Happiness come from a lollipop, and the Gospel!

Monday- We had a lesson with Joey and Jacob. Joey said that he'd be at church no matter what on Sunday!!! We set him for March 19th to be baptized!! Then we went and had dinner with our neighbor Miss P. Her friend is a member of the church, so she was there too. We taught her the Restoration.

Tuesday- We had a specialized training with President and Sister Baker. It was basically two hours of role playing and it was amazing. We had dinner with the Drake's and then we had a lesson with the Harvley's about family history work and temples.

Wednesday- We went the Joe and Laura Etheridge to get some furniture and appliances for Sister Bair from Nags Head, then we had lunch at their house.

Thursday- We went and saw Sister Sears, Sister Cartwright, and we taught a new investigator. Joe and Laura Etheridge brought Papa Murphy's down from Virginia Beach!!!!! They are my heroes!!!!

Friday- We exchanged with the Nags Head Spanish Elders. Elder Gibb and I spent a lot of time trying to contact potentials, but we did see a dog that had a lollipop in it's mouth. We did get to see a guy, but I couldn't tell how the lesson went, because I don't speak Spanish.

One happy dog!

Saturday- I practiced my dunks on the Nags Head Elder's hoop during lunch. After lunch, I interviewed three of the Spanish Elder's investigators for baptism. They are all amazing!! We went home and tried to contact some less actives, but nothing came from that. We did get to see Lonnie though. We had dinner at Frog Island with the Holders.

Sunday- We had 3 investigators come to church!!! Joey, Leigh Anne, and Austin Spence. Elder Davis and I both spoke. It was a great sacrament meeting. we spent the rest of our day after church contacting potentials and tracting. We had dinner with the Bairs.

Sorry I was so brief, but I literally have 40 seconds left. I love you all. Have a great week.
a hard core ex navy seal guy, then we saw a less active family. We had dinner with Owen and Renee Etheridge, then we went to our Book of Mormon class.

Birthday Week

 Well he fooled us and was able to resend emails.

Sorry if you are getting this again. I tried to send this out earlier this week, but apparently it didn't work for some people.

Monday- We had a lesson with Joey at the church. We talked about the Word of Wisdom, which Joey is doing great with. We had dinner with the Johnson's.

Tuesday- Happy Birthday too me. We went to a place called Coinjock and tracted a good chunk of the town (it's a very small town). A lot of interesting things happened. We had a stray dog following us for a while, we got to try a new soda called Moxie (it wasn't very good), and it started sleeting, just to name a few. We didn't have much success. We went and had dinner with the Packer's though, so that's always a good thing. After dinner, Brother and Sister Packer came with us to see the Harvley's. And here was the best part of the day: Leigh Ann set a baptismal date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her date is April 10. We're so excited for her.

Our Stray

Moxie

A little sleet

Wednesday- We went and helped out at the food pantry, then we visited Sister Cartwright real briefly. We met up with Jacob, and he took us to see Austin Spence. It was basically just a Q&A session, but it was still good. Austin committed to coming to church. We then went and saw Gabbie and talked about the temple. We went and contacted a couple of referrals, then went to McDonald's for dinner. We headed back to the church and had the Book of Mormon class.

Thursday- After weekly planning, we went and visited Sister Sears, then we spent some time tracting. Brother Waller came with us and we contacted a referral, then went and met with Sister Williams. We hurried back home and got picked up by Brother Joe Etheridge. We had dinner with the Etheridges and their niece and nephew. We had a really good restoration lesson with the niece and nephew after dinner.

Friday- District Meeting was super good. After it, we had exchanges with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Cowley. We met with the Steponik's family and got to know them a little bit. They're a part member family. By the way, it was snowing all day. It was sweet. We went tracting for a bit, then we went and saw the Sanderlin's and they fed us dinner, and introduced the both of us to snow cream. It's like ice cream, but with snow. We shared a scripture with them, then we went and saw the McPherson's and taught them the Restoration.

Saturday- We went back to Coinjock to continue tracting. We met one couple and taught them the restoration. We were outside and there was a cold wind blowing. I had lost my hat, so the wife started looking around her car for a hat for me haha. We had dinner with the White's, then went and visited the Hamilton's. We then went over to the Smith's house and we taught Sister Smith's sister Macy the restoration. It was a powerful lesson. The Smith's are so great.

Sunday- Church was super good. Sister Smith gave her first talk ever and it was amazing!! Later on, we went and read the Book of Mormon with Don Mancuso. We went to the Etheridge's again for dinner, then rushed home and went over to see our neighbor Miss P. We shared a scripture with her, then she hooked us up with some spaghetti!!

Love you all. Have a great week.

Elder Dumont

Birthday Boy

Elder Dumont's email was not working this week so we didn't get a chance to converse or an update from him. We did receive this message and media from a member in his branch for which we are grateful.

Brother Dumont,

Elder Dumont wanted me to let you know they were having some issues with the internet on Monday so he wasn't sure if his emails went through, he's doing good though. Thank you for sharing him with us here in the branch! He's an amazing missionary!

Yes, Elder Dumont turned 21 last week. We are so proud of his service to the Lord and to the people in Virginia and North Carolina.

It done rained...

...A lot.

Monday- We went and contacted a part member family named the Sanderlins. They are such a nice couple. We read a scripture with them.

Tuesday- Today was deep clean day, so that's always fun. During the evening, we did get to teach the Harvley's. They are so much fun. They're really honest with us and I love it.

Wednesday- We taught Joey about fasting. He said that he's quitting his job soon so he can join the Air Force, which means he'll have Sundays free!!!!!!! We committed him to fast and to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true  yesterday. We went and picked up Brother Hamilton's bike. We're going to start doing a little biking to save some miles. Brian McMahan picked us up and took us around today. We saw 3 less actives with him!!! and he gave us a referral!!! We had dinner with the Moster's, then we did our Book of Mormon class.

Thursday- We had weekly planning. We went to Tull's Creek. We stopped by the Goddard's house and their son Alex was there!!! Elder Thurgood and I taught him a while back, but he went off to college. It was just great seeing him. We went and saw the Sanderlin's again. They gave us some snacks after the lesson!!

Friday- We had zone meeting today, and President Baker was there!! He wants us to teach temples and family history work right after the Plan of Salvation, which I think is great!! After zone meeting, I exchanged with Elder Luque. We had to take the car in to get our brakes looked at, but they couldn't find anything. We had a big day of tracting.

Saturday- Jacob Packer took us down to Nags Head to exchange back. We saw Sister Sears and talked about the Book of Mormon. We also saw Sister Cartwright and talked about prayer.

Sunday- Shout out to my Mom. Happy Birthday. Testimony meeting was super good.The rest of the day was rough. We tried to get as much done as we could before the Super Bowl, and it was pouring rain all day. We did have a lesson with a new investigator named Mike. We were also able to see George Allen.

Quote of the week: My dear young friends, there is another great truth that you young men must learn. It is that everything has a price. There is a price to pay for success, fulfillment,accomplishment, and joy. There are no freebies. If you don’t pay the price that is needed for success, you will pay the price of failure. - James E. Faust

Love you all.
Elder Dumont

Miracles do happen today!!!

We saw a lot of miracles this week.

Monday- After P-day, we went and contacted a member referral named Lauren. They live in our trailer park. We taught Lauren, her roommate Asia, and her other friend Benny the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We had a great discussion on repentance.

Tuesday- We went to Elizabeth City to help the Needhams move some stuff into a house there. We came back and went out to Camden. We didn't find much success, but we did get the opportunity to teach Joey Barstow about prayer. We're praying that he will be able to find a new job that allows him to come to church. We went out with Brother Drake in the evening, but it was a slow night.

Wednesday- We went to the food pantry and the people there were asking about out beliefs. It turned into a little bit of a bible bash. Things didn't get too heated. We won by the way ha ha. Elder Davis calmly explained what we believed and answered their questions. We went and taught Austin Spence about the Plan of Salvation. He had done some studying up on us before we got there and he was ready with questions. We went pretty deep at some points. We went and taught Sister Sears the Restoration, then stopped at a gas station/arcade for gas. I'm not kidding. It was an arcade inside of a gas station, a pretty good size one too. Stay classy Currituck. We had our Book of Mormon class and it went very well. We had a brief meeting with the branch presidency then went home.

Thursday- After weekly planning, Jacob Packer brought us lunch, then we went out to try to see some people. We saw a less active named Janet Higgs. We only had enough time to get to know here, and then we were off. After dinner, we went and contacted a member referral in the trailer park named Bunkie.

Friday- We had district meeting today. After district meeting, we exchanged. Elder Bearnson, who was trained by my home slice Elder Lewis, came with me in Currituck. We went and did some service for Danny, then we met Brother Needham at a restaurant and he came with us to a lesson with a woman named Beverly. That was pretty interesting. She has a lot of beliefs. After dinner, we went and taught the Harvleys about scripture study and prayer. They are soooo great. They have a lot of faith, and Leanne has gotten a witness that the Book of Mormon is true!!!

Saturday- We exchanged back really early. Brother Packer came and took us to Nags Head and back. We came back and did our studies. We went and saw Nichole and Big Rob. We read Matthew 3 with them. We went and saw Lonnie. We discussed the Restoration with him. He's committed to praying about the Book of Mormon. We spent the rest of the day trying to track down people, but no luck. Sister Kynaston did hook us up with some chicken and pastry (basically chicken pot pie soup) and ice cream.

Sunday- The Harvleys came to church today. We were completely wiped on miles, but Brother Winters helped us out a ton. We went to see Brother Hulet. He gave us a referral for his back door neighbor. We contacted a referral, then went to the church for dinner. Two members from the stake came and did a Book of Mormon fireside. I'll share an observation I had from it:

Brother Merrell and Sister Merrell came and spoke. They talked about a lot of archeological evidences of the Book of Mormon, but the conclusion was that if we were to build our foundation of our testimony on physical evidence, we would be building upon sand. This reminded me of the rock of revelation that Christ tells us to build on. Revelation is essential for anyone to withstand the storms of life. It reminds me of President Packer's quote "No one of us can survive in the world of today, much less in what it soon will become, without personal inspiration." We cannot expect investigators to withstand the storms of life without them gaining a spiritual manifestation of the truthfulness and divinity of the Book of Mormon. We can't expect anyone to withstand the storms of life without that spiritual manifestation.We start on the bedrock of revelation. We get our foundation.We get a testimony. Any further knowledge after that just adds to the structure of our testimony, but without that foundation, the foundation of a spiritual witness that Jesus is the Christ and that He directs His church, our structure will fall. We need to read the Book of Mormon, ponder in our hearts the message it contains, and then ask God, our Eternal Father if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony by the power of the Holy Ghost, that Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that the Lord has again reached out and established His church upon the earth.

That's all I have this week folks. Love you. Have a great week.

Elder Dumont

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