Crazy, Wild Week!

Let me preface this email by saying, we did a lot of tracting.

Tuesday- We had a lesson with Brother Moody. We tracked his street before we had our lesson, but nobody was interested. We had an appointment that fell through. We were on our way to see someone else, when we saw a potential investigator we've been trying to get up with. We set an appointment with him. We went and visited Thomas, and he's been having a rough go. We were able to help him out a little bit. We went tracting, and the first door we knocked on invited us in. It was an elderly man. He asked us if we did prayers for the sick. We told him yep pretty much. We gave a blessing to his wife, and she said that she felt super peaceful after the blessing. 

Ready to march to Zion and defend it. 

Wednesday- We had district meeting today. We also had 3 appointments cancel, and a pastor lady tried to convert us. We did get a lesson with Justin. After that, we ran back to the apartment. We had the Zone Leaders and another set of missionaries sleep over at our house. It was a party. All of the leaders were going up to Portsmouth for a special training. 

It seems there used to be a house here. I'm probably standing in the living room.

Thursday- I was with Elder Martinez. It was raining pretty hard, so we got to work. We tracted quite a bit today. We also got chased by some chickens. They were scary. Probably looking to avenge the chicken I killed back in January. We went and helped with the Primary Activity, had an appointment cancel, and had dinner with Brother Brletich.

Friday- We had two more appointments cancel. We finished tracting the neighborhood that we were in. Elder Lewis came back. We left to give a blessing, then he came back and gave me a report on the training. Pretty much, they're using our mission as a testing mission for a new style of teaching. It involves shorter lessons, and more contact throughout the week. It leaves a lot of the learning up to the investigators. We give brief overviews of lessons, then have them read the pamphlet we leave with them. We haven't gotten a chance to try it out yet. We went to correlation that night. 

Saturday- Guess what, 4 more appointments cancelled. Total bummer. We spent most of the day visiting people we've contacted before. We didn't have much success though. 

Sunday- It was high council Sunday, and the talks that were given were amazing. The 1st counselor in the stake presidency came and spoke as well. There were a ton of people there because of the holiday weekend. We had Brother Lansing, who was recently released as an area seventy, come. Apparently him and Elder Bednar are good friends, and the Bednars visit them from here from time to time. We talked to some people, then we had dinner with the Fortiers. Afterwards, we went and met a less active. 

Spiritual thought: I read through Mosiah this week. A common theme in Mosiah is that of bondage. The people of Zeniff are put in bondage. The people of Limhi are put into bondage. The followers of Alma escape bondage from King Noah. Abinadi prophesies to King Noah and his priests that they will be brought into bondage because of wickedness. If we are not careful, we will be put into a spiritual bondage. We often hear of Satan and his great chains that surround the Earth. We need to be constantly alert and vigilant, and also standing in holy places, or else Satan will bring us into bondage with his chains. Abinadi captures a very key point, the deliverance from bondage comes through repentance and turning our hearts to the Lord. He is the Deliverer. Those of us that want to no longer be subject to Satan, must call for help from him who has taken upon him all of our chains, and has burst them. 

Have a good week. I love you all.

Elder Dumont

P.S. We had an ice cream day today.

Bought Ice Cream

We love Ice Cream! 

Elder Lewis had a gift card to Zaxby's, so we bought Birthday Cake Shakes

...and Wendy's was giving free small frosty's away today.

Waiting for the brain freeze.

We Pulled Up Our Socks!

Apparently that's a Canadian term, that I thought was hilarious. 

Tuesday- We most cleaned and Elder Fullerton packed. We managed to go say goodbye to Thomas. 

That's Elder Fullerton for you!

Wednesday- We got a lift from a member down to Greenville, picked up Elder Lewis, and drove back. We hit some traffic, but managed to get to our dinner appointment on time. We left and went to another appointment with Justin. We talked briefly about Repentance, then left. 

Thursday- We got to work. We did weekly planning, then we did some tracting. The 4th door we knocked on let us right in. He said he used to meet with missionaries. We talked with him for a while, and he gave us Sprites. His wife had some really good questions, but we had an appointment we had to get to. We answered a couple of them, then got going. The appointment fell through anyway. We tracted at several areas, and found a couple of people who invited us back. We did some walking around in Weldon, and we taught a guy the first part of the restoration as he sat in his car. We saw Thomas again after that, but didn't get to teach him. We set up a church tour with him for Sunday.

Friday- We drove down to district meeting. It's all about becoming consecrated missionaries this month. After we got home, had lunch, and finished studies, we hit the pavement. We were led to tract this complex called Carriage Hill. We found several potentials there and were able to give out a lot of Books of Mormon. We made it a goal to ask for a lot of referrals, and we got a couple. We had dinner, then went to Food Lion to talk to people. We had 31 I/O's today!!

Running to or from?

Saturday- We were running all over the place today. We went to help a member take the cover off of their pool. Won't get to swim in it though ~_~. We went back to Carriage Hill and finished tracting it. We got a couple more referrals. Bishop's wife owns a dance studio, and they had a recital, so they had us stand there, so people could see us. Kind of a PR stunt. We went and taught Andrew and Chelsea. They're working on quitting smoking. They're off cigarettes, but they both have e-cigs. They're slowly working their way down. They're doing really well. 

Sunday- We went to church, did studies, and got to work. We went back to Carriage Hill and tried to contact our referrals. We got another referral from the sisters, so we went and tried to contact that. He wasn't home, but we talked with his neighbor. She has a BOM and reads from it pretty regularly. We invited her to pray about it. She suggested we visit a place called Lincoln Ave. We only had a short time before our Church Tour with Thomas. We stopped at a random house, and a man came out, and we started talking to him. He asked us questions about why the Bible was incomplete and why there were books taken out. We told him why, and then explained that the Book of Mormon brings back those lost truths. He was excited to read it. We have an appointment with him on Tuesday.

Sticky note fu manchu!

Spiritual thought- To go along with Consecration, there's a scripture in Omni that descibes it pretty well. It comes from Amaliki. It's in verse 26, "Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him." Our whole souls simply means what it says in D&C 4:2 "Serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength." Consecration is a whole offering of self, putting our desires and our old life in a box on a shelf for two years. That's the biggest thing I'm working on right now, and it's produced a lot of miracles this week.

Love you all, have a great week.

Elder Dumont

We just found out that a son of a long time acquaintance just joined the mission as a Spanish speaking elder. Exciting!

Happy Muddy's Day

That's what I use to call my mother, you know, when I was tiny. And speaking of Muddy

Tuesday- I fell ill. I got a pretty nasty cold, so we didn't do much.

Wednesday- Still sick.

Thursday- I was finally able to go out and do work. We went and contacted a referral out in Macon, which is 30 miles from where we live. Elder Fullerton called the referral up and set an appointment. We got there and he invited us right in. We were able to teach him most of the Restoration. He said he'd read the Book of Mormon and pray. His wife is a pastor though, and they host church services at their house at the same time as our services are, so...yeah.

New Planner Cover.

Friday- We had zone meeting in Goldsboro. The meeting was devoted to us becoming more consecrated missionaries. That's the focus for the month. I went on an exchange with Elder Hubbard, which meant I got to drive!!! We had a pretty good day. Tracted a bit, taught a less active, tracted some more, had appointments cancel, talked to people. You know, the usual stuff. Late in the evening, we went to a park to talk to some people. That was interesting.  We sat and listened to one guy talk about politics and how he thought talking politics was more important than talking about Jesus. We were kind of like "...ok, cool. Well I love Jesus. Bye." People are funny.

Saturday- We exchanged back and stuff. Elder Fullerton and I went to an appointment, but he wasn't there. We went and mowed a lady's lawn, and we got transfer calls. Elder Fullerton is leaving for Kinston, and I'm getting Elder Lewis. This will only be his 4th transfer in the mission. He's district leader. President Baker said that he wanted me to coach him, cause he has no experience with district leader stuff. 

Sunday- We went and saw some people so Elder Fullerton could say goodbye. We went to the Brletich's, where we got to skype our familias. All my nieces and nephews are still super crazy, but they look and sound different. My family is great, and my Muddy is a superstar. Love you Muddy.

Jacob 4:14 talks about how the Jews are a stiffnecked people and how they sought for things that they could not understand. Because of this, Jacob called them blind, "Which blindness came by looking beyond the mark." The Jews missed the point of the Law of Moses, because they looked too much into the ceremonies and not enough into their meanings. When we read the scriptures, we need to be careful that we're not "looking beyond the mark." We need to look at the whole picture. We need to look at how the scriptures testify of Christ, before we venture into deeper doctrine. 

New companion, new adventure. Have a great week. Love you all.

Elder Dumont

That's my perfect attempt at double parking (you'll notice that the two cars on the sides are parked very crappily as well).

Batting Average Down!

Tuesday- We mowed a member's lawn, and talked to some people. That's kinda it.

Wednesday- We helped a non-member do some yardwork at the cinema that Bishop owns. We pulled up some bushes with  a truck. It was so sweet. We also got a little tour of the theater. There is something behind the movie screens. We checked. We went to another member's house and helped him get stuff ready for new carpet. We went to dinner with Brother Diettrich, then we went and helped a sister move some stuff. Our entire day was service.

Behind the screen at the theater

Thursday- We went down to Rocky Mount to do a district weekly planning. Afterwards, I went on an exchange with Elder Dickerson. He's Mason Goold's cousin!!! We had a pretty good day. We had 2 appointments cancel, but a member did give us money for Cracker Barrel, and it was awesome!!! We did see a miracle. I forgot to fill something out online this week, so we were heading back to the church. On our way, we felt prompted to check on a less active. The member didn't live there anymore, but the guy who does now said he was looking for a church. We talked a bit about a modern prophets and he said we could come back next week. 

Friday- We had district meeting and stuff. We went and tried to contact a referral, but she wasn't home. We knocked a couple doors in the neighborhood, then we got to talking to a few boys. One of them led us to his house, and we were able to teach him and his brother about the Book of Mormon. He wanted us to come back when his dad was home. We had another appointment cancel. We had coordination and dinner at the Brletich's. We got a call from Thomas saying he wanted to talk to us. We didn't really teach anything, he just needed someone to talk to.

Saturday- Today was no bueno. We had 4 appointments cancel. We were able to do some street contacting. We also heard 4 gunshots not 2 blocks from where we were. That was pretty gnarly.

Sunday- We had 2 appointments cancel today. For some strange reason, we decided to go walk to our appointments, on fast sunday. We were walking around for about 2 hours. We were both exhausted haha. 

 Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;

With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend

Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

I testify that these words are true. When we bear our afflictions with patience and faith, God will lead us to that joyful end. Trials are temporary. God is forever.

Yeah, so we were 0-9 on appointments this week. We've had to drop several investigators. Satan's trying to discourage us. He's all like "Look at all those cancellations. You guys are failing," and we're all like, "That's cause you're tempting them silly Satan. Stop being such a bully," and then we punch him in the face cause he's mean and stuff. Satan can't stop the work from progressing cause he's Satan. We've begun Miracle May. Expect to hear some miracles next week. Love you all. 

Elder Dumont

The only good mouse...

Hoopin' it up!

Open the Floodgates