12-5-2016 "Happy December!!"

¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos! 

This one is for you momma!! I know how you love manager scenes!! 

I hit my actual 6 month mark last week!! So crazy!

 Hermana Chavez surprised me by making me the cute flower balloon

 and sign over my bed. So sweet 

  I can't believe it is the last month of the year!! It's so crazy to think how fast time has gone! It's already December, and it has barely even snowed here in Minnesota. It snowed once this week, but the snowwas all melted by the end of the day haha. Not complaining though.   

I hope everyone had a wonderful week, because I really did!! I love the Christmas video and ideas that we have to serve every single day, just as Christ served. It's been fun to see how serving others helps others happy and it helps me feel so much happier. It's true that when you are serving those around you, that's when you are the happiest!!
  
   We taught Jose and Ellie again this week. They both have basically been taught everything that they can be taught by the missionaries. So, we asked them all of the baptismal interview questions. They both already have such strong testimonies, and are really awesome examples to me. They said that they both feel ready to be baptized, but they just need to be married before they can.  We are going to continue teaching them and helping them progress towards baptism. We don't have a specific date that they are working towards, but hopefully we will be able to set one soon with them!  

  We had some pretty cool miracles this week with sharing the Christmas video with some more people. On Wednesday, we met Sergio and Natali. Sergio met with the Hermanas back in march, and we decided to stop by and meet them this week.  We just had a short lesson and shared the Christmas Initiative video with them.  Natali, his wife, expressed to us that she's never been super religious but she wants to learn more! She invited us to come back and teach them some more, especially because she wants her daughter to learn about Jesus Christ.  At the end of this lesson, Sergio offered the closing prayer (after we taught him how to pray) and when I looked over to Natali she was tearing up. The spirit was really strong. We ended up going back on Saturday to teach Sergio, Natali, and Caty (their daughter).We just taught them all about the importance of prayer and how prayer really is a gift from God.  Religion in general is a little new to Natali and Caty, but they both are excited to learn. They just soak in everything that we teach.  We had a member come with us, Hermana Matus. It was perfect because she was able to invite Caty to mutual. Caty is excited to come to mutual, and hopefully they will make it to church this next week!
    
    Earlier this week we received a bible request/referral for someone named Christian. So, we called him and set up an appointment to teach him and bring the bible to him. We taught him about the importance of studying scriptures and introduced the Book of Mormon to him. However, it turns out that the other Hermanas (Hermana Anderson y Hermana Leavitt) who are serving in Richfield had taught him a week earlier and had given him a Book of Mormon. The whole time we were teaching him he just kept saying "I believe it." He is excited to learn more about Jesus Christ and said that he will pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. Also, he came to church yesterday too!! He wasn't able to stay all three hours but really enjoyed it.  

    We also had a pass-off lesson with the Medicine Lake Elders this week! They have been teaching Dago in English for the past couple of weeks, and they decided it would be better for him to be taught in his first language. So, we had a lesson and got to meet Dago and his family! Dago actually had been taught by the missionaries back in like 1997 and went to church every week for a whole year. However, he had some troubles in his life and stopped going to church. Then the Elders randomly knocked on his door a couple of weeks ago and just started teaching him! We taught him about faith. He has a strong desire to learn who God is and who Jesus Christ in.  We invited him to simply pray to know if God is there. We are going to continue to teach him, but it is going to be little by little. He is super excited to continue learning though!!! 

 On Sunday, Hermana Matus asked us to help her out in her Young Women's class on Sunday, because she was going to be talking about bringing others unto Christ. We helped her by sharing our experiences with missionary work and why we chose to serve..etc. Talking to these 12-13 year old girls, made me reflect on how much I really love being a missionary. I am so grateful to be here serving the Lord and serving the people here.  I love the scripture in Mosiah 2:17 it says, "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." Jesus Christ is the best example of what it means to serve your fellow men along with serving God. We don't have to do something super over the top to serve; it can be something as little as a smile or a note. I know that service and being charitable is what can help us become more like Jesus Christ and learn more about him! I know that Jesus Christ is the reason for this season! I hope that we can all look more outside of ourselves and serve those around us. I can promise that as you serve more that you will be able to feel more of God's love in your life for you and for those you are serving!!!

    I love being a missionary. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. And I love all of you!! More importantly, however, Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ love you all so much more!! Have a happy week full of service!!! 

Love,
Hermana Duvall 

I finally got to eat some super yummmmmmyy sushi!! It's been way too long!!
We went there last p-day. So worth it!

Hermano Pacos daughter, lluvia! She's one of the sweetest little girls. 

Whenever we go to teach Paco o Pakito she always loves sitting next to us. 

Hermana Leavitt and Hermana Anderson!! I love serving in this ward with them. I look up to both of them so much! They are serving down in Richfield.

Hermana Leavitt