Hola familia y amigos!

Hola familia y amigos,

Didn't know I could speak Spanish did you? haha Well this week was a pretty solid week. Monday, after p-day we went and visited some investigators. The Peschkes, the family we live with, spoil us! I am telling you we have it the best here in Columbus. They feed us ice cream all the time and they are just so generous. Sis Peschke was having shoulder trouble and just having a difficult time so we watched Finding Faith in Christ with them and it boosted her spirits. Tuesday was a rough day as far as contacting people go. We had 3 people in a row straight up reject us. We just laughed about it because that is all you can do. The members are so great about being willing to help and also to feed us!

So did I tell you I get to play in the softball tournament? I am so stinking excited! We practiced on Wednesday and it just felt so good to be able to get out there and do something more in my comfort zone. The Stake tourney is on August 24th in Lincoln so that will be bomb! The branch is really counting on me so hopefully I won't disappoint!! We need more girls to play so on Tuesday we were tracting and I saw a girl with a softball shirt on. I ran across the yard yelling at her,

 "Hey! Do you play softball?!" Luckily she didn't seem too creeped out so we continued to talk with her and she said she would be living in Lincoln in a few weeks and we told her that is where we are playing so hopefully she comes to play with us. 

So one of the sisters from my zone in the MTC, Sister McMaster, is in my district now so I get to see her every Wednesday. This is such a blessing because my MTC zone sisters are my mission family and I hate not being able to see all of them. 

Thursday around 5:00 as we had come home for dinner the weather radio came on saying there was a weather watch in affect for the next few hours. I have never seen it rain/wind so much before. We stayed home and just planned for the next day since we couldn't go out. There wasn't a tornado warning in our county but there was in some of our neighboring counties. It was really exciting!

On Friday, we went to Omaha with our investigator Joan and her boyfriend Brother Davis, who is a member, and also her nephew Brother Vavra, who is also a member. We went to the trail center. Sister Gaede, the sister who was here before me with sister Gomez, got to give the tour. This was so awesome because she knows Joan's needs and was able to cater to that. Then we watched the Joseph Smith movie. THe spirit was so stinking strong that whole time in the trail center but especially as we were watching that. I got to see another one of my MTC sisters, Sister Checketts and that was another big blessing!

On Saturday, we had lunch with some of our investigators and were able to watch Finding Faith in Christ with them. Ronney, the husband is just the greatest. He will just tell us stories for hours if we let him. LeAnn and Ronney take such good care of us sisters. We had dinner with a less active member and she took us to this really good pizza buffet (blessing because the next day was fast sunday). After dinner we took scripture cookies to members and the Hydes, both graduated from USU, invited us to go visit some of our other members who live like 20 minutes out of town so we hopped in the van and have a fun little road trip with them. The family we went to visit are farmers so we got some fresh corn from their farm!!!! The moment I had been waiting for my whole mission, some good ole Nebraska corn! haha On the way home we got a text from the lady we had dinner with saying that they just found out that they had lice! What the..... sis G and I started laughing so hard. I mean it's not funny but I think the fact that we are on a mission makes it funny. We got home and went straight to Walgreens to get some lice shampoo. So far we don't think we have it but we are still using that shampoo to be safe!

Sunday was such a great fast and testimony meeting. The youth, 4 young men, went to Nauvoo for youth conference with the Stake. They all got up and bore their testimony on Joseph Smith and it was a great reminder of my own experience in Nauvoo and how my testimony of the restoration was strengthened. After church the Reeves, branch mission leader and family, feed us yummy taco soup and cornbread and then zucchini bread. Once we left there we visited the Cerna family. They are the cutest family ever! He is from El Salvador and she is from....some other Hispanic country. He was raised LDS and she was converted after they were married for years and moved to Nebraska. She told us a story about how she was praying for a husband and promised to convert him to her church, catholic. She laughed so hard as she told us that because we all know that Heavenly Father laughed as she said the prayer too, knowing full well that the opposite would be true. We were still so full from the Reeves but the Hispanic culture is to feed your guests so they fed us Pupusas, el Salvadorian food, cornbread and hot cocoa! It was so good but I am just happy that I finished it. I didn't feel full until after we left their house. The spirit was sustaining me until we left.

Well I love you all so much. I learned so much this week! My invitation this week is for y'all to study what it means to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. It is something that we hear so much in the church but do we really understand what it means?

I know that this is the true church restored on the earth. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet and that he restored Christ's church. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the true living prophet today. I know that Christ lives and that he loves each of us. I know that one day we will all be in Heaven together and we will be able to have the full joy that this life cannot provide. Thank you to everyone for you love and support. It really does help me!

Love always,

Sister dumont