Monday, July 31, 2017

July 31, 2017 Reunited with Hermana Anderson!

¡Hola mi Familia y mis amigos!

   

Hno José Alberto! He joined the church a
couple of months ago and has been on fire! 

 This week has been one huge week with lots of changes. Hermana Hughes went home and that was sad to see her go, but happy because she's now with her family. I love her lots. On Tuesday, before transfers on Wednesday, I spent the day with Sister Luk. We were able to visit people in both of our areas and it was super fun. Then, on Wednesday a Hermana Anderson got here to Rochester! She was here before, so she already knows a lot about the area and has been helping me out. We keep saying that it feels like a dream that we are actually together again. It's cool though because we actually know how to communicate in Spanish now. It's been fun to catch each other up on what has happened to us within the last year.

   

Just some pictures that we
took at the wedding

We've had a really great week though! Hermana Anderson taught someone up in North Minneapolis who just got married this last Saturday! It's cool because I was serving in North Minneapolis when Veronica and her boyfriend at the time first decided to go to church. He wasn't going to church that often, but one day they just decided to go (because he's a member but hadn't gone in a long time!). Now, they are married and Veronica is going to be baptized in two weeks!

Jared! He was baptized in Nicaragua a
couple of  weeks ago. He is so happy
to finally be baptized and I was so
happy to hear that news

ALSO, I found out this week that a boy I taught while I was serving in North Minne, got baptized a couple of weeks ago in Nicaragua. He had been waiting for so long to be baptized because he was waiting for his mom to come to America. But he ended up going back to live with his mom in Nicaragua and he was BAPTIZED! So happy.

 

Hermana Anderson's first time meeting Jesus¡ 













Jesus is doing so good. He has been going strong the last two weeks not smoking. He keeps telling us "I feel clean." He has recognized the blessings that come from following the Word of Wisdom and he's a lot happier. We had the cool opportunity to kneel down in prayer with him and ask again if August 20th is the right date for Jesus to be baptized. After he said the prayer, we all waited a minute to ask him how he felt and he said "I feel funny" hahah. But he has decided that August  20th is the date for him! I am so happy for Jesus and for the progress that I have seen as we have taught him. I am excited to continue to help him prepare this very important day!

The Frandsen's with Rigo and his family

       We are also going to start teaching someone named Rigo. He is the husband of a member in our ward and they have the cutest little family. He finally was able to change his work schedule so he can come to church on Sunday. We are so excited that the will be able to all come to church together as a family. We are going to start teaching him again and help him prepare to be baptized.

We all ate dinner at the Frandsens house together.
Jesus was able to come and Rigo
and his family were all there.
It was a party and super treat to all be together.

    I was reading in a talk this morning that said, "President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, “'God sent you here to prepare for a future greater than anything you can imagine.' That future, a day at a time, comes alive when you do more than just exist; it comes alive when you live your life to fill the measure of your creation. This invites the Lord into your life, and you begin to let His will become yours."

I know that by letting the Savior into our lives, changes us to become better people-the people that God KNOWS we can become with the help of our savior. I have seen this time and time again on my mission. The gospel of Jesus Christ changes people. But it will only change us if we have that desire and if we let it. I know that sometimes it is hard to see past our mortal life and what is happening right now, but I know that God has a very perfect plan for us. I know that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we would know the way back to Him and know how to be with our families forever!!!

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. More importantly, Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, love you all SO MUCH MORE!

con amor,

Hermana Duvall



Monday, July 24, 2017

July 24, 2017 "you just gotta accept Jesus Christ"

July 24, 2017
Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
 
   

love hermana highest! 

  This was a great week filled with really hot/humid weather and really curly, frizzy hair. Hermana Hughes is going home this week. It is very bittersweet but I will see her at BYU. I will be staying here in Rochester for this next transfer. I am really happy because I am going to be companions with Hermana Anderson!!! She was my companion in the MTC and we haven't been able to serve as companions since then. It's going to be fun, because we both actually know spanish now haha. I am super excited about that!



we found food trucks in Downtown Rochester and
only had to pay 3 bucks for a whole meal. Boom baby

     

Jesus look at the light in his eyes

 Jesus is doing SOO GREAT!! He was able to come to church and he hasn't smoked for a whole week. He says that whenever it is gets hard for him, he says a prayer for God to help him to have the strength to not fall into temptation. The difference that I see in Jesus and his testimony of the Savior now, is so drastically huge from when we first started meeting with him. His understanding of the scriptures has increased and the light in his eyes has become so much brighter. He is progressing, is super happy, and is excited to be going to the YSA ward/activites. At the end of the last lesson that we had with him, we were just talking about how much he has progressed. His response to us was "You just gotta accept Jesus Christ, keep the commandments, be humble...that's it." hahaha. Best response ever! I know that Jesus not only has accepted Jesus Christ, but he is making some of the greatest decisions to become closer to Him and more like Him.

     

Carl!

We are teaching various people who are all progressing at there own rates. One of them being Karl. He is really happy that we have helped him understand more about repentance and has been applying daily repentance more into his life. He really has a desire to become closer to the Savior, and I know that he is on the correct path that is going to help him to that.
 
       This week I have come to really recognize, once again, how much I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. One of my favorite scriptures in Mosiah 24:14-15 kept coming to my mind this last week. It says:
 "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.
 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."

Alexa! Super great and super fun.
She made us great tacos the other night. 

I know that through Jesus Christ we can receive LIGHT in our life. I know that He brings light into the lives of those who turn to Him. I know that because he sacrificed His life for us, our burdens can be made light!

I love you all and I hope you have a great week! God and Jesus Christ love you too!

con amor,
Hermana Duvall






Mona. We love coloring with her
and all of her great stories!


Chinese Buffet with the Zone!

Postzone soccer game







Monday, July 17, 2017

July 17, 2017 "Why do round peaches come in square boxes?"

July 17, 2017
¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
 

When you're in Rochester, of course you have to make an
appearance at Mayo Clinic. Hermana Hughes grabbed us these
super fashionable masks on our way out.

   I hope you all had such a great week! It's still real hot and humid over here in Minnesota and miracles are still happening. Hermana Hughes will be going home next week, so we are enjoying every last minute that we have together! I'll miss that girl lots.
 




Shadow selfie :)















Los Lopez went to Greece and they brought us
back these awesome key chains



















 "We were kind of matching, so of course we had to take a picture."
Hermana Duvall and Hermana Hughes



Sister Luk!! We had such a fun time together on our exchange.
She taught me how to say a few things in cantonese but sadly
 I cannot remember and all of the voice fluctuations are too hard haha.
I'll stick with Spanish.

We had exchanges this week with Sister Luk and Sister Winters! Sister Luk came with me to our area and it was so fun. Sister Luk is from Hong Kong and is learning English. I look up to her so much because even though she doesn't know how to say things perfectly, she is never scared to speak. Teaching with her, I learned that the spirit is really who teaches and we are just instruments. It was a good lesson for me to learn again haha. I really need that reminder.
       This week we had so many lessons cancel on us hahah but of course it ended up being for a reason. We ended up finding a bunch of new investigators to teach. We were able to teach people in the most random places such as the Library. I love seeing all of the little miracles that god puts in our path so that His will ends up happening perfectly.

Los Hermosillo!!!! Love them tons

       I'm not sure if I have mentioned Karl in previous letters, but we have been teaching him for a while! He met with missionaries at the beginning of this year and then stopped. But the very first day I got tot Rochester we got a call from Karl and he wanted to start meeting with us again. This week we an awesome lesson with him about repentance. At the end he realized that he hasn't been trying his best to include repentance in his prayers. He also came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it!
      Jesus!!! SO HE'S DOING SO GREAT!!!! We met with him two times last week. At the end of the first lesson we had with him this week, he said a prayer and in it he promised that he wouldn't smoke anymore. Then on Saturday he told us that he hadn't smoked for two whole
days!!! We had a super great lesson with him where we read the scriptures and each thought of a question. At the end, Jesus told us his question "why do round peaches come in square boxes?" Hahaha. He was just joking and had a serious question about Christ though. He also was able to go to church but he went to the YSA branch with a member that came to a lesson with us! We may end up having to pass Jesus off to the Elders over YSA, but we are going to figure that out this week. It's been amazing to teach Jesus and see his love for the savior just grow stronger and stronger. He really is changing is life to be closer to the Savior. It's so awesome!
    I was studying and I found this amazing quote by President Gordon B. Hinckley about happiness. It says,     "Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause. Lend your efforts to helping people. Cultivate a spirit of forgiveness in your heart against any who might have offended you. Look to the Lord and live and work to lift and serve His sons and daughters. You will come to know a happiness that you have never known before if you will do that. I do not care how old you are, how young you are, whatever. You can lift people and help them. Heaven knows there are so very, very, very many people in this world who need help. Oh, so very, very many. Let’s get the cankering, selfish attitude out of our lives, my brothers and sisters, and stand a little taller and reach a little higher in the service of others. … Stand taller, stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, hold up the arms of those that hang down. Live the gospel of Jesus Christ. Forget yourself."
I know that real happiness comes when we are living the gospel of Jesus Christ and really following His example. We can do so in soooo many ways. I've seen this time and time again, when I forget about myself and do the Lord's work, I am just so much happier. I love this gospel
and I know it brings happiness!

Have a great happy week!! God and Jesus Christ love you all so much. I do too!
Con MUCHO amor,
Hermana Duvall
Minnesota Minneapolis Mission

We thought it would be fun to take a video of us saying
Doctrine & Covenants 4 in Spanish and Cantonese.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

July 10, 2017 humidity and watermelon

¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
 

Me standing in front of this super
cool little pond at the Plummer house

     I hope you all had a great week. This week, there was SO MUCH HUMIDITY. My curly hair really isn't appreciating it haha. I don't know if I would be able to remember how dry heat feels like anymore. It's been pretty hot and humid here and I always just feel super sticky and wet. It's worth it though because being a missionary is the beeest.
      We had SO MANY MEETINGS last week. Like every single day we had a meeting so we were really busy. On Friday we had our first interviews with President Barney! I already love President and Sister Barney so much. I am grateful for the love that they have already shown me, even though they've only been here for a couple of weeks. I look up to their examples of sacrifice and putting the things of God first. When we do that, we receive so many more blessings. More blessing than we could even imagine.

we finally got to take a picture with Jesus! 

     









JESUS! He has made a goal to stop smoking by August 5th and he's been smoking less and less everyday. We were able to teach him about the Plan of Salvation this week and about temples. He loves the idea of why we have temples, to do work for those who have passed away. At one point in the lesson, he realized that he needs to be
baptized before he can do the work for his friend who passed away. He kept mentioning baptism throughout the whole lesson, so we set a date for him to be baptized on August 20th!! He's really happy and excited. We are going to continue to work with him to help him prepare!
 

Hermana Hughes is the beeeest.

  Overall, this was a really great week filled with miracles! We have been praying that we would be able to be lead to those people who are looking for the gospel in their lives. We had a really cool experience with this guy named Mike! He was taking out the trash when we were walking on the street. We had a short 20 second conversation with him, that went along the lines of "hi" and he was like "hi, I  know you're making your rounds. My apartment is right there, so when you're done come on over!" We knocked a couple of doors before we went over to his apartment haha. So we went to this apartment and at first we were super confused because a lady answered the door and invited us in before even asking us our names. But then Mike was sitting at the kitchen table cutting watermelon for us!! We were able to meet his family and share a message about Jesus Christ and finding peace through Him. They are going through a lot of difficult things in their lives right now, so it was a perfect message. They shared with us that they have been looking for a church and want to come!! MIRACLE!!
    A scripture that has brought me a lot of comfort and peace this week is  3 Nephi 13:32-34, and it says:
 " For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. "
I know that this is so true!! Heavenly Father knows us all perfectly and He has a perfect plan for all of us. I know that he knows what is best, and it is up to us to decided whether or not we are going to follow His son, Jesus Christ. I know that as we first seek the things of God and make Him a priority, that all things are added unto it. I know that FAITH is so important. I read recently that faith is acting and is also in accordance with our obedience. I know that as long as we are following God's commandments that we are happy and we do not need to have fear or need to worry.

    I hope that you all have a wonderful week. I love you all! But more importantly, Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, love you all so much more!!

con amor,
Hermana Duvall

The Plummer House! It is a house of someone who donated a building to MAYO a really long time ago.
 So this is a super huge crazy house and we enjoyed taking a self guided tour.


 the famous flap doodles ice cream.
 It's just the average ice cream that is
super overpriced yet so many people come to eat it hahah

personal sized pizzas 🍕


 another selfie!



Tuesday, July 4, 2017

July 4, 2017 Happy 4th of July!!



¡Hola mi Familia y mis amigos!
    Happy 4th of July! My Pday got switched to today so that we would be able to participate in some of the 4th of July festivities. I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July. I am proud to be in the country and so very grateful for the religious freedom that we have here.
MLC and the awesome members of the Spanish ward in
Minneapolis! It was fun to reconnect with the members I
served around when I was here in Minneapolis
    This was a really great week for me. Super busy with lots of meetings, but really amazing with little miracles all around. We got to meet our new mission President and his wife, President and Sister Barney, on Saturday. The second that President Barney started speaking to us, I felt the spirit testified to me that he really has been called of god to lead this mission. We also had MLC (missionary Leadership council) yesterday with him and being there made me so excited to have him as our new mission President. I learned so much yesterday about MLC, but other thing that I loved the most was a training that the Area of the 70, elder Stacey, gave. He talked about the importance of the spirit in the conversion process. God doesn't want us to trust a random man, he wants us to ask him and through the spirit He will let us know the truth of all things.
      Jesus is doing pretty good. It looks like it is going to take a little longer for him to be able to be baptized. He struggles with the word of wisdom, but he really has a desire to quite and follow God's commandments. We had a really great lesson with him about the Word of Wisdom this week. He is going to pray about a date that he feels like he can stop stopping by. Jesus has a lot of faith in God and really wants to do what is right. I know that as he continues praying and asking God for guidance, he will be lead in the right direction.
      We had a really amazing lesson with an investigator names Debora and her two daughters, Mia and Camilla. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation. It was amazing to hear the questions that the two little girls had. Teaching children reminds me time and time again how simple the gospel is.
Sister Calchera and I on exchanges.
      We got to go on an exchange with the Lacrosse Sisters. They needed up coming to our area the same day that we met our mission President to save miles. I was with Sister Calchera, who is one of my favorite people ever.  At the end of the exchange I realized that we didn't have much "success" in teaching a lot of lessons to a bunch of people. We made several good contacts with people and found a really cool referral for the English missionaries.  Even though a lot of our plans fell through, at the end of the day I felt so happy and accomplished, knowing that I gave my all. I've realized that one of the most important things is being happy, working hard, and showing God that I am here to serve Him. I am grateful for this exchange that taught me that success isn't based on number of lessons taught, but it is based off of the diligence we give as we serve the Lord. Being happy and serving those around me has helped me come closer to the savior.

     In the October 2001 General Conference, President Thomas S. Monson said :
“Let us ask ourselves the questions: ‘Have I done any good in the world today? Have I helped anyone in need?’ [Hymns, no. 223]. What a formula for happiness! What a prescription for contentment, for inner peace--to have inspired gratitude in another human being.
Our opportunities to give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable. There are hearts to gladden. There are kind words to say. There are gifts to be given. There are deeds to be done. There are souls to be saved”
I love this quote from the Prophet! I know that it's true. I know that we can all find pure happiness as we strive to serve others and serve god through our actions, thoughts, and desires. I am so grateful for all of you. I hope you all have a wonderful week.
Love you! But more importantly, Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, love you all so much!
Con amor,

Hermana Duvall
Sister Tainia Rhiger made us some homemade sushi.
Best. Gift. Ever.
Minnesota Minneapolis Mission
Hermana Hughes!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE SUSHI ITS THE BEST

PANNEKOEKEN. Last Pday we tried this delicious
food and got a mini medical tour of mayo.
We went chalking and met some great people as we did it! I love helping people remember that they are sons and daughters of god!


Chris Bacon!!!! This woman right here is such an inspiration.
She is my Aunt Vickies friend from Utah and we got to visit her
as shes receiving radiation treatment at Mayo. Sister Bacon has
so much faith and love for god
Mona!!! We visit her every week eat some cookies with her and
sometimes color
The fredericks Family!!! 5 boys and 1 girl reminds me of my crazy family
Hermana Zempoaltecatl from the Minneapolis Spanish ward!! Love her!