Snow Elders

Parent note:  To recap the last couple of weeks, Elder Thurgood finished his mission, Elder Dumont received a new companion, and was made district leader.

Monday- Today I said goodbye to Elder Thurgood. I was assigned to spend today and tomorrow with the Elizabeth City Bike Elders, but I still had the car, so no biking for me.

Tuesday- Elder Ashcroft, Elder Trane and I spent the day contacting investigators. We had a couple of really good lessons.

Wednesday- We drove to Portsmouth for transfers and the worldwide missionary broadcast. The broadcast was soooooooooo good. I learned a lot about how I can improve. I got Elder Davis, and we drove Elder Ashcroft and his greenie back to their apartment. We went shopping, stopped for some dinner, dropped off our groceries and went to the church for our Book of Mormon class.

Thursday- We were in the apartment for a while. I spent the morning planning out our district meeting, then we spent much of the afternoon planning out our week. We had dinner with Brother Owen Etheridge and his wife. We talked about the pre-earth life and about adversity and trials with them.

Friday- Today was pretty stressful. We had to go down to Nags Head for district meeting, which is way too far for us to drive. We had a member take us down, but he couldn't drive us back. We had to have another member come and pick us up later on. He had to drive through a little bit of snow to get to us. We didn't really see any snow today. We spent the day in Grandy, trying to contact former and potential investigators. The only success we had was teaching a less active lady. We went to the church to plan out tomorrow. We're limited on miles, so we wanted to make sure we could have something to do all day and still be able to conserve some miles.

Saturday- Today was amazing!!! We contacted a less-active/part-member family in our trailer park. We taught them about the Atonement. After lunch, we were off to Camden. Our plan was to try to contact less active members and if they didn't work out, tract in their areas. This worked out very well. While we were on our way to a less active, we found that the directions we printed off had us take an extra left turn into a similarly named street. We felt prompted to tract it, so we did. The second door we knocked let us in, Lonnie's his name. We talked about the Atonement a little bit, then he started dumping on us all of the rough things he's had to go through in the past 2 months. We just listened to him, and that's what he really needed. He invited us back next week. We had a short lesson with the Packer's and with a less-active family, then went home. Most of our time was spent in the snow. It was so fun.

Saturday- Church was cancelled and we were grounded for much of the morning because of snow. We had to make some new plans, because with church being cancelled, we had a couple of extra hours that we didn't plan for. We felt that we should tract for the first hour. The first door we knocked on let us right in. Vick talked to us about how the Lord had prepared him for different things that have happened in his life. We talked about the Atonement and read Mosiah 3:19 with him. We committed him to reading Mosiah 3 and praying about it. We went and contacted someone that Elder Thurgood and I taught, Don and Amber. We read the Book of Mormon with them. We went and saw Brother Hullet and talked about the temple with him. We tried to contact a potential, but he wasn't home. His mom told us to visit the people next door. Brett answered the door and we taught him a brief restoration lesson. We had dinner with Joe and Laura Etheridge and then came home.

We had a really great week and I'm excited for this transfer. Elder Davis is a great companion. I love you all. Have a great week.

Happy New Year

Tuesday- Today was a pretty crazy day. We were scheduled to go on exchanges with the Nags Head Spanish Elders in the evening, but our ride called and asked if we could go down just after lunch. Our ride, Jacob, had lost his wallet, so his dad was taking him down to the DMV in Kill Devil Hills to get a new one. So we get down there and do our little exchange thing while Brother Packer took Jacob to the DMV. Elder Free (my exchange) were expecting to go back to Currituck, but then we got a call. Jacob had to retake the written and driving test, so we were going to be a couple of hours. We decided to start our exchange by splitting the area. Elder Free and I went and talked to a Hungarian investigator. There was a clear language barrier but through diligence and the language of the Spirit, we were able to help this man realize that reading the Book of Mormon will make him happy. It was a pretty big miracle. We got on our way and had dinner with the Moster's. We went with Jacob, his brother Nathan, and his sister Chelsea to see a recent convert named Gabbie and that was a lot of fun.

Wednesday- Elder Free and I went and saw a less active brother. While we were waiting for him, his little chihuahua started having a seizure. His wife was freaking out and trying to snap him back. The dog survived. We went and exchanged back, then tried to see a bunch of people, but nobody worked out. 

Thursday- Brother Packer picked us up to take us to interviews with President Baker in Elizabeth City. President Baker gave me a lot to think about and challenged me to be my best these last few months. Brother Packer took us to a chinese buffet, and then home. We did a little bit of weekly planning, then Jacob picked us up and took us to the Packer's for New Year's. We played some more ping pong and I got to hold a little puppy (didn't get a picture though).

Friday- We had zone meeting in Elizabeth City and then exchanges with the zone leaders. I was in Elizabeth City with Elder Cowley. We had a pretty rough day, but managed to have a pretty good night. We were able to do some teaching in a couple of finding situations. 

Saturday- We exchanged back and then went and did service for a man Elder Thurgood met on Friday. He has some property that is pretty worn down, so we helped him with a couple of projects. We went and saw a family named the Goddards that Elder Thurgood met on Friday also. The parents were on their way out, but we did get to teach their son Alex the restoration. He's going to school in Raleigh though, so we won't get to teach him again, but those missionaries will. 

Sunday- Fast and testimony was great. After church, we went and tried to see a few people. We were able to see two different Smiths. Brad is a great guy. He's going very well. Then we went and saw Don Smith.

That's our week. Have a great New Year.

Elder Dumont