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