Serving with Purpose

This isn't my horse,
but it's mighty fine!

7/18/11

This past 7 days has been quite the rodeo. I forgot to mention that we are no longer on bikes they gave us our horses back. All 170 of them, in the form of a Chevy Malibu. I have never been so grateful for good ol glorious Chevrolet.

This week began with an awesome lesson with Claire and Fausto the family from Mexico. One of my favorite Members Danny Farerra came out with us and taught the entire lesson in Espanola. I was able to pick up a lot of it and tell where he was, but we participated very little. Only when he asked us to bear our testimonies of the Book of Mormon did we even speak. Quite the role reversal. The Spirit was super strong despite the language barrier.

We had our interviews with the President this week as well. In our brief time together he said he met my greenie in the MTC. He said he had prayed for the mission as a whole, but for him especially to have a "patient companion." He said his prayer was answered. I was humbled to be told I was an answer to such an outstanding man's prayer. Strangely enough patience is the virtue I am working on the hardest, because I feel I am seriously lacking it. In the words of Dad, "It is hard to develop patience when you have such an urgency for the work." I have thought about that dozens of times this past transfer and I am far from where I would like to be in actually claiming it as an attribute.

On Wednesday night we had a follow up appointment fall through. We went to contact an inactive member instead. When we pulled into the parking lot of the apartment complex, we helped a few people move a truckload of bedroom furniture up 3 flights of stairs. We put aside our original purpose and just helped. After assisting we explained we were missionaries sharing a brief message about Jesus Christ. We adjusted the first lesson to fit their time frame. It was incredible finding out that both of them have many Mormon friends and they are very interested in visiting the church.

Friday we dedicated our morning to service. We got out of our usual proselyting attire and helped a family with their yard and an investigator with her garage. They both were sincerely grateful for our help. We also visited a few widows and elderly couples. We chatted for a little while as usual, but this week I brought my piano book with me. After a little while of talking I asked if I could play a few hymns, as that most have an old piano to play on. Some of them aren't able to come to church and haven't heard the hymns played in years. It was amazing to invite the Spirit through Music.

My comp and I are working hard to work things out ;). I love y’all so much and hope things are going well on the home front.

Much Love,
Elder Dumke