Merry Christmas!

12/19/11

Can you believe it is Christmas time!? I am so excited for this holiday. It is kinda tough jumping into all of this right in the midst of the holidays, but I always love a struggle. We had an awesome day at church yesterday where the Relief Society gave each of us a bag of gifts, but only after we sang a Christmas song accapella for them. Thankfully there were 6 elders. yes, 6 elders in our ward. It is completely opposite from the 1 set covering two wards in Roanoke. One of the areas they just opened this transfer. We are looking forward to a lot of growth in the ward in the coming months. The teaching pool is different. We found 3 new investigators this week, which was sweet and much needed. I would like to tell you about one of the amazing families we found.
 
On Friday we had a day set up for tracting. We chose a neighborhood set on hill to go knock doors in. When we got there, we immediately knew we had to be somewhere else. We flipped the car around and lo and behold there was a string of about 15 houses you could only view from the neighborhood we were in. We knocked each of those doors. There right next to each other, but you had to go up and down about 40 stairs for each individual house. As we approached this one house, a 17 year old kid came out and asked what we were doing. We explained and went and got his mom. Sally came out and invited us in. She explained that her husband had been put in jail for domestic violence and she got her son out of juvi this morning. She bore her testimony to us that she knew God had sent us there. The Spirit was very strong as they talked about their needs and beliefs. The Holy Ghost really guided the conversation. Even her 17 year old son, with a pant leg rolled up as his jail penned swastika tattoo She has a good good heart, as all the people of West Virginia do. We are excited about them.
 
 My comp is Elder Wiederholt from Beaverton, Oregon. He has been out about 15 months and we get along well. Charleston is a whole new world. We live four houses from the Capitol building with has this massive gold dome. It literally fills up our whole study window. It is a beautiful view. We are right across the river from University of Charleston in Downtown. Seriously look up our apartment on Google earth. Zone leader has its challenges and new responsibilities too. We have 15 areas within our zone - the biggest in the mission. I am still trying to figure it all out. This much I must say, I love teaching and tracting much more than managing.
 
I am so grateful for this holiday to remind us of all we have. We have so much to give and so much knowledge to receive. I would invite you to open your hearts during this time of year and let this be a week of spiritual gifts. I love you very much and can't wait to talk at 3:45 my time.
 
Love,
Elder Dumke
1622 Virginia St Apt B
Charleston WV 25311