General Conference Feast

10/7/12

Oh Boy I am stuffed!

What an amazing week this has been! The new missionaries came in Tuesday evening and it was a treat to be with them. They have such strong faith and a desire to serve. We spent Monday and Tuesday preparing for the huge transfer on Wednesday. There were over 70 changes in the mission. Nearly every companionship changed so logistics was crazy. We had a great transfer meeting, where all those that come in to charleston come and have a meeting. It is always really looked forward to being around such a strong group. As we were closing up the building there was a family cutting down a huge tree, so offered to be back in an hour with work clothes to help them out. They were very willing to let us help out. We had a good time with them and they invited us for dinner a few days later.

Thursday we woke up at 3:30 to take all the departing missionaries home, then had enough time to crawl back in bed at the mission home for a while. We had to prepare for Zone Leader Council the following day. It was an awesome meeting as well. The mission is doing better than it ever has in obedience and success. The Lord has opened the windows of heaven in our mission. I don't know if I told you this before or not, but we used to get $170 on our support card each month, but we felt it was too much, so lowered it to 150. Since that time amazing miracles have happened. The principle of tithes held us as mission made its funds more sacred. After ZLC we had dinner with Jeff and Vlinda (our tree people). They are your traditional WV natives that moved into the city from the country. He is a brick mason and she loves to hunt bear. They are a way nice couple. We had a good country meal of dumplings, biscuits, green beans and chicken with them. Afterward we taught them and they said they were open to the lessons. The best part is they live literally right across from the church.

OH! and General Conference was amazing! We watched it all at the church. We were with President when they made the age change for missionaries. It is pretty crazy that no one except the 12 knew it was happening. It will certainly change missionary work and we are expecting a lot more sisters to serve. It was amazing to watch that revelation flow. It is basically the biggest change in church policy during my lifetime. Today we watched the morning session at the church. Sister Long brought her friend Marcie with her. We were shocked to see her there. Friday night we got a call from Sis Long that Marcie's car had been hit from the back by an 18 wheeler on the freeway on their way back from DC. It was scary there for a while. She LOVED conference this morning and after the session we gave her a blessing. Sis Long was bawling the whole time. Afterwards Marcie explained when she was in the hospital they asked her religious preference and she answered Mormon. She continued to say that she wasn't one that understood why people would testify, but every since she has been reading th Book Of Mormon she literally wants to tell everyone about it. We get to teach our first official lesson with her Wednesday Night at Sis Long's home. She is amazing!

President has challenged all the Zone Leaders and us to get the standard of excellence this week.  The following week Elder Whiting will be visiting the mission. He spoke in the Saturday Session of Conference actually. It is getting late and we just finished numbers. But I will send some more tomorrow.

Friday night we had a fun time with the Surfaces carving Pumpkins. This is Noah their 2 year old trying to spit on my pumpkin to put out the candle. He is so funny! 

 Love you so much!

Elder Dumke