Williamsburg Week

Sorry I forgot to send an email last week.

Tuesday- President Baker wanted me to go on an extended exchange with the zone leaders. It would last the rest of the transfer, so he wanted me to pack all of my bags. I spent all day packing.

Wednesday- I was with Elder Aitken and Elder Cameron. We taught a couple of lessons. President Baker gave us a new number to track and that's I/Os. It's invitations extended to nonmembers and noninvestigators. It's just to get us to talk to more people. We did that for a while. We went to a place called New Town and just walked around the shops and talked with people.

Thursday- We had "afternoon tea and krumpets" with a super sweet member family. Kind of did the same thing as Wednesday.

Friday- We had dinner with the funnest family ever. After dinner we played a couple of good FHE games. It was a blast. We then had a lesson with the most golden investigators ever. They are engaged. The guy kept using the term "we" and "us" when describing the church. They're so awesome.

Saturday- We had a lot of stuff fall through. We had 100 I/Os through the rest of the day (the standard of excellence) and we thought, why not get 200. The record was 130ish. That night, we got 81 I/Os!!! We set the record that night. We got transfer calls and I'm going to Roanoke Rapids to be with Elder Fullerton. I'm excited about going back to North Carolina!!

Sunday- We did a lot of walking around and we totally broke 200 I/Os. Shattered the record. We were teaching a member family, and their little daughter was behind us, and she totally farted really loudly. It was so hard to keep a straight face haha. 

 “The purpose of the gospel is . . . to make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature” -President David O. McKay

No pictures this week. Sorry, I'm kind of cameraless until furthur notice. Love you all. Have a great week.

Elder Dumont

Temple Trip

Highlight of the week was definitely the temple trip we took on Friday.

Pointing up (at what, not quite sure)

Tuesday- We went on an exchange with the Zone Leaders. I was with by buddy Elder Aitken. We did a lot of tracting. We had dinner with Sister Persinger, then met the Priests at a restaurant for mutual. Afterwards, we went and visited a less active. She was sick and unable to meet, but she told us that there was a man down the street that was being taught. We didn't know which house, so we did some more knocking. We found a couple of potentials and we did find the former investigator. 

Wednesday- We did a lot of tracting once again. This time it was raining. Someone threatened to call the cops on us. It was a fun day. We went and had a lesson with Benny. 

Thursday- We went early in the morning to do some service for Bro. Grimes. The weather reminded me of baseball. It made me baseball trunky. We went that night to visit the Shortts. They're having a rough go right now, but we were able to help them out a little. 

with President Baker

Friday- One of the best days of my life. We had to wake up early to get to Williamsburg by 6:30. We saw some of the youth there for seminary. We talked about logistics stuff, then seperated into our vehicles and got going. I rode with Elder Zonts. He gave me a letter from the Cooks in Newport News. They're awesome. They're my favorite. It was a 3 hour ride down to Apex, North Carolina. We got there and went straight in. It was just the missionaries from the stake and we still filled up the room. It's a really small temple. After the session, we got dressed and sent outside to take a group photo. While we were, McKay Jaussi, one of my best buds, drove by in a car. He stopped and as soon as pictures were over, I went over there. We didn't get much time to catch up, but we did get a picture taken. Elder Jaussi is in the Raleigh mission. He lives two doors down from me back home!!! It was nuts. We had a  brief zone conference about family history and temple work. President Taggert, the temple president spoke to us a little bit. We got some time to take our own pictures after the meeting. We loaded back up and rode for ever. We stopped in Emporium, Virginia for some dinner. We didn't get home 'til 10:15. Best day ever.

Saturday- We did weekly planning. We went and met with the Kramps. They're so awesome. 

Sunday- We had a linger longer after church. There was so much great food. We visited with the Cox family. We helped them get started on the vision to get to the temple. 

President Taggert talked a little about the symbols used in the temple. One of the ones he spoke about was the circle inside of the square. The square represents this earth/mortality. The Circle represents the next life/immortality. These two put together mean that the temple is where mortality meets immortality. I testify that that is true. The Spirit that I felt in the temple is greater that any other Spirit I have ever felt. That's as close as you can get to heaven while on this earth. Have a great week. Love you all.

Elder Dumont

with Elder Sandstrom

The District

The House of the Lord 

Cray Cray Week!

It was a crazy week. Some boring crazy, some just crazy crazy.

Tuesday- We had deep clean. Not a simple task with our huge apartment. It took us all day. We went to Mutual and helped with the scouts a little. Our car was having some problems, so we traded our Corolla (Jazelle) for the Zone Leaders Ford Fusion (White Lightning). Super nice car. They took it to the mission office.

Wednesday- I started feeling under the weather. We still managed to go out and do some work. We contacted a couple of former investigators and tracted a bit. That night, we were on our way to an appointment, and I got the Fusion stuck in some mud!!! haha We had to have a member come pull us out. The appointment cancelled, cause their driveway was impossible to get up.

Thursday- Bad Weather+sick Elder Dumont=Not fun day. All we did was go out to Lunch with the Relief Society President.

Friday- We had Zone Conference. Elder Zonts is now in my zone, so we got to say hi and stuff. We traded the Fusion, not for the Corolla. It's still in the shop, so I get to drive a brand new Volkswagon Jetta (Bailey). It only had 400 miles when we got it. We helped out at the thrift shop, then went and had a lesson with Jimmy. Bro. Mays took a lot of time to get to know Elder Sanderson.

Saturday- We were asked to help with a baptism for a kid in Jamestown. The drain plug, was stuck in the drain. It was still draining a little bit. We called around to try to figure out how to get it from being stuck. Elder Sanderson decided to stomp on it. One problem fixed. We just couldn't get it unstuck. I'll come back to that. I was told that the Font took 4 hours to fill, and we had 2 hours. We started filling up garbage cans, and big bowls to help it fill up faster. The baptism was nice. We did some service for Bro. Grimes, then went back to get the drain unplugged. We had to use a screwdriver as a lever, but we got the plug completely unplugged.

Sunday- We both gave talks in Sacrament Meeting on Missionary Work. Elder Sanderson did a terrific job. We contacted a referral named Graig. We were going to teach the Restoration. He had a lot of family over. The lesson was rough. It was impossible to stay on track. We were bouncing around everywhere. We had dinner with some members to kind of destress.

Yes I do name all of the cars I drive. We kind of had a slow week, but have a lot of things to do this week, including going to the temple of Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so stoked!!!!! Have a great week.

Elder Dumont

Refiner's Fire

Tuesday- We contacted a couple of referrals. One of them was super excited to learn.

Wednesday- We tried contacting some potentials but nothing came from it, so we decided to find our own potentials. We tracted. We had a lot more people open the door. We gave out a couple of Books of Mormon. We visited with the Shortts and were able to help them. They're under a ton of stress right now. 

Thursday- It snowed a bunch and we got grounded. We built a giant snowman and it was gnarly. 

Friday- We had district meeting. I'm the only one in the district that knows how to play the piano, so I get to magnify my talents...yeah. I went on an exchange with Elder Vosika. He's hilarious. We visited Jimmy and had an absolute powerful lesson. We taught about the Book of Mormon and he reacted in a very positive way. He renewed his commitment to reading. 

Saturday- We did service for Bro. Grimes and we visited Benny.

Sunday- Cause of the predicted ice storm, church was cancelled pretty much throughout the stake. We went to the Budd's house for dinner with the Gilland's and had a grand ole time. We visited the Cox family and visited the Krump family. The Krumps are sweet. They have enough faith for an entire ward. 

Spiritual thought: Instead of just putting one of my thoughts down, I want to propose a question. What has Christ done for you and your family so far this year? Chew on that for a while. I love all of you. Have a great week.

Elder Dumont

Once there was a snowman, snowman snowman...

Once there was a snowman tall, tall, tall

In the sun he melted, melted, melted.

In the sun he melted, small, small, small-Well actually he tipped over.

First Week of Training

Wednesday- We went and had dinner at the Gilland's house. We had a coordination meeting after dinner, and I almost broke down. I was having a lot of doubts about training. Brother Gilland is awesome. He calmed me down and assured me that I would have the Branch's full support.

Thursday- We drove to Portsmouth and I had a trainer meeting. After that meeting, the new missionaries all walked in. President Baker announced the companionships one by one. My greenie is Elder Sanderson from Nampa, Idaho. Greenie magic is real. We had a dinner appointment and the sister we were eating with gave us a good list of people we could visit, some less active and some non member.

Elder Sanderson

Friday- We had district meeting today. We now have sisters in our district. They are in Gloucester. We did service at the thrift shop, then went and had dinner with the Bairds. We talked a lot about their home teaching families and their friend that they're working with. 

Saturday- We went and did service for Brother Grimes. We cleared part of his wicked long driveway of ice and snow. We visited a couple of families that we've been working with. 

Not the Grimes driveway, but a lot of snow.

Sunday- Elder Sanderson got to teach Gospel Essentials his first Sunday in the mission and he did an excellent job. This is going to be an easy training. We visited some less actives and called a couple of potential investigators. Lots of good things happening.

Spiritual thought- In chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel, we find the 5 lessons that we teach investigators before they can be baptized. Lesson 4 contains the commandments. One such is to Follow the Prophet. In the first paragraph of the section, it talks about how the Truth does not change, no matter what day and age you live in. The Prophet today is preaching the same gospel that Jesus, Adam, Moses, and all of the other prophets taught. God is the source of all truth and he is not a changeable God, therefore his truth is not changeable. Attempting to change truth is apostasy.

I love you all. Have a blessed week.

Love,

Elder Dumont

I've heard of a pink cadillac, but a pink ambulance?

Wild Wild Week

This week was crazy.

Monday- I went on an exchange with Elder Tortorici and we went to the Turner's house for my birthday dinner. It was a pretty crazy night. Just look at the pictures to come.

Tuesday- Elder Tortorici and I went and contacted some potentials and formers. We had a little bit of success. We talked to this one guy who was being taught last year. He is super solid.

Wednesday- We met with the a less active family. We helped them establish a family vision, with some goals and plans.

Thursday- We went to do some service, but it started snowing, so the member we were with decided to take us to a steakhouse instead. We went and visited the Shortts that night and had just an amazing lesson. We didn't really have a lesson plan, we just went completely by the Spirit. It was super sweet.

Friday- We went and helped some members in Gloucester with some service with the Gloucester Elders. It was the last time we would see Elder Friend on the mission.

Saturday- This is where things got wild. A guy that Elder Black taught in his last area got baptized, so we went down to Norfolk to see it. On our way back to New Kent, we stopped in Hampton and got some grub. When the member tried to start the car, it wouldn't start. We had to get a new battery. We finally got on our way. Just before we got home, we got transfer calls. Elder Black is going down to Clayton North Carolina. I'm staying in New Kent. I won't know who my new companion is until Thursday due to the fact the I'll be that missionary's first companion. I'll be his trainer. Since Elder Black was leaving, we went and said goodbye to some people. The wind was blowing really strong and it blew over a powerline. The power line was in a median and it caught all of the trees and grass on fire. Some of the flames made their way to the road when we drove past. We literally drove through smoke and flames and it was nuts!!

Sunday- Elder Black had a lot of packing to do. During Sacrament Meeting, I had to be the substitute music conductor. 

Monday- A wicked bad storm hit us last night. We got about 6 inches of snow. Not too bad for Utah, but for Virginia, it's like the apocalypse. 

Spiritual thought: "Being mistreated is the most important condition of mortality, for eternity itself depends on how we view those who mistreat us." (James L. Ferrell) Many of the trials we will go through will be because of the misdeeds of another person. The test will be for us to forgive those that had wronged us. Christ himself declared that we are to forgive all those that have wronged us. He himself forgave all mankind for all of their sins. When we refuse to forgive, we are basically saying that the Lord's atonement wasn't good enough. That his payment of the sin wasn't enough. When we choose to forgive, we are set free from a heavy burden. When we forgive, we allow the power of the atonement to fill our souls. 

That's all for now. This will be the first time that a missionary has been trained in this area for a long while, so this aught to be interesting. Love you all. Have a great week.

Elder Dumont

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

What a Nice Cake!

Then somebody smashed his face in it!

Turns out it was a magical cake!

Because the Elder was turned into a princess! 

Happy Birthday to me I guess

Big News: I've decided to forgo my birthday this year. Still 19

Birthday Slurpee

Tuesday- We did deep cleaning, not an easy thing with our luxurious apartment. 

Wednesday- Deep cleaned some more. We also got to teach Jimmy. We taught the law of the fast and the Word of Wisdom. We then invited him to fast with us on Sunday and to go without cigerettes as well. 

Thursday- Weekly planned and finally finished deep cleaning. I forgot my notes so I literally have no idea what happened during the first part of the week.

Friday- Zone Meeting. President Baker came out with a structered way to do weekly planning. It's definitely different but I'm ready to try it out. I exchanged with Elder Friend. I took him to the two craziest people in the branch, Sister Turner and Brother Grimes. We helped Brother Grimes move some stuff he got in an estate sale, which included a piano. Sister Turner taught Elder Friend how to play a hymn on the ukelele.

Saturday- We exchanged back. Elder Black got a ticket for speeding. We went and did service at the Thrift Shop, then went out to dinner with Jimmy and Bro. Mays for Jimmy's birthday (everybody's having birthdays right now and it's ridiculous). I talked a lot with Bro. Mays and it really seemed to help him be less lonely. His wife is in a nursing home.

Sunday- Testimony meeting was all about temples and family history. Us, Bro. Mays, and Jimmy were all fasting that Jimmy would receive an answer to his prayers. We had dinner with the Bud family and I made friends with their pet bunny. They call me the bunny whisperer.

The Bunny Whisperer

Spiritual thought- Hymn #335 Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. This is our official mission song, instituted by Sister Baker. The lyrics tell us that the Lord cares about all of his children. Many of his children are "poor fainting, struggling seaman." The Lord gives us the keeping "of his lights along the shore." We are to be a beacon to those who are lost or struggling. That is what the Lord expects of us. Be an example. Reach out to others who are struggling. "Send a gleam across the wave. Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save."

It was a slower week. We're getting transfer calls this week, so we'll see what happens. Love you all. Have an awesome week.

Elder Dumont

Can't explain this one