Hoedown Throwdown

Mi familia y amigos!

Y'all are so great! So let me tell ya a little more about my cowgirl comp! She is the best! She is from Charillton, Texas (just out of Dallas). She is the oldest of 4 girls (poor papa case). She played volleyball (and softball....In 2nd grade haha) and she did musical theatre. She went to BYU for a year. Her major is Food Science and she will go on to dental school. Her biggest wish is that BYU had sororities! Lucky for her she has a sorority girl for a companion....haha. She is such a hard worker and is so stinking awesome! She is going to be comps with me and Sister Page someday.

Monday we had a pizza party as we wrote letters. I haven't had much of an appetite these last few weeks which is weird! Sister Case and I got matching huskers shirts so one day we will take a matching photo for ya'll. Her mom sent her this cookbook especially for missionaries and cooking for only a few people. We have yet to try is out. At FHE that night a movie quote popped into my head and I couldn't figure out what it was from. Sister case and I tried for hours to figure it out. Well as I was going to bed after my prayers it popped into my head. Sister case prayed and asked for Heavenly Father to help her figure it out and he did that instant. Prayer works ;) haha

There are some girls in the branch who are like 4 and 2 and whenever they wear flowers in their hair they call themselves Sister Dumont! it is so cute!

We got to go to the temple again on Friday! It was so awesome! I am grateful for the opportunity I had to go and serve in the temple. President Weston, when I walked into the celestial room, said (joking), 'you and Sister Case need a little more energy!' haha if he only knew! We are wild in a good way.  I got to talk to Sister Page on Saturday and I will get to see her on Tuesday! I am so excited for her and sister Case to meet!

I am so sorry that this so short but time just flies so stinking fast! Gol, I promise I will better prioritize my time next week so I can tell you more stories! For now, I love you all! Keep being so awesome and never forget to pray :)

Love,

Sister Dumont

I'll send photos next week! Love y'all and I love hearing from ya :)

HOWDYYY!!! (as my new companion would say)

Yup..that's right, I have a new companion! But I will get to that in a minute.

Last Monday it rained and rained and rained all day but don't worry, I wore my rain boots! S. Gomez and I decided to have a Halloween party by ourselves because we figured it would be our last p-day together. We got popcorn and candy and hot cocoa and Mexican sweet bread and all sorts of yummy stuff and we watched the Joseph Smith movie and President Monson's Biography. It was so much fun. 

We had dinner at the Bishops and guess what. I decided it was time to take Russel M. Neilson's counsel and Control My Appetite so I only had one serving and I controlled my portion size. The hardest part was only having one brownie because her brownies are my favorite but I did it anyway! Yay S. Dumont :) We did a little service at a less-active's house and then we had a lesson with Sylvia.

On Tuesday we were to find out about transfers. From what we understood, if either of us were training we would hear by 8:00 and if we were switching comps we would hear by 9:00. Well Sister Gomez started packing even though she didn't know what was going to happen. We didn't hear anything by the time we left for District meeting at 9:00 so we figured that we were staying together in Columbus and we laughed because all of her stuff was packed. The Norfolk sisters met us in Columbus and then we drove to Seward (hour away) for our District meeting. On the way there S. Fuller told us that if you are just switching companions or going to a different area then they call you after 10:00. Lo and Behold our Zone Leaders called us about 10:40 and gave us the news. They said, "have you talked to president?" "Well...no he hasn't called yet" "Okay well we will just tell you...Sister Dumont, you are staying in Columbus and you will be companions with Sister Case." (secretly I was screaming and jumping on the inside but I didn't want to make any of the other sisters in the car feel bad so I just smiled and said okay) "

And Sister Gomez is going to Sioux City and her companion is Sister Vogel." I knew Sister Case from exchanges a few weeks ago in Sioux city and on Sunday when I talked to her for stewardship I asked how she was feeling about transfers and she jokingly said, " if I have you or Sister Gomez as my companion I will be fine." Well Sister Case, your wish came true! So basically Between the 4 of us we just swapped companions because S. Vogel was with S. Case and now she is with S. Gomez. I seriously could not contain my excitement. We and the Pioneer sisters got to Seward around the same time. I got out of the car and ran to Sister McMaster and S. Schrader and found out that S. McMaster (she came out with me and we have been in the same district for our whole mission) is going to be with her first companion again and a sister trainer leader in Omaha. S. Schrader is training for the first time but she is still in Lincoln. Things just got so crazy! When we got back from Seward we helped a less active member move into her house and then we had dinner with the Shaws and the rest of the night was spent saying goodbye to families for Sister Gomez. That made me realize how hard it will be when that day comes but I can do hard things so it's fine!

Wednesday we drove to Lincoln to drop S Gomez off and pick up S Case. We got there and they said the transfer van hadn't even left yet (45 minutes away) so we went and ate breakfast. Meanwhile Sister McMaster, Schrader, and Wrubell walked in. I haven't seen S. Wrubell since The end of August! She is one of the sisters who came out with me so like family! I had a minor freak out. Also I thought I said goodbye to Sister McMaster but luckily for me I got to see her again! There are so many awesome missionaries in this mission I can't even stand it. We all took photos and then S. Case finally got there. When she got out of the car we screamed and ran for each other. I think everyone else was jealous. HaHa! This sister is my homie and I love her so much! So I have a step daughter now. We had a few appointments and then took her home to unpack.

Thursday we had 2 concerts scheduled at nursing homes so we practiced for that. I don't know if I told y'all but when we did exchanges with S. Case a few weeks ago S. Case and I sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives/ I feel My Saviors Love mashup and we recorded it. Well now that we are comps we sing it everywhere for everyone and we got to sing it at the concerts. We had appointments pretty much all day. Brother Vavra invited us over for dinner so we could start teaching his friend Tayna. We had an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon and she is so prepared to hear the gospel it is nuts. The spirit was so strong and everything she said just led back to the Gospel being the answer. We will be teaching her and her mom every Thursday so we are really excited about that. Then we got to go the the RS Enrichment activity which was pie making/eating. S. Case got to meet some of the RS Sisters so that was awesome!

Friday we got to do some service for one of our investigators sisters and then we went with Vickie, our less-active, to the trail center. We had such a blast and the spirit was so strong through the tour. She said she thinks she wants to serve a mission so hopefully she keeps feeling that. She works on Sundays so that prevents her from coming to church.

 :( K I am out of time but I just wanted to share a funny story. We were at an investigators house and somehow it came up that we were gangster cause we are so cool and so he called us Gangsters for God! Also we got called the singing nuns at the nursing homes! Life is so good here in Nebraska! It is getting cooler by the minute but the work is not! Please write me everyone :) I want to know how y'all are doing! Peace and Blessings!

Love Always, 

Sister Dumont

Malolele!

This week we had our Mini-Mi (mini-missionary)! I encourage all of you who are thinking about going on a mission to do this! You spend a week with missionaries doing exactly what they do. It is a great way to see if you can handle a mission! haha We had such a blast teaching and learning from Sister Mejia this week.

So Monday I got my hair cut, Jess, you would be proud :) it's not crooked anymore! haha I just trimmed it and got little layers! One of our less active members, Vickie, was there getting her hair dyed. She is our age and I had only met her once when we went bowling but we really clicked. We have been trying to get ahold of her for probably 2 months and just haven't been able to. This was such a miracle because she lives in Schuyler, which is like 20 minutes away. She said that she finally had a sunday off and that she would be at Church! YAY!

Tuesday we had a laminating party at Sister Spicers house. She is so nice to let us use her laminator. We read an article from the ensign about becoming men and women of God. (Speaking of, if you haven't read the ensign from this month you should, it is AWESOME). You know how in Alma is says if all men were like Moroni the very gates of Hell would be shaken forever? Well something that I never realized is that in the next verse it compares him to all of these other prophets and missionaries in the BOM and then says, "and they were all men of God." This made me realize that we can ALL be like Moroni; it is not some impossible feat. As long as we are striving to be men and women of God we are being like Moroni and we have the power to shake the gates of Hell! Alma 48: 17-18...read it :) Gosh, the church is so true! Later that night we taught one of our investigators and her husband the Restoration. She whispered to us as we were leaving that this is what she was looking for! Everytime we have taught her something she has just agreed with us but carried on in her own belief but Tuesday she told us that she had been looking for something else. We have yet to follow up and see what more she meant by that! Missionary work is so exciting!

Wednesday we had the most amazing Zone Training ever! I think I said that last time but I literally don't think I have felt the spirit as strongly my whole mission as I did during our role plays. We taught one of the other missionaries as themselves before their missions, with the concerns and problems they had about the church. It is so amazing how much you can feel the spirit when you aren't even teaching a 'real investigator.' This just bore testimony to me of how strong the spirit is as a teacher and how blessed I am to be the tool for teaching. I LOVE IT! We started family research with Miguel, our recent convert so that he can have names to take to the temple for the baptism trip coming up. We were able to find a bunch of names for him! We can't wait until he gets to go to the temple. 

Thursday Sylvia invited us over for dinner. She is the best investigator ever! haha She feed us just as much as the members do :) The missionaries all practiced for our performance at the nursing home. Friday we performed at the Golden Living Center. It was so much fun and the spirit was definitely there. I guess the sister missionaries who were here like 9 years ago used to go every week and do service there. We had no idea they were so close to the activites people there but we set it up so we will get to do service there every week too :) One of our investigators, Georgette, was in a play at the community college. We didn't think we were allowed to go see it but she really wanted us to go so we told her that we would go and wait outside when it was over and have a sign with her name on it. It was so great and she was so happy we were there, even though we didn't get to watch it. We later found out that we could have gone to see it. Lame huh?

Saturday we went with Miguel, Lily (his girlfriend), his little sister Brittney and her little brother, Daniel to a.....wait for it.....PUMPKIN PATCH! It was so fun :) we all had a blast watching the kids and petting the animals and exploring. I kissed a LLAMA (this isn't the first time). Is that against mission rules? haha Afterwards Miguel gave us a gift because we helped bring him to the church. He got us necklaces with pictures of Chirst on them. He is so thoughtful. Sister Mejia's mom came and picked her up and took us all out to lunch. they are the nicest people. Sister Mejia is so ready to serve a mission! We helped Sylvia move next door into a bigger place. Wanna hear a funny story about sister Gomez? She might kill me if she knew I wrote this but I can't resist. So we were having coordination meeting with the elders and for some reason we were talking about Patriarchal Blessings. Elder Tatafu asked S. Gomez what tribe she is from (ya know, meaning like Ephraim, Menassa) and she goes..."uh Navajo" (apparently she has a little native American blood in her) We were all laughing so hard and she still didn't get it so she went to her Mexican tribe which is Aztec. We couldn't stop laughing long enough to tell her what kind of tribes we were talking about. She is so stinking cute!

Sunday was amazing. Fast and testimony meeting was incredible. I love this branch so much! Transfers are Wednesday but we will find out tomorrow morning what the Lord has in store for us these next few weeks. Predictions are that I am staying and will be training a new missionary (I'm gonna have a baby :) and that sister Gomez is leaving :( We will have to see if these predictions are correct or not. I have no idea what will happen but I know one of us is probably leaving. Well I hope you all have a great week! Thanks so much for everything :) I love you all! Remember WHO you are and WHOSE you are :)

Love always and forever,

Sister Dumont

Howdy Y'all

This week was a busy one. 

Last Monday we were getting ready to head to Lincoln when one of our members called us up and said we needed to come over now. We were both scared because we didn't know what to expect and we were afraid something was wrong. We rushed over there and knocked on the door. Brother Cerna opened the door, invited us in and told us to sit down on the coach. Sister Cerna brought us cookies and a guava drink and then their 10 year old daughter Catherine brought us out the cutest teddy bears. They are sister missionaries!!! I will include a picture of them but we love them so much. This family is the cutest. They are Salvadorian and they treat us so well and do so much for our investigators.

We headed to Lincoln to stay with the Pioneer sisters because on Tuesday we had interviews with President Weston (duh duh duh....). And we were lucky enough to get to go to TARGET! Wahoo! We were so stinking pumped. We got socks and I got a shirt for $3.00 :) We miss target so much and we felt right at home there. We ate at Raising Canes. It was so good! Then we went to the Pioneers sister's house and planned and went to sleep. Tuesday we had interviews with President Weston and I was pretty nervous. Not going to lie. But it was just fine. The work here is focusing on members and getting less actives back to church. We asked the Lincoln missionaries where we should go for lunch and they sent us to this sandwich shop owned by a member. He is from Chicago and makes Italian beef/pastrami sandwiches. It was so stinking good. He didn't make us pay because he said when he was taking the lessons from the missionaries 4 years ago he asked a lot of hard questions so this is his way of paying the missionaries back. haha Such a great guy.

Wednesday we had back to back appointments so we didn't have time to stop and eat dinner. Our 7:30 appointment was running late so we went to the gas station and got 'dinner' which was a candy bar and Flamin' Hot Cheetos with Lime :) We sat in the car watching the thunder storm eating our dinner. haha  Thursday was Sister Schrader's birthday. She is obsessed with mustaches so we make her a cake and put plastic mustaches on it. Elder Tatafu got some mustaches so we wore them during District Meeting.

We headed to Omaha for our Leadership Counsel on Friday. We got to the trail center and Sister Peterson was there. She told me that she was going home the next day because she is having medical problems. She is one that came out with me and before our mission we went to the temple together. I am so sad that she had to leave but she said she feels at peace with it so that makes it better. Heavenly Father has a very specific plan for each of us. We stayed at a house near the trail center. The Leadership Counsel was awesome! Sister Page was there so I got to catch up with her. I got to share with Sister Weston a little bit about grandpa's funeral. She is the sweetest thing and always asks how the family is doing. 

We got back to Columbus and it was our investigator Sylvia's birthday and she wanted to spend the day with us. 

Conference was incredible and so inspiring. My favorite talks were Ulisses Soares, S. Gifford Nielsen, and M. Russel Ballard. We have a third sister with us for this week. She is on a mini mission so she is from Omaha and before her stake president will let her turn in her papers she has to do this and see if she is fit for a mission. So far so good :) She is so great and is definitely ready for it.

Time is short as always but I love you all so much. Thanks for you letters and support. Have a great week :)

Love always,

Sister Dumont

Una Buena Semana

The weeks just always speed by!

Monday was a pretty busy day last week. We drove up to LaMars, Iowa to start our week full of exchanges.

LaMars is the Ice Cream Capital: Blue Bunny Ice Cream

Tuesday was exchanges with the LaMars sister. With Sister Curfew I did service at their Ward Mission Leader's house picking up branches and cleaning up their big yard. It was so fun! I got to see Sister Smith, who was in my MTC district. Before S. Curfew and I left we went into say goodbye to Sister Walker and we got talking about how they got the house and property. She said they could not afford it financially. It wasn't supposed to be able to work out. But she prayed to Heavenly Father to ask about what to do because she didn't think they could keep up with the payments. Heavenly Father answered her prayer through the scriptures and she has the very strong feeling that their land will be used for the saints at the second coming when people gather with the Savior. The land that we were able to clean and take care of is or one day will be very sacred land. We were so blessed to be there.

Narnia Tree S. Curfew and I

S. Curfew and I, earlier, took sometime to go into the woods and pray. We had such an amazing experience and after we each finished our prayers we started singing, "Oh how lovely was the morning."

We switched companions around 3 and I went with Sister Kent. We found a guy who actually was married to a lady who is the granddaughter of a general authority. He wasn't baptized but his daughter was. I hope that they are able to teach him. That night we drove 30 minutes to Sioux City to be with the Sioux City 1st sisters. Sister McFadgen has been out for a few weeks. She is from Canada. I love her so much. It was so fun getting to know her. We have a lot in common. She is already a great missionary. 

S. Smith, my MTC sis, is my favorite. We got to teach a less-active family. We had such a blast together and we decided one day we are going to be companions.

Sister Smith and I Love doing headstands. She Taught me how at the MTC

Wednesday night we went to stay with the Sioux City 2nd sisters. Sister Vogel and I were friends on Instagram before we came on our missions but I finally got to meet her in real life. haha she is so great. Sister Case is another sister who just came out. She is from Texas. We had a lesson with a member and then we all went to serve at a Christian food kitchen. S. Case is an amazing singer so we sang I Know That my Redeemer Lives/ I Feel my Saviors Love  We recorded it so I will have to send it home somehow. It was hard being away from 'home' but we are so blessed to be able to care for and love these sisters.

Friday and Saturday we had appointment after appointment so that was fun. It kept us busy. Saturday was the Broadcast. It was so amazing. If y'all haven't seen it you should! It is all about making and keeping covenants. One of our investigators, Sylvia came to it.

Sunday I sang Savior, Redeemer of My Soul and sister Gomez played the piano. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to share my testimony through talents. It is going to be another great week! Sorry there isn't tons to write about today. I hope all of you remember how much our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you. We are so blessed to have living prophets on the earth at this time. They truly are messengers of our Heavenly Father. They speak for him on this earth today. I hope all of you can watch as much of conference as possible. Keep up the great work!

Love Always,

Sister Dumont