Test of Faith

This was a pretty rough week.

Tuesday- We had 5 appointments set up. All of them except for one cancelled. Kind of set the tone for the week. We were able to teach Rodney's kids though. That was awesome. They really enjoyed it.

Wednesday- The only lesson that we had was with an active member. We're teaching her son before his baptism. We also went and did some service for My Sister's Attic. That was pretty sweet.

Thursday- We taught Jermaine about the Family Proclamation and the 10 commandments. He's still talking with his girlfriend about marriage, but she's pretty against it. We spent some time at the stake president's office. He was doing a tailgate party for the ECU game that night. He made us joust. It was sweet. We also got to talk with a less active guy that he wants us to teach. We also got to sit in some sweet new Hondas.

Friday- We had a pretty good day. We were able to teach Tommy. We're still trying to get him to the temple. We watched Mountain of the Lord with him to get him excited. We taught a couple of people on the street. That's something we're trying to do a better job at, is talking with more people. Had a few cancelled appointments.

Saturday- Today was just crazy. We were asked to fill up the font for a baptism, during our Walk & Talk time. We were going back and forth from the Church, to the local shopping center. We attended the baptism and got to participate in the confirmation. The ward afterwards did a trunk or treat, so we went around and talked with people. Crazy day.

Stake President Walker shows no mercy haha.

Sunday- Pretty disheartening. We had 9 people commit that they were going to church. We arranged rides for everybody and put in all this work. In the end, only Jermaine showed up. He's awesome. One of the brothers spoke about the General Conference talk, "Which Way do you Face," which was one of my favorites from conference.

Kind of a good week. Could have been better, but that's life. Where's the joy if there's no sorrow. Anywho I heard this week that the wife of a less active member that we were working with has committed to be Baptized!!! That was super exciting. They moved closer to the ocean a while back but I was super excited to hear that. I bare you all my witness that the Lord allows adversity so that we may grow. I've learned a lot this past week about what I can be doing better. Cherish the happy moments and learn from the difficult ones. Love all ya'll (proper southern haha). Have a blessed week.

Elder Dumont 

P.S. Elder Zonts is still awesome

Nothing like a couch in the middle of the road!

Cruisin' in my new ride haha

Mission Probs

Tuesday- We were able to meet with a new investigator named Rodney. We taught him The Restoration. During the lesson, he kept stopping us and telling us that he could feel that what we were telling him was true!!! We set him with a baptismal date for the 15th of November!!! We also had to go on a split. I went to see Sharlene Hunt. We had to do a short lesson, cause one of the brethren that was with me had to be somewhere. We talked about Prayer. She said that it was good for me to be able to take lead cause apparantly I don't talk a whole lot while we're teaching?! I should work on that.

Wednesday- It was just pouring rain. We weren't able to do much cause of the conditions. We were able to go teach a member and help her become more confident in sharing the gospel so that was bueno.

Thursday- We did a lot of biking, but nobody was able to see us. We were able to teach Tommy. We watched the John Tanner story with him as well as Only a Stonecutter. He really enjoyed that.

Friday- Friday was crazy. We had a couple of appointments set, but they all cancelled. We were biking around trying to find people to teach. We were biking for a good solid 3 hours. We got home for dinner and I just laid down. I was so exhausted. And there's something going on with my knee.  It's in a lot of pain right now. This isn't the first time that it's happened on my mission. I might want to get it checked out. We'll see how it feels in a couple of days. After dinner, we biked a couple of miles to an appointment to find out that he wasn't able to meet. We biked home after that. Not the funnest day.

Saturday- We had our day of service. We went and helped the 3rd street community center. Elder Zonts and I helped clean up some Pinestraw. It was pretty fun, but it wasn't good for my knee, or Elder Zont's hand. We had to take him to Urgent Care. We found out that he has tendonitis. We were able to teach one lesson today though. It was followed by a lot of biking once again.

Sunday- Church was sweet. President Hancock (counselor in the mission presidency) came and spoke. He's really cool. He talked about how much of a role members play in the development in us missionaries. He really pushed for members to let us come teach them and their families. He's a very powerful speaker.

So yeah. It was a pretty rough week. There were a lot of cancelled appointments and a lot of biking involved. Still, things could be worse. I just have to keep pressing forward in faith. The Lord is in charge and is preparing me for a purpose. I love you all. 

Elder Dumont

Mission and Stuff

I'm running out of creative titles

Tuesday- We were able to teach a recent convert named Tommy. We've been working with him since I got here. He's got the biggest heart.

Wednesday- We were able to teach Jermaine. He's the most humble guy ever. I just love him. He started reading the Book of Mormon last week, and he's already in Alma!!!

Thursday- We had a lesson with Sharlene Hunt. We talked about the Word of Wisdom. Coffee is her only hangup right now. She knows it's bad and she wants to quit. She's just so great.

Friday- Elder Zonts and I recommitted ourselves to be lean green working machines (haha green, cause we're in Greenville. and I'm also still a Greenie). We had a brief lesson with Hakeem Johnson.

Saturday- Today was awesome. During Walk and Talk, we taught 4 lessons!!!!!! And they were all super powerful. That was definitely a huge blessing. One man that we were led to told us that he had resolved to change. Super prepared.

Sunday- Jermaine came to church again. We taught Gospel Principles. The lesson was on the gathering of Isreal. I learned a lot from the lesson. There are two parts to the gathering. There's the Spiritual gathering, which is through missionary and family history work. Then there's the physical gathering. That Physical Gathering won't be until the Millenium. We had dinner with the McCrae family. Brother Mcrae tried a new recipe. He marinated some chicken for two days, then he smoked if for an hour, then grilled it for half an hour. IT WAS SO GOOD. The entire meal was spectacular.

Kind of a slow week, but it's all just awesome. We've got a busy week ahead of us. I love you all. Have a good week.

Elder Dumont

General Conference and Transfer Calls

First things first. General Conference was awesome.

Tuesday- I had another exchange with Elder Coy. We did Spanish Work again. While we were in a lesson with a recent convert family, Elder Coy kept talking to me in Spanish, then there would be long pauses, then he would realize that I no hablo haha. 

Wednesday- We taught the first lesson to Jermaine and he accepted to be baptized!!! That's our first baptismal date in our companionship. He was really excited. We also had a great lesson with Paul and Susan. Their friend had recently passed away. Their hearts were a little more open to our message this time. 

Thursday- We went to see Paul and Susan again. We just chatted a little bit and then talked about FamilySearch.org. They want to come to the family history center next time we meet.

Friday- We met with a new investigator named David. We weren't able to teach him a whole lot, as he had a lot of experiences that he wanted to share, but it was still a super powerful lesson.

Saturday- What else was there to do. It was General Conference. I really liked Elder Robbins talk in the Morning session about "Which Way do You Face?" He talked about courage and the call to "Fear No Man," which was our topic at Zone Conference a couple weeks previous. I also liked President Uchtdorf's talk in the Priesthood Session about asking ourselves "Lord, Is it I?" That really hit home for me. We were at the church pretty much all day.

Sunday- Jermaine came to a session of Conference, and he really liked it. I liked how many of the speakers in the morning session talked about following the counsel of the Prophet and other church leaders, and then the Prophet's talk was about following Jesus Christ. It all just meshed together. When we follow his Prophet, we are following Christ. We got to watch the afternoon session in a member's home, which was sweet. The spirit was so present in their home. We got transfer calls after conference was over, and...Elder Zonts and I are staying. I was really surprised cause most of the time, President allows new missionaries to stay in their first areas for 3 months, then tranfer them. This will be my 4th tranfer here.

Things are great. Elder Zonts and I are excited to stay together for another transfer. It will be a longer transfer, cause this last transfer was so shorter. That's the week. It was a super good week. I Love You All. I invite all of you to take the counsel that we received at conference and apply in your individual lives.

With Love,

Elder Dumont

#missionselfie #thecameralovesEZizzle

There were like 6 of these military choppers flying overhead while we were trying to teach a lesson. The airports about a half mile away.

 

Sometimes you sit on a park bench, looking over a lake, and you think to yourself, "If I were a cow, I would go cannibal and eat all of my cow friends...munch munch. And then the cow police force would try to take me to cow prison, but I would just eat them too. My hunger cannot be contained!!!!!" These are the literal thoughts that go though my head. Um...yeah moving on. 

When I awoke from my nap, I found these on my camera...I was tired ok.