MIRACLES! MIRACLES EVERYWHERE! :D (Week 17)

Hello everyone!!!


So this week was great! I loved Zone Conference this week!  It was so helpful, and I learned so much.  I especially loved Pres. Orgill's training, and I feel like it has been very helpful for me personally this past week.  I am trying to apply all of these things that I have learned into my everyday work, and it has been wonderful. :)  I loved President Lutz' training, about avoiding distractions.  There are a lot of times where I feel like I am being distracted, such as when we are in stores and a song I know is playing, or when my thoughts wander to my family and friends, and at those moments, I pray to have the Spirit of discernment with me and that those worldly thoughts go away.  And most of the time they do. :)  I always try to have a prayer in my heart to be able to hear with my Spiritual ears, and to see with my Spiritual eyes, and I have witnessed marvelous things. 


This week has been wonderful, mainly because.... WE HAVE 4 NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!! :D  Yay!  We picked up 4 incredible investigators, who are GOLDEN!!!!  The first one we picked up is Ch.., whom was a referral from Pa..., a member in our ward. We met with him and his sister, whom we were originally trying to pick up as well, and Pa..., Mi..., and An... were there for the lesson! (All whom are members!)  It was kind of weird at first, because there were a lot of people at there house, so we waited outside and just talked to the members until they were done.  Unfortunately, Pa...'s sister in-law, had lost her baby due to a miscarriage, and the reason why there were so many people there, was because they were doing a little prayer ritual for the baby.  It was very sad, and we have been praying for the family. When Ch... and Ja... came out (the referrals).  We began by first talking to them, and getting to know them better.  I knew right away that Ch... was super interested, and his sister was NOT.  She would randomly leave during the lesson, and she really wasn't paying attention.  But Ch... was asking questions left and right and he just was so interested, and I know he wants to learn more.  But sadly, before we got to the First Vision, his mom and sister came and started bashing and saying, "Where is it in the bible?  If it doesn't say it in the Bible, it's not true!"  And I actually know a scripture in the bible that does prophesy of Joseph Smith, but we didn't want to make it worse.  For a good 10 minutes we just sat there while the members and the mom and sister argued about everything.  The mom was trying to pull her son away, and we said, "Wait, can we end with a prayer and with our testimonies?"  And Hna. Roos bore her testimony of all the things Joseph Smith witnessed and done and of prayer, and it was so powerful.  We ended with a prayer, and they left.  But we got only half of their address, and they were suppose to meet with us again this past Wednesday, but they never came.  We have no way of finding them, and we are going to keep trying, but it is just so frustrating when things like this happen! :P


This week Em... got really sick and had to go to the Emergency Room!  We were really scared!  She had gone to the doctor and he told her that she needed to go to the ER right away, because they thought she had a Ovarian Cancer.  She called us and we went straight to the hospital and stayed with her for almost 6 hours since her husband was at work and her kids were at home.  Elder Ortiz and Elder Delcamp came and gave her a blessing, and I think it helped a lot.  She had an MRI, a CAT Scan and a culture done and they found nothing wrong, just some severe digestive problems.  She is taking some medicine, but she is still in a lot of pain, so please keep her in your prayers!


The other miracle was when we visited Ar...!  She is one of the other investigators we picked up this week!  We contacted her about 3 or 4 weeks ago on the street by her house, and she seemed really interested!  We called her and she was open with meeting us, and we scheduled to meet her on Friday.  We met her outside of her house and started talking with her and we started the lesson, and then these 2 kids walked up to us, and Ariana said, "I invited my friends to come, I hope that is okay?" .......OH COURSE IT'S OKAY! :D We went back a little and briefly taught them what we already went through, and continued with the lesson.  As we read the First Vision together, the Spirit was soooooo strong.  It was amazing! :)  We invited them to pray to know if what we had taught them was true, and invited them to wait after they prayed to just sit there and to let the Spirit testify.  After they sat for a while, they all opened their eyes, and they were just glowing! :)  We asked Ar... how she felt and she said, "I feel like someone gave me a huge warm hug!"  And I was thinking, "YES!  HEAVENLY FATHER GAVE YOU THAT HUG!" :) It was so wonderful.  The other two, Ir... and Er..., said they felt the same thing, and it was just so awesome! :)  We are visiting them this Friday, and we are hoping that we can invite them to church this Sunday!  We met Ar...'s mom, and she isn't all for this, but she said that if Ar... wants to visit with us, she can, but I know that when we invite her to be baptized, it's going to cause some probs.... SO PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM!!! :D


Love you guys mucho!
Love,
Hna. Rachel Duncan

I love it here! :) (Week 16)

Hey guys!!! How is it going? :)

This week has been full of tender mercies.  We didn't get to visit Ya... this week, and that was our fault, because we had scheduled to have an interview with the mission president, but it is okay, we are going to visit her today!  She has been asking us a lot of questions about what happened to Christ when he died, and so we are going to watch "Having Faith in Jesus Christ" with her tonight!  We are very excited! :)  Yesterday at church there was a member who brought a friend with her, and we started talking with her, and she wants to meet with us today! We are super excited!  She is much older, but super nice!  Her name is Ma...! :)  

Not even 10 minutes ago, we received a call from a member, Pa..., (He is awesome!)  and he wanted to let us know that there are TWO people who will be joining us today for our lesson with him! :)  They want to take the lessons!  We don't even know them!! WE ARE GOING TO PICK UP THREE INVESTIGATORS TODAY!!! I am so excited!!!! :)

I want to personally thank eveyone for the prayers and for the letters that I have recieved the past week.  I am so grateful for you, and for the continuous support that I have recieved.  I love you all so much, and you are all so amazing.  I love being a missionary.  And I am so grateful for everything that I have, and especially for my trials.  I know that the Atonement is not only for repentance, but God can and WILL take our pains and sorrows away if we allow Him to.  You are all the reason why I am still out here, and I thank you so very much for your love.  Thank you!

Oh!  Happy Valentines!  I hope you felt my love! ^_^  It was a great day! :)

I am sorry this is such a short email this week, but not much really happened!  I had 3 exchanges this week, and two of them were not in my area!  I like exchanges, but they are so hard! hahaha :)  Love you guys!

Adios!

Hna. Rachel Duncan

Spanish of the Week:

Feliz Dia de Amor! (Fell-ease-dee-uh-day-uh-more)

Happy Valentines Day! :)

WE BOUGHT A BIRD?.... (Week 15)

HOLA!!! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!! (This week...)

This week has been a good one!  We picked up a new investigator!  Her name is Ar..., and she was attending our English Classes, and the North Elders asked if she wanted to have the lessons, and she said yes!  They couldn't teach her because her husband was never home, so they passed her off to us!  We had one lesson with her, and it was great!  I can tell it will be slow, but that is totally okay!  As long as we see progress! :)  

Ya... has progressed sooooooo much this week!  It seems like a complete 180! :)  We got to see her 4 times this week!  That has never happened! :)  We taught her 2 lessons this week, we had a different lesson than usual, and shared with her a few videos about being a daughter of God, and we committed her to pray to know if God loved her.  She left like He does, and that made her really happy! :)  We taught her the Gospel, and the lesson went soooo well! :)  Teaching her about Faith was really easy to accept and she was so surprised to know that her sins could be washed completely away through Baptism and recieving the Holy Ghost.  But.... she said she would "think" about baptism until she is 15... But we have no doubt it will be sooner, she is so ready! :)  She even went to Na... baptism!  Which was a total surprise!  Not even his family knew about it until the day of!  All of the missionaries knew for the past 2 weeks, but he wanted to surprise his mom and sister (who are members). :)  It was awesome! 

So.... Funny story!  We bought a bird!  Yay! :) haha :)  So on Saturday we were having Correlation with our Ward mission leader at his house.  We had just finished and he was showing us his electric guitar and he looked out his window, and said, "Why are the birds out?!"  (They have 3 parakeets, one white, yellow, and blue, who belong to the three kids there.)  We hurried outside and grabbed the white and yellow one, but could not find the blue one anywhere!  We assumed it flew away, but poor little Sa..., his niece, was in tears!  So we quickly ran to the pet store and all 6 of us missionaries bought her a bird!  It was fun! :)  

Hope you guys have a great week!  Love you all!

Con Amor,

Hna. Rachel Duncan

My Companion Doesn't Know English Anymore... ( Week 14/3 Month Mark)

Hola!

How are you all doing?  I hope all is well for you!  This week has been good!  We have received A LOT of referrals this week!  We received 3 referrals!  That is a lot more than usual!  We were able to contact 2, and we are hoping to contact the other one today!  One of them is not interested, but that is okay, we will continue to pray for her, and hope that one day she will be open to our message.  She has a son who is a member and who is very active in the church.  So hopefully by his example, she will be more open to us! :)

Spanish is going great this week!  I have been trying to speak more and more every day!  And Hna. Roos has been such wonderful help!  I am finally caught up with 12 week and so I feel a whole lot better!  I really enjoy studying, it truly makes a huge difference to your day!  I have been studying the Old Testament, and I learn something new everyday from it!  I am able to understand it more clearly, and it is much easier to apply into my life. :)  I am almost done reading in the Book of Mormon (personally) and I am currently in 3 Nephi! Currently I am reading the Book of Mormon in 3 different settings!  Personally, as a companionship, and in Spanish.  I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish by the way!  TOOK FOREVER!!!  But I feel like my Spanish is took a huge jump because of it!  What the Prophets say is true!  If you read it in the language you are to speak, you will be able to speak and understand it!  I love this book!  I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true!  I am so grateful to have the knowledge of it's truthfulness and that I can be a stronger missionary because of it! :)

We got to FINALLY see Y..n this week!  FINALLY!  We have a lesson planned with her today, and we are really hoping it will actually happen!  But we are really hoping with these few referrals, that we will pick up 2 investigators!  Oh!  And we are may even have 3!  A lady that comes to English class had a lesson scheduled with the North Elders, but her husband will not be home, so they are sending us!  We are sooooo excited!  She is super nice, and I feel like we will be picking her up as an investigator today!  Yay!

We didn't get to see a lot of less-actives this week, but we saw A LOT of actives!  It was awesome!  A lot of people who are usually less-active, have been "active", and so we are really excited about that.  I truly see the tender mercies of working with less-actives!  I see a huge difference in their lives, and they are huge examples to their families! :)  So happy!  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!! :)

So.. Saturday night we were visiting J..t and her family, (a member that is super duper awesome!  Her and her husband are preparing for the Temple!!!!!) and we were eating Tenga, (SO GOOOOOOOOD!)  And J..t's step-dad walked into the kitchen and was grabbing a few beers (He doesn't like us!  Everytime we see him he is either wasted or super angry.)  And he stopped to talk to J..t and then he turns to my companion and IN ENGLISH (broken English) says, "Do you want a beer?"  And what does my companion say? "SI!" *FACEPALM* He hands her the beer and J..t and I look at each other with eyes the size of plates and were like, "HERMANA! NO!  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"  Hna. Roos realized her mistake and she was like, "No!  Sorry!  I heard you wrong!  I thought he said 'Esta Bien?'!"  He left and J..t followed him into his room and chewed him out, because he obviously knew that we don't drink, he was just trying to mess with us.  But it was funny! :)  Silly Compenera!!! ;)

I hit 3 months last Thursday!!!! THAT IS SO WEIRD!  I feel like I have only been gone for a month!  NOT 3!!!!  Time is flying by!!! Wow! :P  Sister Smart, one of our roommates, her birthday is on February 4th, so we are going to celebrate her birthday and surprise her!  Also!  My Great-grandpa is turning 102 that day!  Happy Birthday Grandpa Clarence!  YOU ARE SO YOUNG!  You don't look a day over 70! ;)  I love you so much Grandpa, and I wish I could be there to celebrate it with you!  I love you! :)

Not much else is really going on!  Just staying busy and working hard as usual!  If you would please keep Y..n in your prayers, that would be great!  All of us missionaries are working with the Bishop and the Counselors to put together a Less-Active/Recent Convert/Whoever wants to come Temple Trip!  We are planning on doing it March 13!  We are super excited! :)  We hope that a lot of people will come! :)

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful day!  I love you all so much, and you are all in my prayers!  Thank you for the support, and for all the kind words!  Love you guys!

Adios!

Hna. Rachel Duncan