January 30, 2017 White As Snow

Hola mi Familia y mis amigos!

 

If you look close to the corner of the picture
 it says St Paul. I love this area so much!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! This week has been a little different because they recently made changes to our daily schedule. It's nothing super huge, but we do have more time to be out teaching and I love it so much!! We have more time in the day to be out teaching and serving, yet the days seem to go by so much faster. It's been snowing here every couple of days here. I love how white it looks outside. It's so pretty!
   

Waiting at the bus stop so we took a selfie!

This week we had a lot of service opportunities! On Tuesday we went as a zone to this place called Feed my Starving Children. We got to help make mana meals for little kids who live in the Dominican Public. As a group we were able to make a lot of meals that would feed around 70 kids for a whole year! Also, on every Friday we volunteer at Salvation Army and what they call a Food Fair. People from all over the twin cities come to receive food every week. I love all of the service opportunities that we have as missionaries! It makes me so happy to just help other people who are just so humble already.

 

Feed my starving Children! This is my awesome zone after we finished making all of the mana meals. We love each other and love serving others haha and we are a little crazy. 

 

     We had a really awesome week of miracles and inspired lessons! On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Korean Sisters.

Sister Heath! We had a really good exchange
 and I got to hear her pray in "Karen'!
I feel like I could never learn a language like that haha 

(FYI : The Karen /kəˈrɛn/ or Karenic languages are tonal language
s spoken by some seven million Karen people.
They are of unclear affiliation within the Sino-Tibetanlanguages.
The Karen languages are written using the Burmese script.
The three main branches are Sgaw, Pwo, and Pa'o.)

Sister Heath came with me to our area. We had a lot of little lessons with less-active members and also some of our investigators. It was funny because our GPS stopped working and a lot of our addresses that we have for investigators were wrong (and I don't know this area super well). But, thankfully with a lot of prayer and following the spiritual we were able to find people to teach. I love Sister Heath so much!! She's awesome and taught me so much about what it means to really be a 100% dedicated to being a representative of Jesus Christ.
     We also had two really awesome lessons this week with some members and their families. The first one, Hermana Garcia asked us to come and have a Family Home Evening with her family and also these four girls who are foster kids (and aren't members). This FHE was probably one of my favorite lessons that I have had on the mission. The girls who Hermana Garcia is taking care of right now already have so much faith in God. They have a tough background, yet they told us that them pray together every night as sisters and give thanks for what they do have! We are super excited to continue to teach these girls and what them progress in their trust in God. Secondly, we were visiting a member, Elisa, on thursday and we got to meet her little boys!! Her boys aren't baptized. We had a really awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation. The boys were asking the most interesting questions like, "Did dinosaurs exist before Adam and Eve?" and other questions that we didn't really know how to answer. The oldest boy, Christopher, really loved the Plan of Salvation and how we can be with our families forever. We are also really excited to see if we can continue to teach her and  her family!
    We had a cool little miracle this week at a bus stop!! Last week, Hermana Warmbier and I were going to go knock some apartments. So, we parked across the street and as we were walking we noticed that there was a Hispanic women! We walked up to her and started talking to her, and she was just the nicest person ever. We were able to have a quick little lesson about Jesus Christ and what we do as missionaries, but her bus got there and she had to leave. It was so cute, because she started walking away and turned around and said "vamanos! van al bus?" She wanted to continue talking with us on the bus, but we didn't have bus passes so we weren't able to get on. Then right as she left, we realized that we didn't get her number or address so we could teach her some more! So this week, we went to the bus stop hoping to see her there. We waited for about 30 minutes and we were not sure if we should wait any longer. But, then we said a prayer and right as we opened our eyes she walked right in front of us!! We were able to get her number, and hopefully we will be able to teach her this week! I love the power of prayer!!!
     In John 14:26 it says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Jesus Christ can bring that peace into our lives. We need not be troubled or afraid, because Heavenly Father sent His Son so we could have this peace and comfort. Often times, we search for and rely on things of the world to bring peace, comfort, or happiness. But, the reality is that the only lasting happiness, lasting peace, lasting comfort is that which comes of God. I know that we are all children of our Heavenly Father and that He wants us all to be happy. I know that all of our sins can be made white as snow through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that when we use the Atonement of Jesus Christ we will be so much happier!!
    I love being a missionary and I love the happiness that this gospel can bring into the lives of those we are teaching. I love you all. But more importantly, Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ love you all so much more!! Have a wonderful and happy week!!
Love,
Hermana Duvall

 Zone Birthday Lunch

   ICICLES