Coll to Serve: Miracle after Miracle

This may be hard to believe - 10/28/12

But this has undoubtedly been the best week of my mission, possibly my life. What incredible blessings we are experiencing! As Elder Whiting said this week, "It has hard to record celestial experiences in a telestial world."

Wednesday Elder Whiting came into Roanoke and addressed half the mission. He is down to earth, a dry sense of humor and very straightforward. Elder Klain conducted the meeting and welcomed everyone and then began to intorduce Elder Whiting by reading a Bio from LDS.org. Just as he started reading Elder Whiting told him to stop, and just let him begin talking. It took everyone off gaurd and Elder Whiting got up. He started by saying, "It doesn't really matter who I am, all that matters is that I am on assignment from the Quorum of the 12 Apostles." He taught a lot on unity and his over all feel, was that we can do better. He didn't come down on obedience or faith or desire so much as he explained that we have all those things, and now we need to stop living below our potential. He said everything that needed to be said. It was an excellent meeting Tuesday as well as the one in Charleston on Thursday. That day I got to have an interview with him. We didn't have much time, we sat down had a prayer and he said," Lets cut to the chase, what can I do for you Elder?" Is there any greater question to be asked by a general authority? It was extremely impactful to be asked that. I talked to him about how I could take things to the next level spiritually. We had a nice discussion.

Thursday night we had dinner and a lesson with Marice and John, she was feeling healthy and great. We pretty much finished up the lessons and she was set to be baptized this weekend. She is amazing!! John is coming along as well and they have a temple marriage in their sights. She is a rock solid convert. Today her husband and daughter came to church for the first time, it was the primary program. They really enjoyed it and felt very comfortable. Marcie was baptized after church and it was incredible. The Spirit was so strong, I feel it now even as I reflect on it. I was privileged to be the one to baptize her. Ah it was everything I hoped it would be for her. The Relief Society is absolutely ecstatic to have her in the church. She has canned almost her whole life and has already been very active in their socials. It was a wonderful day.

On top of the baptism today this non member showed up at church. This might be confusing, but it was a very fortifying experience. While in Roanoke last year I had a dream about a woman that came to church, that looked sort of like a witch, and had trouble with her car and we baptized her. It was a very weird dream and i didn't think too much of it til last week. This Less Active member came to church for the first time in years. She looked very familiar and then while sitting in the second hour of church it clicked, she was the woman from my dream! I went and talked to her afterwards and found out she was living out of her car, I was thinking that she must be the woman and surely we would baptize her, but then I found out she was already a member. Anyways I told Elder Klain about it after church and kind of wrote it off. Then today she comes again, this time a little late to sacrament. Immediately after sacrament, she comes up and says, "I brought an investigator!" We stepped into the hallway and she explained what happened. She said she was driving to church and got a flat tire. She said she was praying to God somewhat cursing him for giving her a flat tire when she was trying to do the right thing and go to church. As she sat there, this man David came up to her on the side of the road and asked if he could help her. She was very appreciative and invited him to church. Surprisingly he came and he LOVED it. He asked us if he could be baptized, what he had to do to be part of the church, the whole bit. He stayed for the baptism, we taught him after church and set him for the end of November. It was amazing!! Not only did he just come, but the Lord gave me a dream to prepare for this experience. What a day.

Half the Charleston Zone

Finally we have really tried to reach the standard of excellence every week to show the mission it is possible. We were short on lessons and new people to to teach. The Lord sent us one to church already, and then we prayed to know where we could find a few more. We visited a Less Active referred to us by the bishop and it wasn't really going anywhere as we were on his porch figuring out how this was going to work, his daughter in law came out to smoke. We had an excellent discussion with her, she opened up began bawling and allowed us to teach her. I am just grateful.

I love y'all so much!

Elder Dumke