September 26, 2016 Powerful prayers and birthday celebration

September 26, 2016

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
 
      This week was another awesome week! I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be a missionary at this time in my life! I love serving here in the Lakeville area in Minnesota, and I love the people here!

This one is for you Chan! @thekerrfamily 

      We taught A LOT of first lessons this week, and some really cool little miracles.  Last Monday, we were in the Apple Valley trailer park and Hermana Brittner saw this guy standing on his driveway and though that we should go talk to him. So we started walking towards his house, and he like ran inside to his house.  But we knew that there must have been another reason as to why we needed to walk down this street.  There was one house that stood out to us at the end of the street, so we went and knocked on this house.  We ended up meeting this awesome hispanic guy named Eric. At first he was very closed off, but he slowly opened up as we shared with him that Jesus Christ came to the Americas after he was resurrected! We told him about the Book of Mormon, and he was super excited to learn more. We also taught him how to pray.
    I went on exchanges with Sister Richardson on Tuesday, and it was fun to teach some more lessons in English. We met this guy named Tom, and we taught him how to pray! At first he was closed off, but after we taught him how to pray and said a prayer with him he was very grateful that we stopped and talked with him.
   On Wednesday, we had a goal to teach three other lessons, and we only had one scheduled lesson. We were down in Farmington, when we got a phone call (from the person that we were going to have a lesson with) and they cancelled. So, we were just left to doing a lot of finding for the rest of the day. We had time planned on being in this trailer park in Farmington, and we prayed and felt like we need to go to this one street. So we went to Eveleth Street, and we told Heavenly Father that we were going to at least knock 4 doors or teach 4 lessons before we were going to leave the street.  The first door we knocked on was a lady named Angelica, who is from Mexico. She let us right in, and we found out that she had been taught by some missionaries in the past. We taught her about the Restoration of the gospel and she loved the story. We also taught her how to pray, because she had forgotten. Then, we met a lady named Brittany. The second we told her that Christ came to the Americas, she was super interested. We shared a Book of Mormon with her, and she said that she was going to read it that night with her son! We taught her how to pray, and she said that it felt really good to pray. We are going back tonight to teach her another lesson! Then, we saw this boy playing with his Kendama (that wooden hammer thing that you throw the ball that's attached to a string) on his porch. At first, we just wanted to play with it. But we ended up teaching him about the Book of Mormon and how to pray as well. After he said a prayer, Gabe said that it was "refreshing." And that really stuck with me! We have been teaching a lot of people how to pray recently, and sometimes it's crazy to think about how many people don't know how to pray! Prayer has always been such an essential part of my life. I am so grateful that I can help people learn that they have a loving Heavenly Father who wants to communicate with us. Also, it has helped me realize how important it is to actually pray; if you know how to pray, PRAY!!
   We got to meet with Andy again this week! He has been kind of hard to meet with because of his work schedule, but we had an awesome lesson with him! He still wants to meet with us, but we explained to him how important it is for him to personally study and learn even we are not able to meet with him.
    We also had another lesson with Chantel this week! She is solid. Seriously, she already has such a strong testimony and is just soaking in everything we are teaching her! She's so prepared and ready! At the end of the lesson she gave us some brownies and orange juice. It was kind of a funny combination, but they were super good brownies!
    We finally were able to get in contact with Peter and Diana this week! They were the two people from Kenya that we met through a miracle. We brought them a Swahilian Book of Mormon, and Diana was so happy! She said that Peter had been reading in the Book of Mormon, and she had not. But, when we told her that we brought her one in Swahilian, she was so excited! They both were just about to leave for work, but we are planning on seeing them later this week! She said that she was just thinking about us that morning, and then we showed up! Let me tell you, when you follow the spirit, good things happen. It's a given.
     Hermana Brittner's birthday was yesterday so we celebrated!! In the morning, we actually had a lesson with Laura y Mauro, who Hermana Brittner taught when she was back in Minneapolis!

Hermana Brittner - The Birthday Girl

Celebrating our awesome Wednesday with some chocolate milk!! And this was on a ten second timer, so we were laughing about how long it was taking to take the picture haha.

They just moved to our area a couple of weeks ago. So that was a treat for her to get to see them. Our branch got Hermana Brittner this Choco-Flan cake that was decorated and everything. We all sang to her, and it was just super fun! I love the Lakeville Spanish Branch so much; every time everyone is together we just feel like one big family.  Then later last night we celebrated again with the Jensen's (the family that we live in their basement). Sister Jensen made this amazing apple pie that was sooo yummy. You could say that I have eaten way too many sweets these past couple of days... haha
   On Saturday I had the opportunity to watch the General Women's Broadcast, and I loved every single one of the talks. I really loved how they all focused on having a rock solid foundation in the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, because I think that is so important. Living in such a crazy, confusing world it is important to lean on the basics. I especially loved President Uchtdorf's talk. I wish I had the exact quote, but I don't. However, I loved the part when he said we use our eyes to see and ears to hear, but sometimes we forget to seek to understand with our spirits. We need to learn how to "listen differently." As General Conference weekend is coming up, I would like to stress this point. Heavenly Father wants to help us and provide us with answers to our questions; but, if we choose to only listen with our ears we aren't going to receive the answer. I know that as week seem for personal revelation that HE WILL GIVE IT TO US, but that we need to line our will with His will, and then everything will just make sense.  I know that President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, and has been called a this time to direct the people in the earth. I fully sustain Him, and His apostles, and I am so excited to hear the things that Heavenly Father wants us to learn and understand! I hope you all enjoy Conference, and remember to listen to the Spirit!

I love you all so much. But Heavenly Father, and His son, Jesus Christ, love you all so much more! They both want us to be happy! They don't want us to wander around in the dark!
Until next week!

Love,
Hermana Duvall

Hermana Duvall and Hermana Brittner with Aimee

So many people showed up to church this last Sunday!! It was awesome!! Love all of these women.

This is the famous Leo!! Last week when I was sick he brought me some tea to our lesson with him. He is so awesome!!

With our friend, Leonor!

Here is a video we took as we waited at the door -Some super cool African music! We took this video before Diana answered the door haha. So awesome!