Happy Father's Day!

6/18/12

Seems like just yesterday I gave a father's day talk in Roanoke, reflecting on the love of both a earthly and heavenly father. I am so grateful for them both this week. It felt like the flood gates opened and it has been the best game of sink or swim I have ever played. After emailing last Monday we went to Walmart to go shopping. After finishing the checkout line and heading towards the exit we passed by customer service. There was a line of people waiting and one of the guys stopped us and says, "Hey, what does your church think about the Book of Mormon musical?" Thankfully we did know the church's statement - You have seen the play, now read the book! We talked with him some more and asked if we could come by and give him one. Come to find out a member gave him a book of mormon at work three years ago. Well on Saturday we went up to see him and he immediately let us in. His name is Chip and he has a 15 year old son and is a single father. He has a very good heart.  He said he couldn't find his Book of Mormon, so he downloaded it on his kindle and had been reading it all week. He had highlighted a bunch of things a made a list of questions. We had a great first lesson and invited him for church the next day. And yesterday he came, and stayed the whole time! He really loved it and knows one of the recent converts really well! They played in some kind of a band together 20 years ago. He thanked us for inviting him and said he would definitely be back. But it doesn't stop there. With the talk of exact obedience and sacrifice, as a mission we decided that on P Day we would always be done with dinner by 6 so we could have full proselyting time, unless we had an investigator to dinner with us. The member that is feeding us tonight couldn't do it until 5:30 so we would not be finished by 6. With faith we told we could find an investigator. We called Chip and he was amped to come with us. We are really excited for this evening. It just goes to show that rules and commandments are put in place to afford us the greatest opportunities for happiness.

We taught the wonderful Ghana family last week and they were very kind, but very enthralled with their church. We are seeing them again tonight. They did commit to reading the Book of Mormon. They are so sensitive to the spirit, they cannot help but feel its divinity. As for Jerry, the man we taught last sunday. He called us midweek and cancelled our appointment and said he wanted to read more of the Book of Mormon, before he comes to church or meets with us. We are praying that that is a good thing. Hopefully we will get to see him again this week.

Liz had her baptismal interview on Saturday and she is all set to be baptized next Sunday. She is really happy to finally get to be able to do it. A lot of the family active and less active will be participating in the program.

Hope the world is well. 

Love yall, Elder Dumke