Easter Surprise

Hello there friends, family and fellow children of God

How grateful I am for Easter. Easter is the day we have set apart to remember the Savior, the atonement and the resurrection of all mankind. Being in the Belt Buckle of the Bible belt you wouldn't think Easter would be controversial. However I found that because of Easter's Pageant Origins many fundamentalist Christians find it offensive to celebrate, claiming that we should remember Christ daily. And isn't that the truth? Christ died for each of us individually, not collectively. On a personal level he felt our pain, experienced our temptation and fought through hardship. I don't understand it all but as it says in 1 Nephi 11:17 "I know that he loveth his children, yet I do not know the meaning of all things." Easter is a holiday to commemorate our love for our brother and redeemer Jesus Christ.

This week was once again a lot of tracting, not by choice, but by fate. We had a few days where literally every appointment fell through, but as a result we were in the area to meet people in need of an uplifting Christ centered message. Falling through doesn’t' equal Failing. There is some witty connection between the I in fail and not in fall, but I have a limited amount of time to make it. Maybe that is something you can find for yourself, the connection between fall and Fail. Anyway, we made some great contact and we even ended up tracting in the countryside. Our area covers the impoverished side of Lynchburg, the middle class and clear out to the country including the Appomattox courthouse. This place is big and beautiful. The green has come out and with it comes the humidity.

We had two lessons this week with members with us. One was with Ethel and the other with Brian. In Brian's lesson we brought a member of the bishopric, brother Davis. He rejoined the church just 3 short years ago and he is awesome. He had to quit smoking and made instant excellent fellowship with Brian. We also had 3 baptisms this week in the Lynchburg area (in the other wards), but it great. The mission had 6 this week so 3 from this area was way sweet. We invited Brian to attend the baptismal service and he promised he would be there, but he never showed up. We were truly bummed... until the next morning after helping pass the sacrament we took a seat and saw a lone black man sitting in the corner of the chapel! He made it without us reminding him. This was the first time I had ever had anyone we were teaching come to church. We talked with him after the service and he told us that something had pushed out of bed this morning so he could make it. He apologized for not making it the previous night and explained Rachel (his fiancé) had purposely kept him shopping for the kids all night so he wouldn't make it. It is tough how she is holding him back, because he really wants to get baptized! We didn't have a class for him to go to so I grabbed a couple members, found an empty classroom and ended up teaching a lesson for 40 minutes. My companion thought I had it all planned and was completely oblivious that it was on the fly. The Spirit does amazing things when others are in need.

This week we also had the opportunity to help some investigators cut down some massive 40-foot trees. They were appreciative of our service and ended up coming to church the next day as well. Once again charity never faileth.

Each week brings a new a challenge and each reflection brings a new perspective.
Love yall so much,

Elder Dumke