¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
This has probably been one of my favorite weeks in the mission so far! It finally snowed again here! It hasn't snowed here for a couple of weeks, but now it did and it looks so pretty. It's actually kind of weird that I am starting to really love the snow. I love looking outside and just seeing blankets of white everywhere. It's so pretty. I also love it when it snows, because it isn't as cold haha.
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Sister Xiong and I loving the snow. Funny story: we started the car and cleaned all of the snow off. Then after about 10 minutes she turned the windshield wipers on and on just FLEW OFF OF THE CAR. It was funny.
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This week I had the wonderful opportunity to go on two exchanges! On Tuesday, I went on an exchange with Sister Xiong in Hmong work. Sister Xiong is one of the sweetest sisters I have met on my mission. I feel liked I learned so much more from her, during the day I was with her! We saw a lot of little miracles together. We were going to go "finding" for an hour and started driving to these apartments that are known to have a lot of Hmong people there. However, we ended up missing our turn. As we were looking for a place to turn around, we saw red corn hanging over a door of this house. So, we stopped the car and went to knock on this door. At the end of this hour, we met 3 Hmong families, who lived on that street, who were interested in hearing more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I would say that it wasn't an accident that we missed our turn to go to the other apartments. Also, one of the members that we visited on Tuesday gave me a Hmong name. It's "zoo hlub" and it means "lovable." She told me that even though she couldn't understand most of what I was saying (because I was talking in English) that she just felt so much love from me. Also, her son who is normally super shy around strangers warmed up to me super quickly. So, that's why she gave me that name.
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I sadly can't spell the ladies name who named me "zoo hlub" but she is so awesome!
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Exchanges with Hermana Hughes. This picture is with their investigator, Maria. She's the one who taught us how to cook different Mexican dishes!
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Then, on Thursday I went on an exchange with Hermana Hughes. I was really glad to be in Spanish land, because I could actually understand what was going on haha. I love Hermana Hughes so much. It's crazy because we are so similar in so many different ways. On Thursday morning, we went over to one of their investigator's house and she taught us how to cook. Her name was Maria, and she is so awesome! She told me that she wanted to teach me how to cook so I will be good marriage material hahaha. During this exchange, I learned so much from Hermana Hughes and we saw some really cool little miracles. We found a couple of new people who are interested in learning more and taught some really inspired lessons together. One thing that I learned on exchanges is how much Heavenly Father really loves all of His children!! I have been able to feel that love, even for people who I just meet. Heavenly Father knows all of His children perfectly and has a specific plan for all of them!
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Then later that day we saw this little library outside, so we stopped and put a Book of Mormon in it. I know, we don't have our coats on and it was really windy outside... so the picture explains how crazy we are I guess haha
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Okay, so we had a MIRACLE this week!!!! On Saturday, we were just getting out of a lesson and we saw that we had 2 missed calls from an Investigator, Eva, that we hadn't taught for a while. So, we called her back and she asked us if we could come over! We ended up going later that day; and, I will never forget this lesson that we had with her. She has been struggling with addictions to drugs since she was very young and she is about my age right now. As we were in this lesson with her, she just told us that she wants to leave all of that behind and change. She wants us to continue to teach her, because she knows that as she learned more about God and His son Jesus Christ that it will be easier for her to overcome what she is struggling with. Also, at the end of this lesson, we asked her if there was anything else that we could do for her and this was her response: "actually, yeah. I was wondering if I could be baptized?" OF COURSE!!! She told us she wants to be baptized as soon as possible. So, we are going to work together to prepare her to be baptized on February 11th!! During this whole lesson I was honestly just in awe with how prepared she is! She was just soaking in everything we were testifying of and teaching her about.
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We took this picture after the miracle lesson with Eva!
We were so happy and couldn't
wipe these smiles off of our faces.
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I know that as she continues to learn and gains a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ that she is going to have the strength to overcome her addictions. I love Eva so much! I know that Heavenly Father has a very specific plan for her and that He loves her and wants to help her. I feel so grateful to know Eva and to get to continue help her come closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Something that I love about this Gospel is the sense of purpose that it has provided my life with. I know that we are all Sons and Daughters of our Heavenly Father and that we lived with Him before we chose to come to this earth. We knew the chance we were taking leaving His presence; however, we also knew that we would have a Savior, Jesus Christ, who was going to make it possible for us to return to live with our Heavenly Father again. For me, sometimes it has been easy to overlook this simple truth: I really am a Daughter of God. Therefore, I have divine Worth and divine potential. I was reading in a talk, "In the Strength of the Lord," by David A. Bednar this week, and one simple line that he said really stuck out to me. He said: "Be Loyal to the Royal Within You!" I know that we all are sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father. I know that we all have a very specific purpose in this life and that we can all return to live with Him and His son again. I hope that none of your forget how important each and every one of you are in Heavenly Father's eyes!! He loves you so much! I also know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and that He WILL HELP YOU with anything and everything!!
I love being a missionary. I love this gospel soooooo much. And, I love all of you so much!! But more importantly, Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ, love you all SO MUCH MORE!!
Love,
Hermana Duvall
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Last pday! Hermana Warmbier, Hermana Davis, Me, Hermana Hughes. These cookies were seriously SOOO cool. Apparently they are famous here (and pretty expensive but so worth it!)
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Alex, Ana, y Diego! Ana is a member in our ward and Diego is her son! Alex is investigating the church. They actually live in the Spanish Elders area, but they invited us over to dinner. They are the funniest family ever and all have such strong testimonies of the gospel. Alex will be getting baptized soon!
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I don't think that I mentioned in my letters that the building we attend church at is right next to the temple!!! I pass it almost every day. I feel so blessed to be so close to the temple. It reminds me every day why I am out here. I know families are forever!
Did I mention that I LOVE THE SNOW!
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