I Love Being a Missionary!

Like the title would suggest, being a missionary is the best. (That totally rhymed haha) The Lord truly blesses his servants.

Monday- We gave Paul and Susan a church tour. We ended in the chapel and the spirit was so strong. Paul tried to change the subject when we asked him how we felt, and we totally called him out on it haha. No more of that Paul.

Tuesday- We taught a super powerful member lesson. They're the Young family and both of the parents served missions. We talked about families and the family proclamation. The Spirit inspired me and Elder Terril to promise all these blessings if they would find someone to share that message with.

Wednesday- Super huge blessing. The bishop called us after our studies and said he had two referrals for us. One of them is a 14 year old kid who has been coming to church with his sister. He's always been a bit hesitant about being baptized, but he now wants to take the discussions. The other referral is a guy name David. He's been living with a less active family. They are returning to activity and he wants to be baptized. That night we had another powerful member lesson. It was with the Austin family (who just moved from Riverton). They both were able to think of someone that they wanted to share the gospel with.

Thursday- We went to transfer meeting (kind of, we were in the building). I had to say goodbye to Elder Lancaster. He's such a good missionary. I'm going to miss him. Elder Seastrand's new companion is Elder Coy. I like him. He's such a nice guy. We taught David at the church, with like three members there. We watched The Restoration and he said he could feel the Spirit. He's just super prepared. 

Elder Lancaster

Friday- A sister in the ward called us to tell us about a missionary experience she had just barely had. She was so excited and it got both of us super motivated. 

Saturday- BEST LESSON OF MY MISSION (so far). There was a baptism in the YSA ward. David came to it and said he felt the Spirit so strongly he wanted to cry. We taught him after the baptism with a recent convert from Elder Terril's last area. It was really good for him to be there for it. The Spirit pretty much taught the entire lesson. We set David for baptism on the 16th of August. He wants to be baptized as soon as possible.

Sunday- We had dinner with a family in the ward. They made this microwave chocolate cake. It sounds sketchy, but it was sooooooo good. Super moist and fluffy. We had another super powerful lesson with them.

The work progresses the quickest when members and missionaries work together. I have seen so many miracles through working with members. I encourage everybody to look for missionary opportunities in their everyday lives. The strongest investigators are those that are found through the members. Love you all. God loves you all.

Elder Dumont

See what smoking does,  it gets into the couches on onto
the elders white shirts.

Zone Leaders are haunting us

1st Transfer

Last week of the transfer. Here we go.

Tuesday- I met another guy from Utah. They are the Lewis family. The guy is from South Jordan, but the wife is from Durham. We taught them a lesson about Joseph Smith.

Wednesday- We taught a member of the ward who has been struggling lately. She's actually been visited by both us and the Sisters a lot. We did some role plays with her to help her feel comfortable sharing the gospel.

Thursday- We had a conference call with President Baker and the other training companionships. It was nice being able to hear Elder Ludwig's voice. He's sounding a lot better. I learned a lot from the call. We met with a less active member and his girlfriend who is investigating the church. They are both super prepared. Both of their goals is to eventually get to the temple!!! So awesome.

Friday- Huge miracle. We got a phone call from this couple that was moving into the area. We totally thought that they were members because they used all of the Mormon lingo. They wanted help unpacking, but we had  a couple of other appointments. We get through all of our appointments, and decide to go and help them. We helped them for one hour and we came to find out that they were investigators!!!!! Whoops!!! Everything worked out in the end. We both felt heavily rebuked by the Spirit.

Saturday- One of the Sister's investigators got baptized!!! This was perfect timing, because one of the Sister's is going home tomorrow. Elder Terril and I got to be the witnesses for the baptism. The service was super good. They had a few of the converts in the ward bear their testimony and the Spirit was so strong. We got transfer calls today. Elder Lancaster is leaving us. Sad day. He's going to be companions with Elder Terril's trainer up on the Eastern Shore.

Sunday- We helped confirm the Sister's investigator at church.

Super awesome week. I found out that I won't be the only Greenie coming up here. Sister Bunker (our ward's only Sister missionary right now) is training. Her companion left the area today to go home. Keep the faith. Focus on the promptings of the Spirit. They will lead and guide you in everything you do. Love you all

Elder Dumont

Super Crazy Life

We had a full week so I'll get right into it.

Monday- I know I don't usually include Mondays, but some stuff happened. We found out that one of our investigators is in Prison for violating parole. We did finally get the chance to teach her mom, so all is not lost. On our way home, we almost died. We were riding home on our bikes, when a car blew a tire and veered right for us. Luckily the car hit the curb and straightened out, but the debris from the tire went right past our heads. As we went on home, I had some time to think and I realized that that could have been it for me. I was way shooken up that night, but luckily the Lord is on my side. He comforted me and helped me realize that it was him that protected us from any harm.

Tuesday- Miracles Abound!!! So I've said how we're trying to work more with less actives. Well, while we were out with a member, we visited a couple. One of them had told the Sister missionaries not to come back, but she invited us to come back any time. Then we met another less active who had not been to church in 30 years. The Spirit really spoke through us in comforting her. Then we visited another one who had been praying for the Elders to come and give her a blessing!!! Today was awesome.

Wednesday- We visited a less active family in the ward. The wife is from Ukraine and their meeting was definitely set up by the Lord. He has a super powerful testimony. We don't understand why they don't come to church, but we won't give up.

Thursday- It rained more today than it did during the Hurricane haha!! The streets were flooded. We had dinner with a less active (he's only less active cause of work). He took us to an asian buffet called Hibachi and it was delicous. We had a lesson afterwards and we encouraged him to find missionary opportunities. He's awesome.

Friday- We had interviews with President Baker. I was really super nervous before it, but once I got in there, I calmed down. The interview was pretty short. He gave me some really good advice. He commended me and Elder Terril for our diligence and wisdom. After interviews, I went on an exchange with Elder Seastrand. I've decided that I need to learn Spanish. Or at least enough to get by. The lesson that we had was with a family that spoke little English. It was still a really powerful lesson. That just goes to show that the Spirit can work even through language barriers.

Saturday-We did some service for one of the less actives we met on Tuesday and she was so grateful. We worked on her yard for three hours. That was the majority of our day.

Sunday- We attended the funeral of the son of a recent convert. She moved to the other ward when I got here. I did not like the pastor that spoke at the funeral. He did not seem sad at all and most of his sermon was spent on talking himself up. I felt really bad for the mom. The pastor did nothing to comfort the family. I'm so glad that I know of this gospel and about the Plan of Salvation. We met with an excommunicated member. He really wants to turn his life around. He is ready and willing to accept Christ back into his life.

So this last week was a pretty wild week. Almost died, saw a ton of miracles, had an actual hurricane (not really), and had an Interview with President Baker. The Church is true, the book is blue, and Jesus Christ is a Mormon. I love you all. May Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ watch over you always.

Elder Dumont

Hurricane Arthur

Yeah, so I had my first experience with a hurricane, if you can even call it that.  We were pretty far away from the eye, so all we got was wet. This was the earliest tropical storm in NC history. 

Tuesday- A couple of our appointments stood us up. We talked with this one lady who was all like "Y'all are wrong, Jesus is black!!!!!!!" We're were a little confused. We told her that it didn't matter what color his skin was, he's still Jesus.

Wednesday- We were helping people move for a good part of the day. We had to get permission to leave our zone so we could help them move into their new apartment. The biggest struggle was trying to get a couch up the stairs to his new apartment. The stairwell was way to skinny. It seriously took me, Elder Terril, Elder Lancaster, and Elder Seastrand half an hour to get it up, then another 15 minutes to get it to the point where we could get it in the apartment.

Thursday- We helped our neighbor move to another apartment. We talked with her and she is prepared. We're going to give her the church's 15 step program to quit smoking. We had a member present with our investigator Kecia that night. We usually talk to her on her front door step, and the roof leaks when it rains. This of course the time that it decided it wanted to start raining. We got soaked. Cool thing though, we went out with a member of the ward who had recently moved there from RIVERTON UTAH!! 

Friday- Happy 4th of July!!! Today was a non proselyting day. We went to a breakfast and then went to our zone meeting. Near the end of it, they stressed how to become a consecrated missionary, and then keeping on doing missionary work after we went home. It gave me a ton of motivation to be a better missionary. We helped a member family move a fridge into their home, so more service!! The fireworks were pretty cool, but the show was pretty short. We went and got frozen hot chocolate with the zone leaders in the new Van. They are very proud of it.

Saturday- We went on an exchange today. My companion for the day was Elder Lancaster. He's been out for almost a year. He left the same time that Courtney did. We went and did some service for a member. It was her birthday, so we cleaned up her lawn a little bit. She has a way special gift of discernment. I don't even know how to describe it. We went to a couple of appointments. Elder Lancaster is a Spanish Elder, so I wasn't of much help, but I did learn a lot from him.

Sunday- We went and gave the sacrament to Sister Marshall. For those who don't remember, her daughter fell out of a two story window onto the concrete and was in a coma. She looked a lot better today. She was awake, but they gave her a ton of drugs, so she was a little loopy.

Shout out to my nieces and nephews that sent me letters and drawings last week. I love you guys too.

Elder Dumont

The rain from Arthur rolling in

... and down it comes

We got new chairs!

1 Month Mark

What a month it has been. I've learned so much and experienced so much. 

Tuesday- What a day!! On our way to an appointment, we saw a couple of Air Force guys moving some stuff onto a truck. We stopped and helped them out. We talked to them about the Book of Mormon and we talked a little about the restoration. They were so receptive. We gave them both a copy of the BOM and a restoration pamphlet. Our appointment was stellar. It was our first lesson with this guy. He says he wants to change and he feels that we can help with that. He is so prepared. We set him for baptism!!! He is super solid. A family in Havelock, North Carolina had their daughter in the hospital. She had fallen out of a two story window straight onto concrete. She had a broken femur and her brain was swelling so much, they had to take out her Frontal bone. While we were going to meet the family, another lady asked us if we would bless her granddaughter, who was in the room next to the little girl. We visited the little girl (her name is Abby. They had already administered two priesthood blessings) first. Then we went to give the blessing. I was asked to administer it. I don't have a whole lot of experience with blessing people, but I felt the Spirit tell me I was ready. Her little granddaughter was only 1 month old, and they wouldn't let me lay my hands on her head, so I held my finger. As I was giving the blessing, this little baby girl grasped onto my finger tight. It was a very powerful experience. We went out to meet Abby's family once again. I felt prompted to share an experience with the mother. She told me that this brought her a lot of peace. Heavenly Father's tender mercies were abound today.

Wednesday- We taught this guy named Ronshae on the side of the road. He felt like we were sent from God to minister to him. We set him for baptism!! Two first lesson baptism dates in two days!!! We found out that a member of the ward passed away this morning. He had been in the hospital since before I got here. His name was Brother Napier. 

Thursday- We had our apartment inspected today. Our apartment is one of the nicer ones in the mission. 

Friday- We only had one appointment today. We taught this less-active guy named Kalom and his friend Amy. Amy is an investigator and she is golden. She has already studied up on our church and is ready to learn more!!

Saturday- It was kind a crazy day. We attended Brother Napier's funeral. We taught one of our investigator who's close to baptism. He just needs to quit smoking. We went over the baptismal interview questions with him. If he can just quit smoking, he'll be ready. There was a pageant held in a small city called Bath. It's almost an hour away. We were given permission to attend, if we took one of our investigators. We took Paul and Susan. They're from Palmyra and have seen the pageant up there plenty of times. This was going to be the last pageant in Bath. We went up there and we saw President Baker and Sister Baker. The Pageant itself was amazing. Me and Elder Terril felt the spirit so strongly. I just hope Paul and Susan did. We didn't get home until 11:30 and we were beat.

Sunday- We had the best meal ever. We had been fasting, and then we went to eat dinner Sister Quesebarth's house. She is an amazing cook. She made us Southern BBQ pork, corn, the best corn muffins I've ever had, and green beans. She also gave us some pie. At the end of the dinner, she sent us home with all of the leftovers and the rest of the pies!!! There were 4 pies!!!

Monday- We helped a ward member in the other ward move today. It only took us an hour.

This past week has been life changing. My testimony in the gospel gets stronger everyday. I love you all. Keep the faith.

Elder Dumont

We named the frog Richard Simon David Shane Jesse Taylor Bellington V.

My new letter opener. This was a gift from our investigator Paul.

First Zone Conference

This past week was sort of a crazy one, so I'll get right into it. 

Tuesday- We taught a recent convert named Tommy. Tommy is so great. He's got schizophrenia and he's a little shy, but he loves the gospel. After that we had a lesson with Terry. Terry is a 40 something year old black man. He has a baptismal date. All he needs to do is quit smoking. We then went and talked with a guy named Gregg. He's suffering from memory loss, so they were teaching him for several months, but we extended the baptismal commitment and he accepted!!! So excited for him. He just needs to quit smoking. That is seriously a huge problem out here.

Wednesday- All of our appointments for the day cancelled!! We worked on getting the Spanish Elder's car cleaned up for inspection on Friday (they drive us around a lot, so it was only fair). 

Thursday- The Zone Leaders asked me and Elder Terril to go with them to another Zone to do their car inspection. We thought it was only going to be a couple hours, but it ended up being all morning. At was hot, but at least the wind was blowing. I did get to see Elder Siddoway, so that was good. On our way to an appointment, we found this guy washing a car. We stopped and talked to him. He is golden. He says that had quit drinking 6 months ago with no therapist except Christ. We gave him a BOM and got his number down.

Friday- We had our zone conference today. It was very good. I got a lot out of it. My favorite quote from it was "Faith is not knowing God can do something. Faith is knowing God will do something." Powerful!! That's pretty much all that happened.

Zone 

Moses came for a visit

Saturday- I had my first taste of North Carolina barbeque today. It was delicious. The barbeque over here is vinegar based rather than ketchup based. I was skeptical at first but it was very good. We saw so many miracles today. First we talked with this lady at an assisted living center (we have an investigator who lives there). She wasn't supposed to go into work today. We taught her about The BOM and a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. Something really clicked with her. Then as we were biking home, we ran into a guy we were trying to get into contact with. His phone had been turned off, and we were heartbroken. We saw him on the side of the road!!! We touched base with him and got everything figured out. We had an interesting experience. We were talking with this guy by the McDonald's by our house, when this super anti guy drove up. He basically said that our message was from the depths of Hell. He said that the only way to be saved was through the confession and repentance of our sins and to rely on the blood of Jesus Christ. We agreed with him, and that really seemed to confuse him. He's like "You two are Mormons, and you agree with that?" Haha it was awesome. We went to a baptism and it got me thinking a lot about Issac. Dude, you need to get baptized. It will bless you life so much!!!

Sunday- More miracles. We were originally planning on contacting a referrel from our ward mission leader. On our way to their house, we talked with this guy. He told us that he was going through so stuff and he felt that he really needed somebody like us in his life right now. Then a little further down the road, we talked to some people outside their house. We taught them the restoration. Something clicked and they were eager to learn more. Two houses down, we met a lady who had just gotten engaged. We talked about how she could be with her husband to be for longer than this life. We gave her a BOM and set up an appointment. Heavenly Father has really blessed us these past two days.

Super crazy week. The weather is getting hotter and super humid. We're trying not to get heat stroke but it's tough. Anyways, Love you all. Keep to the faith

Elder Dumont

First Days in the Field

So I'm finally out in the field!!!! My first area is Greenville North Carolina. This place is so prepared. My trainer is Elder Terril. He's a cool guy. Anyways, on to the week.

Tuesday- I was still in the MTC at this time. My companion was still sick so I was restrained to the residence hall all morning. We took him to the clinic after lunch and they said that he was going to get delayed. Poor guy. We were able to go to the devotional that night. Elder Cook spoke and is was a wonderful talk. 

Wednesday- We had a super early start. We had to report to the travel office at 3:30 in the morning!!! We got to the airport and I was able to talk to my parents for a while. It was so great to hear their voices. We got on the plane and this thing was sweet. It had touch screen displays and the seats were oh so comfortable. We had to switch flights in Atlanta to get to the Norfolk airport. That plane ride sucked!!! My back is still hurting from it. We landed and were greeted by President Baker. He's a really nice guy. We got some dinner at the church and had some orientation stuff.

Thursday- We traveled to the mission home to receive our assignments. I of course am in Greenville. I love it here. The only thing is that I keep getting lost. There are no mountains for me to tell directions with. We had to travel 3 hours from Newport News, Virginia to Greenville. Let me tell you something about the scenery. TREES, TREES, AND MORE TREES. We got to the apartment and did some planning. We then went to a member's house, Bro. Smith, for dinner. He made meatloaf and this was the best meatloaf I've ever had. We had my first lesson and it was definitely not anything like the MTC. Good thing Bro. Smith was there cause it was bad. I completely froze up.

Friday- We had our district meeting, so I was able to meet all of the missionaries in the district.  Elder Terril and the spanish Elders (they live with us, Elder Seastrand and Elder Lancaster) took me to a place called Cook-Out. It was awesome. We had a couple of more appointments that we biked to. We got so many potential investigators. We spoke with this one lady for probably 15 minutes. The second we finished, it started pouring rain. The Lord is watching out for us.

Saturday- We had correlation in the morning. We had an appointment cancel last second. This lady (Kecia) that canceled is very close to baptism. She just has to quit smoking. That's a huge problem down here. We had an appointment in an assisted living center. It was very hard to understand him. Afterwards, this guy in a wheelchair rolled up to us and told us that we were wrong. My first anti. We biked home so we could talk to people. We met a few Jehovah's Witnesses. Most of them were nice, but one of them really just seemed to want to argue. We went back to Kecia's house to see if she wanted a ride to church tomorrow. We met her cousin and we taught her about the Book of Mormon. She seemed really interested and we set up an appointment.

Sunday- We didn't have ward council, cause most of the council was out of town. Me and Elder Terril had to prepare and bless the sacrament. We also were asked to teach a little bit in Relief Society. That was definitely a new experience. We gave a blessing to one of the Sister missionaries' investigators. We tried to go visit one of our investigators but we just missed him. We started home and on the way, we stopped at another investigators home. He was gone but his cousin was there. She was an awesome lady. We gave her a BOM and set up an appointment in two weeks. We were supposed to have a lesson with Kecia, but she canceled on us again. We did meet one of her friends, Mike, and he was golden. We walked home with him and we taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We set an appointment up with him.

So those were my first few days. I am learning so much everyday. It's ridiculous!!! Hopefully my MTC companion gets to come out this week. Fingers crosses.

Elder Dumont