience to see someone gain such a powerful, solemn testimony in such a short amount of time. unfortunately she can't join the church, or even have the Book of Mormon in her house while she is married to billy. It really strengthened my testimony.

We had a lesson with Cindy and Nehemiah about prophets and the priesthood. The gem of the lesson came from my comp Elder Brady. "Don't let the truth you have now, hinder you from seeking and obtaining more truth in light." (in not so many words). We then had a lesson that night with Logan who was a baptismal date for end of April. It was pouring rain and he didn't have car, so we came to him... At LIBERTY University. It was kinda sketchy. Every missionary has been kicked off when we go there with out nametags on, but we were able to bear pure testimony amidst so many. People definitiely were not happy to see Mormons at a Baptist University, but it worked out and we came out alright.

A few days back we were on our way to an appointment, but I felt impressed to stop by on Brian and Rachel. They were a couple we taught a few weeks back that had been avoiding us. (Not answering the door or calls) We drove over there and felt like we should run up to the door. We did so and right as I was about to knock she opened the door, almost knocking her right in the face. The Spirit couldn't have timed it better. They let us in and explained they had been avoiding us because they knew we were representitives from God and what we were preaching was true. They just felt guilty. We talked for an hour or so and they asked US if they could be baptized. That doesn't happen everyday, so we said YES! It is set for May 12th beacuse they have to get married and stop smoking, but I am excited for them.

And finally the week ended with us dropping 3 investigators in 18 hours. Pretty rough,but they all ended peacefully. I asked one guy if we could take a picture with his Mustang. He said absolutely, lets go for a ride in it. It was so sweet, ending the night in a rip roaring '68 fastback. But the best closing came saturday night.

This week has been hard, but the joy outweighs the trial 10 to 1. It is exciting to see the triumph in someones' eyes after paying tithing, or honestly telling you they the read the book of mormon that week. This truly is a great and marvelous work, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. (Maybe if our mission car was my dad's new truck!)

Love y'all
Elder Dumke

Update on Lynchburg Virginia

We hide these in the members' houses after they feed us dinner.
Most of them love it!

Hey there friends and family,

This week was sweet. The days are never mundane or same, but the I am starting to understand that this is my life for the next two years. I am grateful this week for difference. Different doctorines, gospels and theologies add flavor to religion, but it is the people and the relationships that matter. This week we had to stop seeing some of my favorite people, Jonny and Holly Torrence. They are super solid and incredible people, set in their religion. We asked why they coninued to see us and ultimately it came down to that they were trying to convert us. So we let them know what our purpose was as missionaries and said we had to put forth our efforts in those in search of our gospel message. It was kind of a bummer because I really liked meeting with them.

But when one door closes a window opens. We set two baptismal dates within the next two days. They are scheduled for a month from now, and we have a lot to work out with them, but I have high hopes for Logan and Ethel. Ethel is an older, very shy woman, who has been smoking most of her life. She loves the gospel, we are working with her to quit smoking though. It was her birthday just the other day and we bought her a cake. Turns out it was the only contact she had all day. Missionary work is important, but it also so awesome to be dedicated to helping and visiting others.

We had stake conference yesterday up in Buena Vista. (Buena like June - ah) We drove up with Mark Malone, a less active guy that hadn't attended church in years. It was sweet seein him there, and he said he is going to start coming to sacrament each week. Up in Buena Vista I ran into Rebecca Rayburn and Celia Benson (both from our ward). Definitely nice seeing some familiar faces.

This was a great week, we are working with some neat people. I know this email is a little mundane, but I am trying to not pop my head to far out of the mission field. I love it here and have seen growth in my testimony daily. I learn more and more each day. Thanks for the prayers and support. I know that my joy is full, because the Lord is fulFILLING.

Love yall
ELDER DUMKE

Hello From the Eastern Front

3/14/11

Hello from the Eastern Front -

About this area:

We live in an apartment a few miles from Liberty University. We eat with the members every night. The weather is getting nice; we even broke out the short sleeves today. We only wear our suits to meetings and church. This area had 1 baptism last year. We do a lot of tracting and the area is very poverty-stricken. I started driving the car today and now my companion has a phone. Now the good stuff!

This week has been a busy busy week. We have been tracting a bunch and when it rains it pours. Seriously I didn't realize how wet I could get in thunderstorm back here. The irony of the weather is that it is directly related with the work. When it is pouring we get in a many more houses because they feel bad. When it is sunny everyone is friendly they just aren't interested. Anyway this week was one of our most successful weeks. We placed 10 book of Mormons and got 9 new investigators.

Our first set was Teresa, Cory and Deondre. Cory is a rapper who feels blessed because two years ago he was shot in a drive by in downtown Lynchburg. He made it through and now raps about daily life. He is a cool cat. we are teachin his nephew and mom teresa. They are very receptive and kind of see us as their personal religion tutors. They eat up all that we have to say.

After visiting them we walked out and met Napolean Dennis, a black painter and landscaper. He was waiting for his chainsaw so while he waited we taught him the first lesson. After every sentence he would say, "yeah mmhumm." It is awesome we are teaching him later this week.\

We did meet with Cindy and Nehemiah, but we couldn't go over to their house because the father wasn't home. With the windy weather we instead met in a Barnes and Noble cafe. We talked for about two hours discussing the importance of baptism by proper authority and the necessity of the Book of Mormon. They are so critical of everything we say in a good way. For example she asked what it means to be saved in our religion. I began stating baptism and the continual attempt to be good. She looked at me with a puzzled face. I asked what she was thinking and she said, "People can't be good, God is good, we are nothing but filthy rags in the sight of God." (Quoting Isaiah) People talk like that here. The bible is the Twilight of Lynchburg and apparently we are team Jacob and they are for Edward. It is a constant battle, but I love it.

We went tracting on Memorial Ave a few times this week, which is one of the busiest roads. It was great standing out in our white shirts. We got honked at a lot but it isn't quite like the missionary honks you get in SLC. We saw a family working out in the yard so we stopped by and helped them rake leaves for a few hours. They said they normally would reject missionaries but because we offered we were able to connect with them. They invited us for dinner later and want us to stop by whenever we are around. I am telling you "Charity never Faileth."

We also go a referral up in Appomattox so we drove 30 minutes up there to meet the girl. She let us in and explained she needed help moving. She wasn't interested in the gospel at all, but today we split our Preparation day and helped her move into her new trailer. It was dirty, dusty and great. At the end she said I can't thank you enough. We returned with yes you can, simply read the Book of Mormon. She promised to. Probably won't spark anything now, but I am glad she has a positive view of LDS.

I love ya'll and so much is happened I wish I could tell you about everyone. I am having a blast in Lynchburg, even when times are tough. My faith has grown tremendously and my love simply can't be contained. I am so grateful to be here and wouldn't trade it for anywhere in the world.

Much Love,

Elder Dumke

Hey Fam and Friends -

This is Kim Kelly a baptism upon my arrival in the field. This is what is happening in my neck of the woods, more like the neck to the backwoods.

Soon after sending my email last week we went with the other elders to play dodgeball. First game I went for a ball that flew high in the air and apparently so did another elder. We ran into each other at full speed. I split my chin open on his nose. It was bad and bloody. I spent the rest of the night with two butterfly bandages on a healing wound. Ha It was frustrating at the time, but I can laugh at it now. Try tracting with everyone staring at your chin in wonder. It is healing up now though so NBD.

We have had some awesome lessons this week. I am most excited about this mother Cindy and her 15 year old son Nehemiah (younger brothers are Jeremiah and Zacariah). They are awesome but we are yet to meet the husband. He has 3 degrees in divinity and we have been warned that he will have more Anti than imaginable. His pride is laid up in secular knowledge of God. This week will probably when we will be teaching with him present. I am so excited because I know this gospel will help them so so much, but I will need help from above teaching them. They are for sure our most solid investigators.

We also have been teaching this guy Chris and his friends. We tracted into him during their Liberty bible study. We have met with him a couple of times. It was super awesome. Used to be atheist and a nuclear engineer by the time he was 22. He is wicked smart, after watching a sunset he realized that we more than just carbon and oxygen and that there was some kind of God. He has no dedicated his life to serving Him. He read the whole Book of Mormon in a few days and is caught up in his rational thinking. They are enlightening discussions but we aren't really getting anywhere.

Lastly we taught this Atheist Eric. We talked a lot about prayer and such. At the end of the lesson we showed him the proper format of prayer and he said the closing prayer. As soon as he said "Heavenly Father" the Spirit rushed in like a wall. It would have been impossible for him to Deny a God after that. The rest of the days was hard, all 6 appointments fell through and we got one contact in 2 hours of tracting, but it still felt succesful getting him to pray.

It has been work to integrate normal conversation with Gospel principles, but last week God sent me a tender mercy with Scott. Scott is rebuilding the engine in his mint condition 1968 Mustang Fastback. It was a true joy eyeing his ride. We talked to him for a while and are planning a visit later this week.

Elder Brady and I are getting along well. We have a lot in common and for now he does most of the talking and I bear testimony. We work well together and I know that he is the perfect trainer for me. There is no doubt this work is tough. I have learned to appreciate kind people. Those that slam the door are slamming closing out opportunity to be part of this amazing church. My studies in the morning have taught me so much. Namely when you strive to live and love like Christ it all falls into place. I love you all and can't wait to hear the adventures throughout your lives.

Much Love,

Elder Dumke

In the Field

2/28/11

Dear ______,

Well I made it through my flights and to Charleston they lost our bags, but we got them later that night. I met President and Sister Thornock and they are awesome. They are so down to earth and cool. We spent that first night at their home and I woke up the morning without a voice. Awesome. It was certainly a "trying" day, when you are trying to be social and branch out to meet other missionaries and people and I literally couldn't make a sound.

I was assigned to labor in the Lynchburg 1 area. This area is well known through out the mission. It is one of furthest areas away (about 4 hour drive) and it covers Liberty College. Liberty is what they call the "Golden Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt." It would be the equivalent of sending Baptist missionaries to Provo Utah. They have very few baptisms, but a lot of discussions to say the least. These students have the entire bible memorized I am pretty sure.

My companion and trainer is Elder Court Brady. He went to Alta and is a solid kid. He has spent the entirety of his mission in Lynchburg, which is a total of 6 months. He is an amazing missionary that knows the Bible very well. Pretty much all of the contacting here is tracting. At first I was bummed, but I like being outside and meeting so many people. No doors slammed in my face, so far, but quite a few polite "I am not interested, I have already been saved." They don't call this place the city of churches for nothing. There are MEGA Baptist churches all over the place.

My first official day here I had a baptism. Elder Brady and his old companion had been working with this girl Kim Kelly a liberty student for about a month and she was baptized my first day. It was way cool to see that immediately and gives me good hope for the future. We have met some other awesome Christian couples and families that are some of the most faithful Christ like people I have ever met. They are always praying for us and think it is so great we are sharing the message of Jesus Christ with the world.

The other day we were driving down the street and we saw two black kids about our age playing basketball just off the side of the street. We decided to go talk to them and played a game to eleven. They introduced themselves as Word and Rome, like the country. Oh yeah the country of Rome, ha. We actually won even in suits and ties. I think we earned a little cred and they agreed to listen to the first lesson. They seemed very receptive and we left them Book of Mormons. Tried their number later and they gave us some fake number. It was certainly a bummer, but ever onward.

I wish I had more time! The work is hard and honestly I don't know a place a more critical place of testing my testimony. There is hostility towards Mormons no doubt and I have had to re evaluate why I am out here, but I know the Lord comes through. The Book of Mormon is the word of God, Truly another testament of Jesus Christ. Through this restored gospel we receive strength and increase faith. I love you all and can't wait to hear from you!

Much Love,

Elder Dumke

300 Killarney Court

APT H

Lynchburg, VA 24502




Week 2

Hello Everyone,



How is everybody doing? I am doing great. I had an awsome week with some amazing devotionals. On sunday we had a good priesthood session. Talking about magnifying our callings as missionaries. We had a devotional that night to where the head administrator of the MTC invited 5 recent convert missionarie on stage and asked them questions. It was so cool. Monday we had this incredible group meeting about disregarding previous judgements of our missions. He said if you were dissapointed to go stateside, repent now. I regret ever doubting the Lord. He also said to not lower your expectations if you ahve heard they don't baptize a lot in your mission. As your expectations decrease, so does your effectiveness. Tuesday night we had a devotional led by none other than Kevin W. Pearson. The most amazing talk I have ever heard live, hands down. His wife started off with Pray as if everything depends on the Lord, Work as if everything depends on you. So good. He spoke next and emphasized the importance of becoming a disciple of Christ, not simply doing the mission work. He also spoke on the importance of obedience as that it is the foundation of faith. It was super inspiring. Afterwards I went up and shook his hand, which was a bit of challenge considering the number of missionaries that wanted to. It was basically a mob around him, but I got up to him shook his hand and said, "I believe you know my father!" He ended up talking to me for a bit as the other missionaries drooled over my 15 seconds of fame.

Wedneday we hosted the new missionaries, meeting them curbside. It was a little diffferent being on the recieving end, but it of course threw me right back to when I was dropped off two weeks earlier. It was cool to be able to welcome the shell shocked missionaries and attempt to comfort them. Can be quite the task. Our teacher later assigned us teach a lesson to someone in our class. We were invited to teach them whatever we felt they needed to hear. It was a deeply spiritual experience to sit quietly and pray to Heavenly Father what we feel someone needs to hear. I testify that he does communicate with us. I had a distinct answer to what this Elder needed and I was able to teach him. I don't know if it benefitted him or me more, but it was the first time I have cried since I have been here. And it was great! I even watched the restoration hoping to shed a tear, and nothing get these eyes of mine to sweat. It felt so good to feel like a direct servant of the Lord, and a true mouthpiece of the Spirit. Later that night I was playing basketball and I landed on someones foot. I heard a loud pop and immediately hopped over to the clinic. They diagnosed it as a really bad sprain, but I would have to get X rays in the morning as that they feared I had cracked some stuff. I went back to my room and my companion gave me a blessing with all the elders in the distrcit gathered in the circle. It was so cool to not only recieve a blessing, but to watch observe faithful servants of the Lord participate in some of their firsts.

So my entire P day so far has been waiting in health clinics and being taken to BYU health services for X rays. It is only a sprain, and they think it is pretty bad, but I am sure I will be fine. Don't worry about a thing. I should be off crutches by tommorow! Unfortunately I did miss the temple though. Which was a bummer.

Life at the MTC really is good. I am getting so comfortable with lessons and teaching the plan of salvation to a woman earlier this week was so neat. She recently lost her mom to cancer and she was crying the entire time we told her about the celestial kingdom. I can't wait to get out to the field and meet real life West Virginians! my flight is at 7 so I will probably call you around 5;30 or 6 am. I also have a layover in Detroit so I may sneek in a second one. We will see. I love you all so much! Thanks for your letters and packages! They brighten my already beaming day. Can''t wait to hear more and talk to you in a couple days.

Peace and Blessings

ELDER DUMKE

PS lots of letters on the way! watch for them.

Week 1

HELLO!!

Family I am actually beginning to miss you guys. JK I have missed you from the get go. I am loving it here. The work is hard, but I have never done anything more fulfilling. EVER. I have met so many cool Elders (dudes, I am supposed to give up slang). My district is good. We have a couple of sisters and I am getting along okay with my farmboy companion. We are different in soooo many ways, but similar in enough to make it work. We started learning the first lesson last week and it was easy, then we tried to teaching it. Super hard. I thought there was no way I could do it. After practicing for a few days we had our first lesson on tuesday. We nailed it. The woman seemed very receptive. It was nice to be teaching "real people" (even though they were just role playing as investigators). You could feel the Spirit in a fake lesson. It has strengthened my testimony so much being here. I am so grateful for the MTC. That lesson was the first time I had really felt the Spirit since I had been here. I have been praying hard to feel it, so when my heart was filled with its power it melted my stress and boosted my confidence.

My district is good, but overly sarcastic. Big surprise I know. Mormon Sarcasm. We eat together at all the meals, so we are with each other about 16 hours a day. The food is pretty descent and I have been eating massive amounts but thanks to my limited one hour of gym, and fast metabolism I suppose, I have lost weight; 2 pounds ha. The 8 hour nights are really starting to wear me down and I have been sick the past few days with a cough and cold but I am on the mend. My samoan room mate Elder James snores louder than anyone I have ever met. It is out of control seriously. Even though I can hear it through my earplugs, I love the kid enough that I can mentally block it out. Today we went through the temple and I unfortunately fell asleep. I am just so tired physically and spiritually all the time. It was neat and different going through as a missionary, especially because I have been studying Moses and the Creation these past few days in Personal Study.

I am so excited to get out to the field, but I don't what I would do without the MTC. I would have fallen flat on my face and failed. Say that 10 times fast. I am sorry I haven't sent more letters, our days are packed and I already stay up late trying to fit it all in my journal. Last saturday we had a "service day." Basically a program institiuted to cut down cleaning costs. I was told we were washing windows and such. I put on my silver seven jeans and prepared for housemaid work. Turns out we were scrubbing the bathroom floors with clorox. Pretty well destroyed the bottom of my jeans. I guess just one more way to humble. I should have known with the number of costly apparel references in the BIble.

I love you guys so much and miss you when I think about you, but I couldn't be happier be so occupied with the Lords work. I can feel my testimony growing in so many ways. I entered the MTC with a testimony of the savior and intellecutal understanding of how and why the church worked. I know feel so indebted to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and truly love this gospel. I have never read, studied, and pondered a subject so much. This new adventure does often test my patience and knowledge, but I know that with these trials I learn more. I feel like I have to be rebaptized after all this understanding. I love you so much and will email you next Thursday around this time. Love you!

Elder Dumke