April 17, 2017 Hey, do you believe in Jesus Christ?

¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos! 

Some super yummy sugar cookies that Sister Reher
 and her granddaughter made for us :) 

Easter Sunday, Easter Dresses.

     Espero que hayan tenido una buena semana :) this week was such a great week! Happy (late) Easter. I had a very wonderful week leading up until Easter Sunday. I love Easter so much! I am so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that he atoned for us, died for us, and was resurrected for us, so that we all will be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father once again. This week we saw a lot of miracles and the Lord's hand just leading and guiding us wherever we needed to go. 
     

Sister King is one of my STLs!
She's so sweet and I loved going
on an exchange with her. 

 We went on Exchanges with our STLs this week and it was so much fun! I stayed here in Faribault and Sister King came to join me here. She is going home in just a couple of weeks, so it was cool to think that I was the very last exchange that she was going to be going on! During out exchange we saw a lot of little miracles. We decided to go walk around a trailer park and share the Easter Initiative video, "Prince of Peace" to everyone that we saw. We ended up sharing it a hand full of times and met some really wonderful people that we are planning on going back to teach more. Exchanges are always really fun because you get to learn so much from each other and you always see miracles.

The Espinol family
Notice the bunny ears behind Abiu's head.

Abiu is doing so good and he is continuing to learn more and more about the gospel. This week we taught him more about the Plan of Salvation and HE ASKED SOME OF THE BEST QUESTIONS THAT I HAVE EVER HEARD. Seriously, he continues to amaze me more and more every time we are there. As we were teaching him about the God head, he was asking a lot of questions. After he finally understood it all, he sat there and thought for a little bit. Then he just shouted out, "OH! So Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are like a TEAM! They all work together to help us." Oh yeah. I know that's true. I know that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are all three separate beings, yet they are one in purpose. They all work together for our good.

Sister King, Debra Clark, and I.
Debbie is one of the sweetest members
that we have! We love visiting her. 

  We had a mission wide hour of "finding" this last week and it was so cool! To start off this hour, all of the missionaries got on a conference call and started off with a prayer. During this hour, the goal was to have each companionship find one new investigator and share the "Prince of Peace" video twice. Hermana Davis and I had picked a random street with some apartments and townhouses and went to work! It was so wonderful being out there, knowing that every single missionary in our mission was doing that same thing at that same exact time. 

Ethel Black! Her son is a member,
and he sent a referral for us to go visit her.
She was so happy when we showed up.
She showed us all of her pictures of her when s
he was a dancer growing up.
We sang some hymns with her and she hummed along.
She calls us her girls. We love Ethel. 

   We ended up meeting this really awesome guy named Patrick. He was outside smoking meat and listening to some music, so we decided to just walk up to him. He was the nicest guy ever!! We spent a good amount of time talking about how God and Jesus Christ has helped him in his life. He used to be a drug dealer and has been in and out of jail. However, he has completely turned his life around all because of Jesus Christ. He loved the video and is planning on coming to church next week! After talking to him, we only had about 10 minutes left of our finding hour. We decided to run over to this apartment building, only to find out that we weren't allowed to enter unless we were let in by the person that we were planning on visiting. So, we quickly said a prayer that someone would walk out of the building that we could share the video with. Right as we say amen, this guy named Brian walked out of the apartment. He just walked passed us and didn't really say anything, but then the amazing Hermana Davis just asked him, "Hey, do you believe in Jesus Christ?" We ended up sharing the video with him and he thanked us multiple times for stopping him to share the video. We have an appointment to teach him some more this week!!! That one question totally changed Brian's whole day. It's a question that can change all of our lives as we sit and think if we actually believe in Christ. Are we willing to stop, think, and follow him? or just walk past his loving, welcoming arms? just a thought haha.

 Rosemary! She was a referral from some members,
the Fossums. She was very happy
we stopped by and shared the
Prince of Peace video with her.

   It is so nice that the weather has started to become a lot nicer! We have been parking our car and just walking around a lot more, and we have been seeing so many miracles because of it. All of these Minnesotans are coming out of hibernation and enjoying the beautiful weather. I am grateful for this wonderful weather and for Spring! It brings new life and so much joy.
   I actually gave a talk in church yesterday about our purpose in this life according to Jesus Christ's teachings. I am very grateful that I had this opportunity because I was able to learn and grow so much more as I studied and prepared for it throughout the week. One of my favorite quotes that I used in my talk was from "Songs Sung and Unsung" by Jeffery R. Holland, and he said:
"Now, this is not to say that everyone in this divine chorus can simply start shouting his or her own personal oratorio! Diversity is not cacophony, and choirs do require discipline--for our purpose today, Elder Hales, I would say discipleship--but once we have accepted divinely revealed lyrics and harmonious orchestration composed before the world was, then our Heavenly Father delights to have us sing in our own voice, not someone else’s. Believe in yourself, and believe in Him. Don’t demean your worth or denigrate your contribution. Above all, don’t abandon your role in the chorus. Why? Because you are unique; you are irreplaceable. The loss of even one voice diminishes every other singer in this great mortal choir of ours, including the loss of those who feel they are on the margins of society or the margins of the Church" (April 2017 General Conference). 
I know that we all are of great importance, because we are all sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father!!! He sent all of us here for a very specific reason. Jesus Christ came into this world to do the Father's will and He never strayed from it. I like to think that I talked with Heavenly Father right before I came to this earth, and He told me what my purpose in this life would be. I am grateful for Jesus Christ and I can continually repent and be better, and becoming closer and closer to Him and Heavenly Father. I know that this church is true! I know Jesus Christ is the head of this church, and that He is always there to help us!!!

Love you all! But more importantly, Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, love you all SOOO MUCH MORE!! Have a wonderful week.

con amor, 
Hermana Duvall

Look I made a new friend :) !!!

Video of Hermana Davis and I listening to a message that Lori Stanley left on our phone.  She left us the sweetest message ever. We had heart attacked their garage the night before because Fred wasn't feeling well. As we walked us to their house, we realized he was sitting in the front room. So that's why we heart attacked their garage instead of their front door.