November 13, 2017 When warm weather becomes 30 degrees

Just a cool wall in downtown Rochester 

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

   The winter really has arrived here in Minnesota and the beautiful fall leaves are all starting to die haha. It got down to 10 degrees plus windchill and now when I see 30 degrees I think, "yes, that's so warm!"  I don't know what has happened to this California girl but I'm starting to get used to the cold! This week was such a great week filled with lots of little miracles!!

    One little miracle for ya- We were out visiting people right before we had to go to a meeting last night and we met a sweet lady named Candi! She let us right in and it turns out that missionaries have visited her before. We taught her more about the Book of Mormon and resurrection! It was such a spiritual lesson. This was a breath of fresh air for us, because we seriously have been knocking sooo many doors and doings lots of finding!

  

After the Zone blitz we all came back
to the church for some hot cocoa :)

Sister Larsen and I got to do some service as we were
on exchanges and rake a whole bunch of leaves.
It was nice and warm (high 30s) and
we were happy to not have to wear big coats 

 This was a crazy busy week for us because we had two exchanges! Last Monday and Tuesday we were in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It was my last time being in Wisconsin and we had such a great time. I was with Sister Larsen! She is a sister that I've known for the last 6 months because she started her mission in Rochester. I love working with her because she's such a hard working missionary and a wonderful example of loving the work. We had a really cool miracles where we knocked on someone's door around 8pm and she let us right in! Turns out that her uncle and other family members are Mormons! We had a cool lesson with her about the Book of Mormon and it was amazing. The next day, Wednesday I went on an exchange with Sister Cobb!! We also so several miracles in their area and it was so fun to work with her. She's another great missionary!!! We ALSO did a Zone Blitz, which is where all of the missionaries in the Rochester Area worked in one area for a couple of hours. It was fun because we all got back together, after freezing outside for a couple of hours, and shared some wonderful experiences and miracles that we saw. Every once and I while it just amazes me how rare it is that a bunch of 18, 19, 20 yr olds love getting together to talk about God and how much they love serving others. I love being a missionary!!

    

Here is our dearest most favorite Connie!
We love her! 

We had a really awesome visit with one of our member's friend, Connie!! We were able to share a little about the Book of Mormon with her. It turns out that a friend gave her a Book of Mormon many years back. She said that she really would love to start reading it. It was so precious because she told us that she's pretty busy and that she could probably only read one chapter every day!! We laughed and told her that was super great. Connie just has a heart of gold and I love her so much. I love getting to know her and feel her spirit.  We are excited to continue working with her and to learn together.

Sister Vincent and Connie

   Something that I have been thinking about a lot this last week is what it truly means to change and become more like the Savior. As I was sitting in District Meeting an elder shared this quote that I loved. It is from the talk "Born of God" by Ezra Taft Benson, and it says:

"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature."

The La Crosse District! We had cupcake decorating contest.
The elders were a lot more into it than we expected haha 

My little snowman cupcake that I decorated

This really clicked as I was listening to him read it. Often times we ask God to take us out of certain situations because it's too hard, too stressful, too much work...etc however that isn't how we learn and grow. Our purpose in this life isn't for us to run away from all of the hard things, it is for us to learn how to rely on the Savior Jesus Christ. It is up to us us to permit that He changes us and supports us in those hard times. I know that as I have relied on Jesus Christ, I have felt Him buoy me up to become the person that I myself may not think I can be, but He knows. He sees us for the people we can become, not for the people we once were or we are now. He loves us and wants to help us. I am definitely the type of person that doesn't like to ask for help sometimes, but we NEED help from our Savior Jesus Christ if we really want to get the most out of this mortal existence, to become changed, and become more like Him. I LOVE MY SAVIOR. I am so incredibly grateful that I don't have to go through this life alone. Rely on Jesus Christ, because it's so much easier!!

I love all of you and I hope you have a great week! Don't forget, Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ love you all SOOOO MUCH!!

con amor,

Hermana Duvall

Sister Cobb!

Video of Hermana Duvall and Hermana Tietz