Monday, November 30, 2015

That awkward Moment when you delete your letter to everyone... Oops. (Week 54/Month 13)

Whelp.  I unfortunately erased my email that I was going to send to all of you... dang it! :P

I'm sorry guys! :(  I failed you! haha I would re-write it but I have to go! :(  But know all is well and I had a fabulous Thanksgiving!  I will make up for it next week! Promise! :P

Oh.. I have five months left. :P EW.

I'll make it up with pictures, how about that?

Love you all! :)




Monday, November 23, 2015

I AM ON FIRE!!!!!! :D (Week 53?)

Hola todos!!!

This week was awesome!  So many great things happened! :) 

Sister Jensen and I are ON FIRE!  We received a training in our ZTM this past week, and it really pumped us up to do more and to work really hard.  It was about Being ON FIRE!!!  it was awesome! :)
Right after our training meeting we had the new Christmas Initiative training, and that just made it 10X better!  I am soooo excited for all of you to watch the new video!  We got to watch it and it literally gave me chills and I felt the Spirit so strongly!  It was AMAZING!!!  Super stoked to work!  After the training we talked to our WML and got to work right away.  We are super excited to share the video with others!  We are going to share the video as part of third hour this Sunday and we are going to invite the members to get involved.  We also want to invite members to come out with us and contact people.  We have a plan of using their ipad or tablet and asking random people on the street if they have 2 minutes so that they can watch the video.  This way it is more than just giving them the card so they can just throw it away after.  This way they can actually see it, feel the spirit, and we can invite them to hear more.  We are SUPER excited! :)  When you guys watch the Video for the first time, PLEASE SHARE IT WITH SOMEONE!!! This video is not only intended to strengthen members and less-actives!  IT IS FOR NON-MEMBERS TOO!  Share it with a co-worker, a friend, neighbor, relative, WHOEVER!
SHARE IT!
SHARE IT!
SHARE IT!!!!!
We had an awesome miracle happen this week! :)  So we had a district Blitz in our area, and we had the elders split up so we were all covering four areas.  Sister Jensen and I went to the big Regional Park. (IT IS SO HUGE!)  We contacted Two people!  TWO!  But it was awesome!  We met a guy as we were walking into the park and he spoke Chinese... Not really good with that language, sorry! :P  So we gave him a book of Mormon in Chinese and pointed to a number we wrote in the book and told him to call them!  He was laughing the whole time... I don't know if it was at US or because he finally found true happiness.. ;D
Second person we contacted is Mark!  :)  Mark was sitting at a picnic bench just sitting there and looking at his phone.  Sister Jensen said, "Oh great, he has his headphones in..." I said, "it is worth a try!"  So we got up to him and say "HI!"  He looks up, takes his ear buds out and says, "Hello!  ...is that a Bible?"  We told him it is like the Bible, and explained to him that it was the Book of Mormon! :)  We asked him if he had time to listen to our message and he said we could sit down this him and share it with him!  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and it was an awesome lesson!  We is super open and he asked us a lot of questions!  :)  We asked him if he wanted to learn more and he said he would be open to it!  He lives up in the Anaheim Mission, so we are going to pass him over to the missionaries that work in his area.  It was funny because a random goose showed up out of no-where and started getting REALLY close to him! We were worried that it was going to attack him, but luckily, it didn't. haha :)  He is great though!  We invited him to pray and he was like, "Okay! What are you names again?"  so we told him our names and he started to PRAY!  We weren't expecting it because usually there is opposition towards prayer, haha.
We were like: OH!  WE'RE PRAYING! WE'RE PRAYING! (On our heads... haha)
It was great! :)
There is a deaf member in our ward, and we went over twice this week to help her out with some stuff.  She is super sweet!  Sister Jensen knows a little bit of ASL and she was signing with her.  It was awesome. :) 
We had a big dinner at a members home last night and a few different families from the ward came over.  There was also two non-members at the dinner.  Ani and Fransisco.  Ani doesn't speak any English, so I spoke Spanish with her, as well as one of the other brothers who served Spanish speaking.  it was really fun speaking Spanish again!  We had an awkward lesson though because it was in English and in Spanish, haha.  Sister Jensen would first speak in English and I would translate and at times we would both be confused and we would get messed up,  but it was great!  They want to learn more so we will pass there info off to the Anaheim Spanish missionaries since they cover this area! :)
yay miracles! 
Both Sister Jensen and I received beautiful blessings from Bishop Ritz this past week.  He likes to give the missionaries blessings, and he wasn't able to last week.  They were both wonderful! :)
I am so grateful to be serving here!  I don't want to leave!  I love my companionship, I love the area, I love everything!
I AM ON FIRE!!!! ;D

Super grateful for the Holidays!  I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!  Count your many blessings! :)

con Mucho amor,
hna. Rachel Duncan






























Monday, November 16, 2015

Newport Beach is Where It's At!!!! :D (Week 51)

Hola Hola! :D
Hope you guys had a wonderful week! 
Great news!  I'm so excited to shared it all with you!!!!
I'M IN NEWPORT!!!!!! :D
I'm serving in the Newport Beach Zone in the University Park Ward with...
SISTER JENSEN!!!!!!
If only you all knew how happy I am!!!
So.  A little background information!  Sister Jensen came into the field the same transfer I did.  We were like immediate best friends because we didn't know anyone else!  We always joked around saying we always wanted to be together, but we knew that was IMPOSSIBLE because I was in Spanish and she was in English.  We were very fortunate enough when we were roommates when we both were in San Clamente though!  It was the best! :D  (That was the same time we had the whole lice thing go down... She and I were the only ones who didn't have it!)  So at transfer meetings, I had to give some stuff to the office missionaries since our area was closing down.  I gave Elder Degner the car keys and looked down at the table a noticed all these different plastic bags with pieces of paper in them indicating who they were coming from and who they were going to.  I noticed Sister Jensen's name and it said Uniersity Park.  I was like "Oh wow!  She will do great there!  I'm so excited to hear who her new companion is!"  Before the meeting I saw her and gave her a huge hug and told her that I knew where she was going and she said, "How do you know?"  I didn't tell her of course!  The meeting began and the were done assigning the new missionaries to their trainers and then they started with the Newport Beach Zone.  I wasn't really paying attention because I thought I was possibly going to Spanish... *cough-cough*  Then President Orgill said, "Now this is a new companionship covering the University Park Ward..."  I was like, "OH!
​I better pay attention so I know who Sister Jensen's companion is!"
"....... Hermana Duncan......
I MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT HAVE IMMEDIATELY STARTED SCREAMING....
*YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!*
I started running towards her even before he said Sister Jensen's name!!!!​
".....And Sister Jensen."
She wasn't paying attention because she already served in Newport and didn't think she would go back. Haha :)
Finally she caught on and started screaming too and we gave each other a huge hug and everyone was laughing and we turned around towards Pres. Orgill and the look on his face was between puzzlement and amusement, haha :)  We were then like
"....SORRY." haha :)
It was really funny, haha :)
I love sister Jensen!  We have been having way too much fun!  haha :)  She seriously is probably my best friend!  A little about her!  She is from Mesa, AZ and she graduated from Cordon Bleu Culinary School as a pastry chef! :D  She is 23 and she is awesome! :)
The ward here is awesome too.  I already love it here!  The members are awesome and we are having lots of fun!
REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS TRANSFER!!!! AHHHHH!!!
Not much more to say really!  I'll have more for you all next week! :)







Monday, November 9, 2015

Again.. Call Me Job. (Week 50...Dang.)

HOLA TODOS!

So.  I am just an accident waiting to happen.
You know how I had that horrible infection in my kidneys?  I now have ANOTHER infection!  But this one is different! :P  (I'm going to spare you the details, TRUST ME.)  I had to go to the doctor and get prescribed on some MORE meds... GUH. So... With me taking so many different medications, I have been experiencing some HORRIBLE migrains and have had the hardest time waking up and sleeping.  UGH.  But I am feeling much better.. 

 *Knock on wood*

​So.  I went on exchanges with the AMAZING Phinney this week (Sister Phinney, but Phinney just sounds better)  She is from Canada (EH.) and I freaking love her.  If I could be her companion, we would cause a lot of trouble... In a good way, of course.  :)  Anyways!  We were finishing up Temple Tours and I got in the car and shut the door and realized that my seatbelt was stuck in the door!  So I open the door and put my LEFT HAND on the top of the door (Remember this part, it is very important...) and buckled my seatbelt... And slammed the door..
OW.
OW.
HOLY COW.
I slammed my pointer finger in the door!  D:
:'(
IT REALLY HURT. :(  I thought I lost my finger!  But I didn't! :)
Phinney laughed at me.  Actually, we were both laughing. ​

Now on to the crazy stuff!
I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!.... AND SO IS SISTER SMITH!
WHITE WASH! :O
Apparently I didn't do a good enough job to stay, haha. (I'm just kidding...)
I'm going to miss the people in Marina Hills!  They are all wonderful people, and I wish I could have gotten to know them all more!  But it is what is it! :P  I look forward to working in my new area! :)

Oh!  We made our goal by the way! 51 Book of Mormons! :)
What is possible to the Lord? EVERYTHING. :)
​Love you guys! :)

Sorry this is short, but I gots to go!!!​