October 30, 2017 Lots of Singing and SNOW!

¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

I'm obviously super happy about the snow!

  This was another amazing great week to be a missionary! So it snowed for the first time this week here in Minnesota- YAY. I still am not sure how I feel about it haha. I know it is definitely very pretty outside with all the white tipped trees, but that also means it's getting colder and colder. Hermana Tietz and I had fun tracting in the snow. Of course, basically every personally told us "Stay warm!" "Get yourselves out of the snow!" We also say thanks, but at the same time we are obviously knocking on your door as it's snowing for a reason.

 tracting in the snow...yayyyy

I was covering my nose because
I looked like Rudolph the red nose reindeer 

  

 We had our first exchange for this transfer with the Rochester 5 Sisters- Sisters Luk and Woodward. I got to be sister Luk's companion in her area! Sister Luk and I have been companions like 5 times so it's always fun to be with her. We call each other our second companion because we are always together. We had a lot of fun lessons and experiences as we were together on an exchange. One of my favorite was meeting a sweet lady named Beverly. She used to be an organist for her church and she loves music so much. She doesn't play anymore because she's pretty old, but we were able to sing her a hymn and she loved it so much! She started tearing up as we sang her "Nearer, my God, to Thee" and she told us we had perfect dictation (that meant a lot because she also majored in vocal performance a long time ago. I always love singing to people and helping them feel the spirit that way!

Sister luk and I on exchanges 

     Honestly, nothing super exciting in the world of us teaching and knocking lots of doors! I wanted to share a funny story though. This week I was eating pistachios as a snack. Hermana Tietz and I were driving to an appointment. Then we all know that some pistachios taste amazing and some taste absolutely horrible. I made an ugly face and spit it out as quick as possibly. Hermana Tietz just laughed at me and said "There has to be opposition in all things Hermana!" Little did I know, that later that night we were going to be teaching a lesson about the fall of Adam and Eve and we talked about opposition in all things. I was able to share that funny personal experience and it added to the lesson. I'm grateful that god provides us with opportunities to learn and grow from so that we are able to help others as well- even when they're funny ones!
 

These birds are the pets of one of our members!
They just walk around her house and
are the funniest little things!

This weekend was Stake Conference and general authority of the 70 came to reorganize the stake! It was a packed weekend with lots of spiritual messages that I loved. Yesterday during Stake conference, we stood and sang "I Believe in Christ" as together! The last verse really touched me:
"I believe in Christ; he stands supreme!
From him I’ll gain my fondest dream;
And while I strive through grief and pain,
His voice is heard: “Ye shall obtain.”
I believe in Christ; so come what may,
With him I’ll stand in that great day
When on this earth he comes again
To rule among the sons of men."

Hermana Elías. We love her lots and her little birds. 

I don't know if I have the words to describe how I really feel about my Savior Jesus Christ. All I know is that I know I would not be able to make it through this life without him. He has given me the strength time and time again, even in pain or in sadness, to keep moving forward. He continues to comfort me and lift me up and reminds me that I am not alone in this journey called life. "So come what may"- I will never deny that Jesus is my Savior, no matter what. I cannot wait to see Him once again, face to face, and thank Him. What a marvelous day that will be! Until then, I know I will grow closer to Him by striving to become like Him and remembering that I cannot do it without His help. HE IS ALWAYS THERE and it's up to us if we are going to grab hold of his hand or not. I love being a missionary and being a representative of Him! He's the best person to represent!

The FAMOUS Flapdoodles 

Have a wonderful week, love you all! More importantly, Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ love you all so much more!
Con amor,
Hermana Duvall

Hermana Tietz and I went to stop by some investigators. We first knocked on their door
 and they weren't home. Hermana Tietz and I thought It would be fun to take pics on the
 railroad tracks across from their house. So we did, and when we were finished
they pulled up to their house.
Miracles happen and perfect timing!

October 23, 2017 The JOY is set before us

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!!!

 

me smiling because I'm so happy families are forever 

 I hope you all had a great week :) this week was super awesome filled with lots of little miracles like always!! The weather last week was seriously SO NICE, I think it was a joke, because it is now in the forecast that we are going to be getting snow! I am excited because the snow is beautiful, but scared because that means it's going to get real cold real fast. I thought that I was used to the cold because I survived one Minnesotan winter, but I feel that I am going to have to readjust haha. Anyways, Hermana Tietz and I are still super grateful that we are able to stay together one more transfer!

 Due to the amazing weather this week, we went chalking multiple times throughout the week. "chalking" is just when we draw something with chalk and talk with people around us, and hopefully teach something! We had a couple of really cool experiences this week as we were doing so. One of the days, we decided that we wanted to draw a temple and focus on how families can be together forever. As we were drawing, this super cute little dog came running up to us and wouldn't leave our side. The dog's owner came running over (because the dog wouldn't listen to her or go back to her) and she wanted to make sure her dog wasn't bugging us. She right away asked us what we were doing and why we were doing it! We were able to talk with her about temples and family history! She was super amazed and in awe and kept saying "wow, that's amazing." So it was a really cool experience to have her just walk up to us and ask us what we were doing. Also, I am pretty sure that animals can sense the spirit and her dog wanted to talk with us too lol.

   

Do you like the leaf in my hair?
Captured by the amazing hna Tietz

 So other than all of the chalking this week, we had some good lessons and we were able to talk to a lot of people. We were able to meet with our investigator Maryola this week! She was the one who moved and we ended up accidentally knocking on her door. Luckily she laughed and thought it was a sign from God that she needed to keep meeting with us! We've also been meeting with a super sweet lady named Jill! We started meeting with her a little while back and we had a really great lesson with her about how families can be together forever! The spirit was super strong and she wants to continue learning with us. We are teaching various people and it's been fun! Francisco is still doing super well!! We had a lesson with him and his nephews this week and we were able to teach his two nephews about Jesus Christ! It was honestly so amazing to see Francisco testifying and teaching his little nephews. I have realized that this is something that really has brought me so much joy throughout my mission. I love teaching people the simple truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so they are able to do the same :) it's the best and makes me SOO happy. Love being a missionary, like i've said a billion times.

I've been studying in the Topical Guide about Jesus Christ and I'm going through all of the scriptures that are about Him. Yesterday morning I came across this scripture that I absolutely love in the Bible. In Hebrews 12:2 it says, "Looking unto Jesus the ​​​author​ and ​​​finisher of​ ​our​ faith; who for the joy that was set before him ​​​endured​ the cross, despising the ​​​shame​, and is set down at the right hand of the ​​​throne​ of God." Now, I feel that I've always read this scripture focusing on the "author and finisher of our faith" part. Although I know that as we look unto Jesus we are able to have the faith we need to endure, the part that talks about joy really stuck out to me. I love that even through all of the mocking and suffering Jesus Christ went through, He focused on Joy. I'm sure He focused on the joy He would receive, but also the joy we all would received because of what He was doing. So, I also found this wonderful quote by President Russell M. Nelson from the October 2016 conference that I think really expounds upon this scripture: 

I know families can be together forever! 

"If we look to the world and follow its formulas for happiness, we will never know joy. The unrighteous may experience any number of emotions and sensations, but they will never experience joy! Joy is a gift for the faithful. It is the gift that comes from intentionally trying to live a righteous life, as taught by Jesus Christ.

He taught us how to have joy. When we choose Heavenly Father to be our God and when we can feel the Savior’s Atonement working in our lives, we will be filled with joy. Every time we nurture our spouse and guide our children, every time we forgive someone or ask for forgiveness, we can feel joy" ("Joy and Spiritual Survival").

I love that the stick figure is actually adjusting the sails 

May we choose to find Joy in Jesus Christ, to hold onto that Joy, because I know it is SO MUCH more worth it than trying to seek for fake joy from the world.

Love you all! More importantly, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you all so much more!

con amor,

Hermana Duvall

One of our amazing members here- Monica!
She's from Africa and has so much faith.

October 16, 2017 Rain or Shine

¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

 

 We had a Zone

pumpkin carving activity!

This is the temple!

  This was one great week! Good news is that I am going to be finishing my mission here in Rochester with Hermana Tietz :) we were super surprised because we didn't think we were going to stay together, but I am excited for her to "kill" me! I love this area and there's so much more to do, so I am so happy that i get to be here for another six weeks.

      We had a very interesting week as far as teaching lessons and such. At the beginning of the transfer we made a goal to knock 100 doors before the end of September. Once we met that goal we made another goal to knock another 100 doors by the end of a transfer. Last week we met that goal, and we set another goal to knock 50 more doors by the end of the transfer and we met it the next day. Needless to say, we have been knocking a lot of doors and looking for people who are willing to hear this wonderful message. Rain or shine- it's been super fun. We haven't seen too many things come out of it yet, but we know that the Lord has a Plan and we just need to continue to work hard and be diligent missionaries.

     So, as we have been doing a lot of finding because we don't have a huge teaching pool right now, we have had SO MANY crazy experiences. Something that we have been trying to do is following spiritual promptings right away. I love following spiritual promptings because they lead us to do the Lord's will. However, we get ourselves into really awkward situations. The other day we were driving through this random neighborhood back to our apartment to get some lunch. As we were driving I saw this random house and thought "go knock that house." So we stopped the car and knocked that specific house. The people who lived there weren't interested. We felt that there must've been some reason as to why we were told to stop. So we walked across the street and knocked on another house.  GUESS WHO IT ENDED UP BEING!! It ended up being some investigators who recently moved last week and we hadn't received their new address from them yet. We seriously felt super stalkerish to be honest because out of all the houses in Rochester, we knocked into the house that they had just moved it. Seriously, it was not a coincidence whatsoever. I am so in awe that happened now, even a couple of days after!!

all of the missionaries

(plus Steven Bly who just got back from

his mission in Peru on the very end)

who helped out with the

question and answer session! 

    We also had a really cool experience this morning.  A group of high school students from a religion class came to our church building to have a tour of it. At the end of the tour we had a "question and answer" time with them. It was a super cool experience to be able to stand up in front of a group of youth and answer some really insightful questions and not so insightful (a.k.a: can mormons drink milk?! YESS I LOVE MILK). That was a super funny question.

     One scripture that has been on my mind a lot is in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 2:9 it says, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." This scripture really helps me put things into perspective. Sometimes, we can get too focused on receiving immediate blessings. BUT that isn't how God always works. It's not that God doesn't want to bless us right away, it's because He knows that if we just wait a little longer something so much better is going to come our way!! I am so grateful that we have such a loving Heavenly Father that has a very perfect plan for each of us- SO much better than we could even imagine. I know that as we put our trust in Him that everything is going to work out!!

I love you all and I hope you have a good week!!! Don't forget that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you all SOOOO MUCH MORE!!!


con amor,

hermana duvall

We were trying to take a beautiful picture of the fall leaves
and you get a picture of me not looking at the camera. Yay

Agua de Jamaica IS HEAVENLY I LOVE IT SOOO MUCH

I was actually clicking my heels but you can't
see it because my skirt is too long
(missionary probs) 

La Familia Hermosillo.
They are one of my favorite families here in Rochester!
Their oldest boy, Jose just got the priesthood and he
bore a really powerful testimony during our lesson
yesterday about how he loves God.

October 9, 2017 Road Trips and Lots of Rain

Hola mi Familia y mis amigos! 

 

 This was another great week that just flew by soooo quickly! It's been raining almost every single day here this past week. It's definitely been a lot of fun and an adventure. This is the last week of the transfer, so we will find out next week if I'll be staying here in Rochester to finish my mission. I really hope so because I love it here SO much, but wherever the Lord wants me I'll go.
   

A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET IN WISCONSIN. 

 This was one of the busiest weeks ever; we weren't in our area for a two days straight. We did probably about 10 hours of driving all together. Road trips are fun, but not as fun when you're driving in the middle of nowhere..anyways, We had Mission Leadership Council (MLC) last Tuesday up in the cities and it was a great time like always. Right after MLC ended, we headed of to La Crosse, Wisconsin for an exchange with the sisters there- Sister Calchera and Sister Jasperson! I spent my time in La Crosse with Sister Calchera, who I LOVE WITH ALL MY HEART. She's one of my favorite sisters. We have gone on a couple of exchanges and we always have such a great time filled with learning and talking and laughing. It's the best. While we were together, we had a lesson with

The La Crosse, Wisconsin district.
It's always a fun time leaving MN
to spend some time with all of them

someone who has been having a lot of trials in her life recently. As we stood outside talking with her, even though I just met her I felt that Heavenly Father really knows and loves her so much. Sometimes it may feel that God isn't there when we are going through trials, but I know will all my heart that He is always there! And plus, we don't have to go through it alone! I love testifying of Jesus Christ and His love for all of us, because I really do know it!

President and Sister Barney and Francisco! 

We also had interviews with President Barney this last week! I always love interviews with the president. I am very grateful for him and his insight! It is always a breath of fresh air when we get to spend time with President and Sister Barney! Also, they were able to come to a lesson with us with Francisco! Hermana Tietz and I had to translate throughout the lesson, which made it a little difficult, but the spirit was so strong. I am grateful for their strong testimonies. FRANCISCO IS DOING SO GREAT! We worked on some of his family history this week and he found 6 more people in his family tree! He received the Priesthood yesterday and is going to be able to bless the sacrament now! And he received a calling! He's doing so great and we are trying to continue to help him progress and strengthen his faith. He honestly amazes me how willing he is to follow all of the commandments and follows God's will.

A couple of random funny things that happened this week:
1.)We stopped on the side of the road to type an address into our GPS. But, right as I was typing it in the GPS stopped working! So we sat there patiently waiting for it to start. As we were waiting, this sweet little old lady, named Pat, came out of her house holding two tupperwares- one with Halloween Oreos and one with lots of chocolate!  She offered us some and asked us to  explain how the whole trick or treat thing works because she was expecting the kids to come. She kept calling us "sweet little things" and then it stared pouring so she went inside. We don't know why she came out of her house and offered us candy, but it was the sweetest thing ever! Haha it was also hilarious and so random.

We're drenched and it was fun to say the least
(and then we were really cold)

2.)We went tracting in the rain multiple times this week and got soaked multiple times this week. Surprisingly, not many people felt bad for us and wouldn't let us in. But we met a few golden people that we are going to go back and teach more.

3.) Cats love me. I was at an appointment, just teaching, and their cats were like all over me. They think my hair is a toy too so that's fun.
4.) I got to translate in Testimony meeting again. Hermano Meneses always asks me to translate for him when he bares his testimony. hahah it's so fun but so hard at the same time! I just have to laugh about it because I know it's not perfect, but I grateful the Lord gives me the strength to go up in front of a bunch of people and do it!
  This week was filled with a bunch of randomness and it was great. Now for a spiritual thought! Something that I have been thinking a lot about this week is simply how amazing our Savior, Jesus Christ is! He literally went through it all- the best and the worst of it- so we don't have to do it all by ourselves. Sometimes, for some odd reason we think it's easier to do it all by ourself because we want to be independent or we don't want to be a burden..etc. This is something I've learned a lot recently- IT'S SO MUCH EASIER WITH THE HELP OF THE SAVIOR. There's a

The pics that Hermana Tietz
quickly took as we were in a
lesson haha so funny.
These cats wouldn't leave me alone. 

quote that explains this that Sister Jasperson shared in district meeting this last week:
“Well, my dear sisters, the gospel is the good news that can free us from guilt. We know that Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It’s our faith that he experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don’t think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don’t experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he knows what everything feels like!  He knows all that. He’s been there. He’s been lower than all that. He’s not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don’t need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He’s not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief."

One of my favorite office missionaries :) Sister Heilman!

She's learning some Spanish and she's doing great. We love her lots. 

I love the Savior so much! He's my best friend. Love you all lots. But more importantly, Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ love you all SO MUCH MORE.
have a great week!
Hermana Jennifer Duvall

 Nyakouth and us! We used to visit and teach her a while
back, and we just started teaching her again.
I love her faith and her sweet prayers

Sister Calchera and I with a little boy who I can't
remember his name,
and some cows in the background ! 

October 2, 2017 MIRACLES: after the trial of FAITH

¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

FALL IS COMING AND I LOVE THAT 

THE LEAVES ARE TURNING ORANGE

 Why do I feel like it was just Pday? Time is just flying by sooooo fast! This last weeek was a pretty good week! The leaves are starting to change colors and I'm pretty stoked about it. Part of me wishes the leaves could change colors without it getting really cool, but you win some and you loose some!   

 

Flapdoodles to finish the exchange
  and talk about what we learned! 

We had exchanges this week with the Rochester Sisters, Sister Woodward and Sister Luk! I had the chance to go with Sister Woodward to her area. While on the exchange, we taught someone about the Priesthood and why it's important. As we taught this lesson it made me feel ever so grateful to have the priesthood in my life. I am grateful for all the many blessings that I've received from the priesthood! One thing that I love about the priesthood is that the men who have it cannot use it to bless themselves, they can only use it to bless others.

   

Hermana Tietz's Grandma sent us little pumpkins.

 One thing that Hermana Tietz and I have been working on it listening and following the first promptings that we receive. This week we were driving around just stopping by some people. As we were driving on this one street that has a walking trail on it, I looked over and saw someone walking on the trail. Without thinking much, I told hermana Tietz that we need to stop and talk to that guy. So we ended up meeting Mohammad! We had a really awesome conversation about prayer and how prayer has helped us in our lives. He was really excited to hear that we have a living day prophet and we told him about General Conference! It was a cool little miracle that we saw as we listened to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Sometimes it can be a little scary to just walk up to random people, but I've found that as I completely put my trust in God that He is able to work through us and give us the words to say! Along with this experience, we have been meeting several new people and knocking lots of doors! Slowly but surely we are finding those who are willing and ready to listen to our message. I find strength knowing that there's at least one person who, God has prepared.

We are simply trying to be better at taking more
pictures so here's a car selfie...

    Francisco is still doing super good! We were able to have an Family Home Evening with a family in our Stake that speaks Spanish and it was so awesome! Francisco ended up bringing his cousin for the lesson. Francisco shared this really cool story with all of us. Last week, Francisco was sitting in the church and remembered that he needed to pay his tithing. As he sat there, he thought about all of the money that he has earned so he could calculate what he needed to pay for his tithing. After figuring out the amount, he reached into his pocket to see how much he had with him, and it was the SAME EXACT amount of money that he needed to pay his tithing. He bore his testimony as to how God always makes things possible for us as we are obedient! We also watched the Sunday Sessions with Francisco with some members in our ward. Francisco LOVED general conference and said that all of his questions were answered.

Fun trip to the zoo a couple of
weeks ago! Maverick, Hermana Duvall, Hermana
Davis, Hermana Tietz, and Hermana Shepard! 

I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE SO MUCH!!! For those of you who don't know, General Conference is basically this meeting where the Prophet, Apostles, and other leaders of our church speak to the whole world. I had several questions going into General Conference and almost all of them were answered. As I watched, I felt so much love from Heavenly Father because I realized once again that He really is so aware of me, my questions, my struggles, etc. I loved all of the talks that were given. But, one of my favorite talks was given by Donald L. Hallstrom about miracles! He shared the scripture in Ether 12:18 which says,"And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God." FAITH is REQUIRED for miracles to happen. There are so many miracles that we can hear of, especially of those who are healed without any explanation other than God; but, another miracle is Him simply giving us strength to endure. The question is where are faith is centered on:  immediately receiving relief or is it centered on the Will of the Lord? Do we have faith to not be healed, so that we can become the person that God wants us to become? After all, we only go through things that God KNOWS we can handled and KNOWS we will learn from and grow from. I know that as we faithfully submit to the will of the Lord, that we will be able to recognize more of the miracles that happen in our lives day to day. I have felt the Lord strengthening me, when I feel I am too weak to keep moving forward. I am forever grateful and forever debted to all of the help and love the Savior has provided me. I am grateful for Jesus Christ  and I am incredibly blessed to be a representative of Him!

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you! but, more importantly, God and Jesus Christ love you all SOOO MUCH MORE!

con amor,

Hermana Duvall

We were trying to copy the pumpkins faces...
so please excuse my ugly face ahaha