Final Week in the Field

12/30/12

 1 Now behold, a ^amarvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.

 2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the ^aservice of God, see that ye^bserve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand ^cblameless before God at the last day.

 3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are ^acalled to the work; 4 For behold the ^afield is white already to ^bharvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in ^cstorethat he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

 5 And ^afaith, ^bhope, ^ccharity and ^dlove, with an ^eeye single to the^fglory of God, ^gqualify him for the work.

 6 Remember faith, ^avirtue, knowledge, ^btemperance, ^cpatience,^dbrotherly ^ekindness, ^fgodliness, charity, ^ghumility, ^hdiligence.

 7 ^aAsk, and ye shall receive; ^bknock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

Happy New Year Family!

What an amazing week to end on. These last two years have come and gone so rapidly. It has hard to imagine my life without some of the experiences that I have had the last few months. They are things that have changed me forever. In discussing with President Pitt, he posed the question, "What part of our past will we be judged on?" He went on to answer, that we want necessarily be judged on any of it. When we stand at the judgement bar before the Lord, we will be not judged by the good things that we did necessarily or the bad things we did in the distant past, but be judged by who are as we stand before him. Was our repentance complete enough to change our hearts? Did serving others help us become more Christlike or was our service done grudgingly only creating a spike of contempt in our hearts? 

My service in the WVCM was in full service of the Lord and the people here, and I know without a doubt that I am headed on the path of becoming the kind of person the Lord wants me to be. I am certainly not there yet, but I am working at it. Church today was incredible. I was asked to give my departing testimony because I had served in the ward for so long. I really have loved being in Charleston for the last 13 months, and it has been an indescribable blessing to see a few fruits of our labors here. After church today was the baptism of Matt Sellards. His family was entirely reactivated and I haven't ever seen someone soo excited to be baptized. In all the midst of the excitement while baptizing him, I raised the left arm to the square and had to do it again. It was okay though. He liked being baptized twiced (as the say in WV). It was a lot of goodbyes at church and exchanging of information. 

We still have a big week ahead of us over the next few days, and so this mission is not over. I am going hard to the end whether I like it or not. Thankfully I do!  Christmas was a lot of fun as well. I loved talking to you and it is still hard to believe I will see you in just a few short days. What in the world!? How am I feeling about going home? I have probably been asked that at least 40 times today and there is nothing more I can say than that I am. I can't really describe how I feel. I am just excited for the next transfer in Provo. I mean, does it even count, me going home. I am going to a place I have never lived before, feels more like I am leaving  home to return to my family. All sarcasm aside I cannot wait to see you!! I am craving the moment we sit in the temple together. Your thoughts and prayers over the last 2 years have meant the world to me. Thank you for all that you have done on my behalf. There are many emails that went unanswered and gifts not given, but I thank you for your patience and love!

Love yall so so much

Elder Dumke

Merry Christmas

12/23/12

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This week was wonderful! John's Baptism on Monday on his birthday, amazing for him to be reborn on his 67th birthday. His whole family came and it was a very nice service. Afterwards we had Mexican food with everyone. Marcie was so happy and everytime I am around them I am just amazed. I love them so much. She taught gospel principles again today and did so great. I gave them and Sister Long the Mormon Tabernacle Choir DVDs from you. They way loved it. Today was his confirmation along with 4 others. I love church and it is going to be so hard to leave the 1st ward. Next week is Matt's baptism which is super exciting. He can't wait to be baptized and we have grown really close to their family.

Wednesday was transfers and we have Elder Makemson with us. It was definitely apparent that he would be the Elder with us. He is very on the ball and catching on quick. It has been really great being in a tripanionship this time. Typically it is difficult, but we get along really well and we are all different enough that it works out great. The van taking all the missionaries to their areas broke down on Wednesday so all the missionaries were stranded for about 7 hours until the rental company could get a truck to tow them. The tow truck then towed the bread truck with everyone's luggage from point to point and they got in at 11:30 that night. It takes a lot of planning to make transfers happen, then you just have to throw your hands up sometimes when something catastrophic like that happens. I am definitely getting better at dealing with stressful situations now.

We have had some good times this week doorbell ditching the families that need help with Christmas this year. It puts us in a tough situation being missionaries and giving people money publicly, just because we are everyone else's project for Christmas, so anonymity has been the best approach. It has been very rewarding and brought the Spirit of Christ to helping others. I saw this quote this week, "Coincidences are God's way of being anonymous." 

I have never felt to loved in all my life by family, ward members and the good people of WV. I finally understand why people will build a brand new house next to the trailer they grew up in 6 miles deep in holler. There is love in these hills. Merry Christmas Everyone and I will talk to you Tuesday just after 2:30!

Love yall

Elder Dumke

Teaching and Training

12/16/12

This last week was a very very busy. Monday thru Saturday we traveled to 6 different zones, each a few hours apart, doing training with the missionaries. We really didn't get to proselyte in our area, but it was really fun to be able to work with literally all of the missionaries in the mission. Elder Klain and I got to work with each companion on their teaching. Our focus was on inviting investigators to attend church. We talked about giving a vision of church before extending the commitment. We explained the principle, demonstrated it, and then had them role play, stopping periodically to help them re-practice and evaluate. It was really neat to see how their teaching improved. It was a stretch to try and be a coach on that kind of thing. A tender balance of building up on the things you do well and direct and clear suggestions on things they can work on and re-practice. It proved to be very beneficial and we are excited to see the results of it all.

Today at church was really incredible. Marcie was called to be the gospel principles teacher after being a member for only a month and today was her first time teaching. She did AMAZING! She reads her Book of Mormon every night along with Preach My Gospel and is learning so quickly. Tomorrow is John's baptism and he is really excited. The ward has caught fire of missionary work and it is incredible to witness. Today there were 4 baptisms, tomorrow there is one and there are two more on the 30th. There used to be such a distinct line between families from Utah and WV families in the ward, now everyone is united and happy. It is excellent to see how SHARING the gospel does that.

This week is transfers, so it will be crazy again, but we are getting a 3rd companion with Elder Klain and I. We will work together until I go home. Sister Pitt is going back to Utah for their son's wedding from the 29th to the 7th, so i will probably be President's companion during that time. I am pretty excited about that. Things are going extremely well and so it is hard to think of going home so soon, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thank you for the Christmas Package and notes. I love being able to read your testimonies and experiences time and time again. Time is going way to quickly. Love yall

Much Love

Elder Dumke

Trying not to Count it Down

12/9/12

Family!

I miss you all so much. Even when the work is great, it is hard not to think about my wonderful family back home. I hope y’all are enjoying this holiday season. This past week we got a call from a family that I had worked with a little bit over the last year. The family is less active and we had been teaching them and trying to get them back to church. Last week they came, and the Mom talked to the Bishop and the son really wants to get baptized. He asked me to baptize him, so he will be getting baptized on the 30th. We are gone all week for specialized training and then John is getting baptized on the 17th. He is so excited. Anyway I cannot wait to chat on the phone in a few weeks. Sorry for not writing more, but we have to wake up at 5 tomorrow.

Love yall

Elder Dumke!

Working in a Trip Ship

12/3/12

Dear Family-

There is an Elder that has been struggling recently so Elder Klain and I got to have him work with us for the week. It has been a lot of fun, and  hopefully been a positive experience. Each year our ward does a community nativity event. Where there are nativities from all around the world, over 100 countries are represented. We had a lot of success having non members and investigators coming, and John and Marcie helped to host it. We had a good lesson with them last monday and gave John a blessing. We invited to pray about being baptized. At the Nativity event he called us over to talk to him. He said, "I did what you said, I prayed about it, and I made a decision." He is getting baptized on the 17th of December, his 67th birthday. Marcie came over as we were talking and then he told her that he was getting baptized she immediately began crying and was so happy to hear. Our last lesson was on eternal marriage and she can't wait to have an eternal family.

Things are going well with Christina she came to church again yesterday and met with the bishop and has been telling everyone, she is getting baptized in December. We are excited for her. 

Sorry I am out of time but a few other highlights - Taught two people from China while on exchanges in Blacksburg. That place will erupt with the gospel when it's borders are opened. We also began teaching a man from Iran, that had no background of Jesus Christ. He has now read half of the Book of Mormon and said the closing prayer in our lesson in Persian. It was a powerful experience for him to come to the Nativity. 

Love yall

Elder Dumke

Happy Thanksgiving!                                                                                               11/25/12                                    

How was your holiday? This week was really great and packed with A TON of food. My goodness I thought I was going to burst. We started the day was a few hours of rugby, and it was a blast. I am way out of shape and my body still aches, but is was such a good time. We then went to Sister Longs and met her daughters and Marcie and her family came and we got to meet the rest of her family. It was a lot of fun and Marcie's family was rattling question after question, we are having a lesson with all of them tomorrow night. After having a good time with them we went to the Frosts for a meal until the Roots. It was good food and company. The Roots then had a prepared a good country WV thanksgiving. It was awesome to eat with them. The day before we had come by and taught Christina.

We knew going into the lesson that she needed an understanding of the blessings of the gospel and her potential as a daughter of God. We prayed that the Lord would grant her a vision. We taught a good lesson from the scriptures, and towards the end, she asked if she could have a blessing of comfort. After the blessing, she was kind of speechless, and then began to cry. She said," when you gave me that blessing, I suddenly saw myself walking down a dirt road, not really sure where it was headed, and then I saw the Lord. He was calling me towards him and I kept walking and was shaking off Temptation and things that Satan was throwing at me. That has never happened to me before, I have never seen anything like that." It was especially incredible, because we didn't mention anything about vision to her before or during the blessing. We left their house giving thanks the Lord had heard our prayer. The amazing thing is that she is acting on it. She came to church today for the first time and hadn't smoked all day. She continues to read every day now and plans to be baptized at the end of december.

Today was an amazing day at church. All of our investigators came, so we had 9 investigators there. The Lord truly is hastening the work. The family that referrred themselves came for the first time, and we will find out this week what they thought of the service. John McDonald keeps plugging along, and I hope to see him baptized before the end of December.

We exchanged with the elders in Roanoke this week which is a 3 hour drive, so I got a good 12 hours of driving in 40 hours. And Elder Klain had his wallet stolen so I have been doing lots of driving, :) I am definitely grateful for the amount of pondering time I have. Today I had to teach an impromptu gospel essentials class because the teacher didn't come, and a lot of it came from things I had been pondering about. I am super happy and thankful for all the blessings we are seeing.

Love yall and see you soon

Elder Dumke

Ah Gratitude!

I love being a missionary.

Today was stake conference and there was a new stake president called for the stake, because the current one was moving to Texas. There were two seventies that came in, Elder Murray and Elder Golden. They explained the revelatory process of calling a new stake president and then invited the old stake presidency to bear their testimonies. The new stake president is a very humble WV man, currently serving of one of the smaller branches. After the testimonies, Elder Golden is part of the curriculum for the church, taught doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost and the Savior. It spurred alot of questions and we were able to discuss it with President after the Conference. It has been amazing to be tutored by President Pitt in the Gospel. I am extremely grateful for it. We were also asked to teach the Priesthood Preview to the 11 year olds turning 12 this year about the Aaronic priesthood in Stake Conference. It went really well.

But now for why I love being a missionary. The Lord is hastening the work. This week we got a referral for HQ for someone who got on Mormon.org and requested a visit. We went and taught him tonight and met his whole family. He had a Book of Mormon once, but lost it, and since Mitt Romeny ran, he became interested in the church. He has been studying Mormon.org and ordered a Book of Mormon off of amazon.com. We had a great first lesson with them tonight and are seeing them again Wednesday. After that we had the prompting to see the Roots. They are doing okay, extremely well considering where they were 1 year ago. We visited with them and had a prayer and they explained that they had been in a fight and Tommy had our number dialed ready to call and talk and then we came. He stayed up till 5 studying the scriptures and had over 25 pictures of the temple on his phone. I am so grateful for the things that are turning him around.

Marcie is doing great. She drove down from Morgantown to come to Stake Conference. Her daughter has been defending the church all week, and John is doing okay. He has had some more complications with his surgeries, so we are praying he will be alright. He continues to have baptism on his mind though. Our Thanksgiving plans are looking great. 10 to 12 Rugby Turkey Bowl, 1 to 3 Thanksgiving with the Longs and the McDonalds (both investigating families), 3 to 5 dinner with the Frosts and a few active members, and 5 to 7 thanksgiving with the Roots (investigator family) and dessert with a recent convert at 8. The day is packed with food, but we are trying to make it as productive as possible.

I am so grateful for you. For your support and love. I recognize that I am below par at sending personal messages and keeping in close contact, but I am so thankful, every time I hear from you. I can't wait to be with you all soon! Sometimes I wonder how much the mission has changed me. This week as I began pondering the temple interview questions, I got a little emotional thinking about how much firmer of a testimony I have of those things. I have known Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, now I feel like, I know the Prophet Joseph and I love him. I am thankful for the restoration and for the Holy Ghost to testify of these things.

Yall be good

Much Love

Elder Dumke