9-12-2016 Miracles upon Miracles

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!! 

This one is for Bailey Scott and Bryce Baugh!!  Russian Book of Mormon!

   I hope everyone had a fantastic week, and were able to recognize God's hand working in your lives! This last week was another really good week with a couple of little cool miracles! We stayed with another set of sisters all of last week, and it was so much fun! We got a lot closer. One night, there was this HUGE STORM (I know I always mention really big storms in my emails home... I guess they happen a lot here). But there was this siren that was going off outside of the apartment, and it woke us up. We thought it was a warning for a tornado, but it wasn't. So, we went back to bed about 15 minutes later. Then the storm just HIT, and for the rest of the night it was thundering and lightening all through the night. I didn't get much sleep to say the least haha. 

Homemade enchiladas!! Yum.. Except we definitely made them more Americanized haha

   We moved back into our place Saturday night, and we are happy to be back where all of our stuff and beds are haha. It was sad leaving the other Sisters apartment though, because we had a lot of fun together! The weather here is slowly starting to get colder...and colder...and colder... so that's kind of exciting. I don't think I am mentally prepared for this Minnesotan winter haha.

   We had an amazing miracle last Monday, after P-day ended! We were on our way from Apple Valley to Burnsville and we were passing this Apartment complex that wasn't in our plans to visit.  Hermana Brittner turned to me and said that she felt that we need to go visit a less active member who lived there. So we turned the car around, and went to the apartment building. We accidentally parked in front of the wrong apartment building; so, we had to walk a little bit to get there. When we got to the entrance of the building there were these two people carrying a TV in, and we held the door open for them. They took the elevator; we took the stairs up to the 2nd floor. We walked all the way down the hallway to the last door (because that's where the lady we were going to visit lived). Then all of the sudden the same 2 people that we helped with the TV are walking down the hallway. One of them yelled out to us, "We're coming!" We ended up talking with them for a little bit and teaching them about the Book of Mormon. Their names are Peter and Diana. They are both from Kenya, and are currently working as nurses. They moved here to the US a little while ago, but to this specific apartment just a week before we met them! They are awesome! We gave them a Book of Mormon in English, and they said they would love to have us come back and teach them more! We ordered and got a Shawilian Book of Mormon for them that we are going to give them when we see them next! 

English, French, Arabic(I think), Thai, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, and we have a Shawilian Book of Mormon not pictured!!! 

    On Wednesday, we brought one of the members in our branch, Alma, out teaching with us.  We were waiting to get into this apartment building, and then someone was leaving the building so we were able to get inside!! Alma turned to us and said something along the lines of, "Wow, you girls just have doors opened for you! I guess that's what you get when you are serving the Lord." I had never really thought about how blessed we really are, as missionaries, to just have doors open for us when we need to get into apartment buildings! Heavenly Father is amazing, and when we are where we are supposed to be, doing what we are supposed to be doing, miracles happen! We ended up teaching one of Alma's friends, Abby. We have a return appointment with Abby this week! 

     We had an AMAZING lesson with this lady name Chantel. She has three kids, one 7 year old boy, a 5 year old girl, and a 1 year old baby girl. All so cute and fun. She works with two members in our branch, and asked for us to come over and teach her! So of course, we went over. We taught her about the Godhead and how they are three separate beings but one in purpose. At first she was a little confused, but as we continued to explain it seemed that this wash of understanding came upon her face. That was cool to see. We taught her about the Restoration, and the Book of Mormon, and how to pray! The whole lesson she was practically finishing all of our sentences. We invited her to be baptized, and she said she would if she was ready by then!! We are so excited for her, and she is so excited as well! 

      Something that I have been learning over and over again here, is how important the Savior's role is in everyone's life! There's a scripture that I came across this morning in my personal study, and I just love it. It's in Alma 5:60. It says: "And now I say unto you that the good shepherd doth call after you; and if you will hearken unto his voice he will bring you into his fold, and ye are his sheep; and he commandeth you that ye suffer no ravenous wolf to enter among you, that ye may not be destroyed." The Savior is literally CALLING OUT to all of us. I just love the wording of that because it is so true! He is our brother and he wants to help us. When I think about this, I think about my sister and my brothers, and how I know that they are always willing to help me no matter what time, or where I am at, or what I need help with. Jesus Christ is like this, and He wants us to know and remember that he is here to help us with whatever we need! He will joyfully bring us into his arms and change our lives.  He doesn't want us to suffer. He doesn't want us to be sad. He doesn't want us to feel like we don't deserve the help. Because that is SO NOT TRUE. Being a missionary, I have been able to see firsthand how the Atonement of Jesus Christ can just change someone completely, and help them be happier. That's what He wants. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to have joy. He wants us to come unto to Him and partake of his redeeming love. I know this to be true. I love my Savior Jesus Christ so much. I have felt His redeeming love change me day by day and how I am so forever grateful for Him. 

I love you all so much! But more importantly Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, love you all SO MUCH MORE! Have an amazing week. I am praying for you all! 

Love,
Hermana Duvall

Cool car dude haha