Update!!!

Hey Hey 3/12/12

Sorry it has been a little while since I have been able to email. Last week was transfers as yall expected, but I wasn't moved. I am still here in Charleston, we just had to run around all day on Tuesday, because we weren' t really expecting Elder W. to move. Now I am serving with Elder Butler from Aurora, Colorado. I got a couple of new roomates too. We no longer live with the Assistants they have moved to an apartment closer to the mission home, and now we live with the Westside Elders, but we will be sharing a ward with the Assistants. President wants Charleston to be the Nucleus of the mission, so he will be coming to our ward every other week. We will begin teaching investigators in his home, and us and the assistants have some pressure put on.

The last weeks have been good. We set Pam with a date for the 25th of March. Keep our fingers crossed she makes it! She seems to be progressing, but not really accepting the message with gladness. Not really sure. Yesterday she came to church, but bolted after sacrament, to go to her church. I have faith that she would be ready if she chose to be, but there is still somethin holding her back.

We have continued teaching Vince and things are going real well there. He is so sweet. I included pictures of them both. I also put in a photo of Elder Wiederholt and I. There is definitely a funny but scary story behind it. Something to do with going down a one way in downtown Charleston. AHHH! We are alive and well.

I love yall and thanks for your prayers and support!

D&C 29:11

D&C 29:7 2/27/12

"And the elect harden not their hearts"
 
This week we were able to teach Luke again with his fellow-shipper. It went really well and was grateful we came over. The next day we went to a members home for dinner and the family called up Luke on our phone (without our asking) and invited him to join us for the meal. He and his son came and had a great time. They ended up staying later than we did. On sunday they came to church and really enjoyed themselves. That was the amazing part, not because church was boring, quite the contrary actually. I was white knuckled and on the edge of my seat the whole time! Sacrament meeting was all about service and how the church organizes service opportunities. That was fine. The second hour was on the Word of Wisdom. Luke's son stayed with him in the class and was giving his dad the guilty look over each principle of it. He is a heavy smoker and moderate drinker. Thankfully he talked to us after and said that every time we had been coming over, he didn't have the desire to smoke and he continued to lose his lighters over the last few weeks. One more sign of him being prepared. The final hour  was about the godhead, he was raised Catholic. It made sense to him immediately. He has really opened up more and is drinking it all in. It has been amazing to see him recognize the truth. We are eating dinner with him at a members home again on thursday, and he is set to keep coming back to church.
 
We taught Pam on Friday and it was by far the best lesson, me and Elder Wiederholt have had together. She expressed that she felt she was getting closer to God and she was finding hope that she thought she had completely lost. She was set to come to church again, but she had to help her friend with a prayer at her church. She seems to grasping more on to the gospel. Especially the way the members have been helping her. One of the sisters gave her a daughters in my kingdom RS book without us even knowing. We have a good feeling about her.
 
We also began teaching two Part member families together and their kids will be baptized in june. They are getting reactivated and the bishop has asked that they are active for 4 months beforehand.
 
Unfortunately we will not be able to have the baptisms the ward has been fasting for, but the missionary work has never been stronger in this area. We have continued to get people at church, so the trust is continually building. March should be a very good month. I sure love yall. And I am doing well. Just feeling a lot of pressure as a Zone Leader.
 
Much Love
Elder Dumke 

Foundation Laid, now to Building a House

2/20/12

Gospel According to Luke:

Monday - Our Preparation Day and just a few hours to work. We had one
appointment with Mahendra our south African martial arts friend and
some tracting. We had been knocking doors on this street the last few
days and hadn't seen too much success, but for whatever reason we felt
confident there was more to be done. So we continued onward. We hiked
this big staircase and to a house that looked like it was just being
remodeled.A guy named Luke came out and we figured he was just working
there and we told him that. I am not sure if he just wanted to prove
to us that he lived there or he was just friendly, but he let us in
showed us around. We offered our help and then shared a little bit of
the first lesson. Luke told us he was raised Catholic and hadn't
prayed in months, but this morning in distress he told the Lord he
needed help. He needed his house finished by Saturday and there was
still a long way to go and his Landlord wouldn't return any of his
calls.

Thursday - Our appointment falls thru with a potential investigator
while we are with our Elders quorum President. We took him to Lukes
instead and showed up the exact same time as the Pizza guy. Remember
that long hike of stairs. Yep hiked them with the delivery man. We
went in and talked with Luke for a good while and he told us that 5
minutes after we left on monday his landlord called and helped work a
bunch of things out. Luke knew at that point that God knew him and he
was willing to learn more. We taught him more about the book of Mormon
and invited him to read and pray.

Saturday - 4 brothers from the elders quorum and us came to his house
at 8 am to help hang sheet rock and cut trees. He was very impressed
and we got to know him much better. He does fatality recovery for the
FBI and has served overseas 3 times in the Air force. He has a 9 year
old son, he would give his life for. He hauled him thru night school
and has been a single father his son's whole life. He is an awesome
guy. Unfortunately he pulled 2 all nighters to finish his house and
slept thru church. He called us during the service and apologized
profusely.

We are so excited about him and was definitely the highlight of the
week. We also had Pam over for dinner with the RS president and a few
other sisters. She had a great time and opened up a lot more. She said
she isn't quite ready for baptism, but she said that God has been
telling her that there is more. It surprised her because she has gone
to 4 years of Bible school and 2 years of prayer school, so she is
very learned in the scriptures. She really understands the commitment
and is growing more and more daily! A member actually gave her a quad
on sunday without telling us, so we are praying that it will be a
benefit not a detriment.

Valentines was great! We were on exchanges and contacted a former
investigator. She is a lawyer at a local law firm and a devout Lutheran.
She has been taught everything so it is kind of hard to go in and re
hash it, so we really just bore testimony of the message and the Book
of Mormon. The Spirit was very strong and she agreed to read one
chapter and really pray about it. We came back on saturday and found
out she read it twice and prayed both times. She didn't feel she
received an an answer, but, almost right before our eyes, her desire
to know if it was true grew. Vince and Brenda fell off the face of the
earth this week. We can't seem to contact them. . Just teaching "those
that harden not their hearts" for a few hours really can make up for
the week.
Much Love
Elder Dumke

Blessings of a Fast

2/13/12
This was a great week. I have such a testimony of fasting. Last week was the beginning of our ward missionary fast. Each day someone in the ward fasted and the next 3 weeks there will continue to be one family fasting everyday. Well last week was the best week for each set of elders in the ward. We taught many more lessons and made some very good progress with our current investigators. We had a lesson with Pam on wednesday with one of our ward missionaries it went really well and we invited her to church, and wouldn't ya believe it, yesterday she came. We have really only been able to meet with here once week and sometimes less, so the progress has been slow, but steady. She came and really enjoyed relief society. She works for the state as the head of the optometry department and the church speakers were perfect for her. Pam's hold up for baptism is recieving an answer if the Book of Mormon is true and the talks yesterday were on reading the scriptures and one of the speakers related it to his humanitarian trip to El Salvador with a group of optomologists! It was great! The releif society president invited her over for dinner on wednesday with 5 other single sisters and we are teaching her afterwards. She has really come out of the woodwork.

We also saw Vince this week. He is doing really well and is on track for baptism except for not being married. He has not gotten married to his 15 year girlfriend because she has her college paid for because her father died in the military so her schooling is paid for. Their combined income would be too much for her to recieve those benefits if they did get married. On Thursday we fasted to overcome it, but it is going to take a lot of faith for him to do it. The ironic thing is, how nearly quoted Doctorine and Covenants about how important it is to receive a good education while we are still here. Satan is putting some tough stumbling blocks in front of him.

Zone Conference was also this week. It was focused how we build others testimonies thru improving teaching - clarify, simplify, verify, tesify. As well as changing perspective by teaching doctorine then aligning commitments. You might not think it is useful unless you are a missionary, but the more I think about it, the more I realize those are the basics of communication. It is understanding why someone has a particular belief, how it relates to how they act and then clearly sharing why you choose to act differently. It was a really good conference.

We are excited for another faith building week. I sure love yall and have a Happy V Day.
Much Valentine (in an elderly (missionary) way) Love,
Elder Dumke

The Weekly Report

This week in a nut shell

Missionary Work is really beginning to erupt in this area. Yesterday the entire ward fasted for missionary work in the ward, and on top of it Elder Wiederholt and I passed around a calender for members to sign up to fast an extra day this month. From this past Sunday to the fourth of march we are hoping to have someone fasting everyday during that time, and then on that day have 3 baptisms (for the 3 sets of elders). The ward is enthused and supportive. On Friday we set a date with this man Vince. He has been taught by missionaries in the past and he has good promise. After reading a scripture from Doctrine and Covenants, he said he wanted his own set and got online and ordered a quad, right then and there. It was way cool. We also taught Brenda who has a date in mid march. She missed her appointment because she was in Florida, but when she came back we met with her. She was very distraught because she found out she is pregnant, and because of her epilepsy it is a very scary situation. We gave her a blessing and the Spirit was so strong. Her friend that was against us meeting with Brenda was there and after the blessing she asked us if we could pray with her for her family. Brenda is bringing her boyfriend to the next lesson, and he is excited to meet with us too. I am very grateful for the priesthood. We found a new investigator from South Africa, he is good friends with a member currently on a mission and is having dinner with us and his family this week. Things are looking up and we are really confident in the people we are teaching.

Oh boy I wish I could just talk to you in person, because there are a lot of circumstances surrounding this story, but I will try my best. So over the past week Elder Wiederholt and I have been really searching to find an elect person to teach. We both felt impressed to try this one member family to go ask them if they knew anyone. We don't know them that well, they are not very missionary minded and very private people, so we were kinda hesitant. We got the impression almost every time we prayed as a companionship so we thought we ought to do it. We made up some sweet thank you cards (I will send one home) and we went to go drop it off at their house for some work they did on my comps suit. They invited us in, we chatted for 20 seconds and we asked if they knew anyone we could teach. Immediately she said, "yes, actually I work with this woman who has asked quite a bit about the church and I have given her some church things. I will invite her over for dinner." Wow that has never happened, but it did. It was definitely a reaffirming witness, that the Lord is waiting for us to ASK. We are looking forward to hopefully meeting her this week.

I love you friends and family and thank you for your prayers.

Much Love,
Elder Dumke

Transfers and Elder Pieper

Well this week we had a really awesome experience of having a General Authority come to the mission. Elder Peiper came to do a tour of our mission and give us instruction on how we can do better. The last year has been pretty rough as far baptisms go and he came and gave instruction on how we can find the Lord's elect. It was great, but the coolest part about it was the feeling of the Spirit bearing witness of the things he was sayiing. Not only was it inspirational, it was undoubtedly straight from the Lord. We had a question and answer session with him and then all the Zone Leaders got interviewed by him. It was cool. He shared with us that while on a business trip, he got a prompting that he needed to move to Khazikstan. So him and his family picked up and moved there. Without any specific church assignment or anything their family took initiative and they baptized 55 people and really built up the church there. He later became the Mission President in St. Petersburg. Amazing faith.

I was on exchanges earlier this week with an Elder in our area. We try to make every exchange a learning experience so we tried to focus on one thing; helping investigators identify the Spirit. We taught 3 lessons that day and in each one we asked how they felt during the discussion. One said, "I am not sure if its this chair or you, but I feel warm." (It wasn't the chair) Another big black bus driver Bill said, " I don't wanna talk about it or else I will start cryin and Imma grown man." Brenda said she felt blessed and that she was just lucky to have it with her. I have a firm testimony that the Spirit is with us much more than we give credit. Next time you feel inspired or uplifted or just straight happy, pay attention it is probably the Sprit.

Update on our top investigators: Pam has been sick/out of town and is catchin up on our work, but we are seeing her this week. Brenda is doing pretty well. She is reading the Book of Mormon, but church has been tough. Last week she had a seizure the night before and had to get staples in her head after hitting a shelf. and this week she broke her wrist shortly before. Tonight we are hoping to have her at dinner with members of the ward. She grew up in some scary groups so I am excited for her to be surronded by members of the church.

It is Transfers tomorrow, but neither of us are leaving, we will probably stay together just one more. The assistants are both staying as well but we are getting a third elder. There will be 5, count em, 5 elders under one roof. I love yall so much.

Love,

Elder Dumke

Week Five Completed

Dear one and yall
 
This week was definitely the busiest of my mission. We went on 4 different exchanges in 5 days. It was a wonderful experience to be able to travel the mission a little bit. I even spent a day in Ohio. In Marietta acutally. It sounded familiar. Is that where Nicole and Abe lived? For some reason I was thinkin so. We definitely had some amazing things happen.
 
 On Tuesday while on exchanges with my good MTC roommate Elder James we had a lesson with Pam. In the last lesson she kinda started closing door, saying she wanted to stay at her church. At the end of that lesson we invited her to dinner at a members home and she accepted. So on tuesday we taught her the plan of salvation with a meal. It was one of the greatest nights. As we sat at the table and chatted beforehand I asked how she had met her husband and she told her story. Then I asked the members how they met. Immediately the brother got up, went to the piano and began playing and singing full bore one voice by Barry Manilow as the sister told how they met at this his concert. It was straight from a movie. I was biting my lip trying not burst out at how amazing the scene was before me. So classic. After our serenade the conversation turned to genealogy and then to temples. It was the perfet precursor to our lesson. She immediately wanted to learn and know more and accepted a baptismal invite for Feb 19th. She has a good ways to go until then, but her intent is pure so we will continue working with her.
 
Thursday Elder Wiederholt and I were finally able to teach together. It was about the only time the whole week that we could. We taught Brenda with Elder Bennion who works in the office. We discussed repentance and baptism with her as well. At the beginning she said she had some rough thoughts the past few days and didn't really feel like God cared about her anymore. We talked it all out and explained her relationship with her father and by the end she felt much better. It was a marvelous experience to hear her softly whisper, "Well maybe I am worth it." She identified the Spirit and we explained that she could have that with her always. She is eager for baptism.
 
I feel so blessed, but the coolest thing about this week is I could feel power of prayer. I felt it like I never have before because I felt it sustain me from day to day. When I was weak and tired I could feel the Lord fortifying me just one hour at a time. I am so grateful for this work. I don't know where I would be without the gospel. It gives me perspective and it gives me peace. I have never been one to have a burning testimony, but I guess this is what it must feel like. I have a firm testimony of the plan of salvation, and undeniable witness of the priniciple of obedience. Real quick just today (P Day) a couple elders wanted to go shopping early. We held out until the time we were supposed to and just before we were supposed to go a pipe broke in the apartment. Water was flowing as a heavy stream so we quickly shut it off and it was no big problem. If we would have left the whole apartment would have been flooded no doubt! I sure love yall so much.
 
Much Love from DUB V
 
Elder Dumke!