Foliphobia! (The fear of leaves) ^.^ - Week 11

Hola Everyone!!!!

 

Wassup?! :) This week has been a great one! Not a lot has happened, but we have seen miracles! :) We FINALLY saw Ya-- for the second time again last Thursday! We taught her about the Book of Mormon and we read the introduction with her and even the beginning of the first chapter with her. She was so excited and she seemed so interested! :) We bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon with her, and the Spirit was so strong. We asked how she felt about getting baptized, and she said she needed to know more, which we expected, so it is okay. But we have no doubt that she will get baptized! :) We are so excited! We are planning on HOPEFULLY seeing her today and teaching her the Plan of Salvation, and if not, we are re-teaching the lessons for Em--, her mom. :) YAY!
I had my second ZTM!!! Wooooo!!! It was wonderful! I loved the training we had! We made some wonderful goals together as a zone, and overall, I have no doubt that we will see miracles this upcoming month!  As a zone, we decided to do a music fast!  One of my best friends did that while on her mission, and I felt strongly prompted to share it with everyone else! (THANKS KYLIE! ;D) So as a zone, we are fasting from all forms of music for 2 weeks until our next meeting, to see if we saw any improvement. Just in the past week I have seen many tender mercies in our zone, and in the past week, our zone has confirmed possibly 3 new baptisms. Hopefully they will happen! But I know that sacrificing a little music will be so worth it. After all, it is only music. But I know that we will be blessed by it. If we feel like it is worth doing longer, we are planning on potentially doing it for a few transfers! :) :)

We got in contact with a less-active and her daughter, who is 8, wants to be baptized! So we are going over to her house later today and teaching her! Her name is Vi--. :) We are excited! Ja--, the less-active, her husband is not a member, so we are hoping that while we are there, we will be able to see an opportunity to teach him. :)

 

So. Funny story.  My companion and I were dong a window right next to the library, and we were just talking while we waited for people to walk by.  As we were talking, I saw that Hna. Roos had a little spider crawling on her head!  So I was really calm and said, "Oh! Hold still! You have a spider on your head!" and flicked it off with my pen.  The look on her face was PRICELESS.  She stopped breathing and had tear brimming, and started breathing pretty hard...  Hna. Roos is TERRIFIED of spiders, haha. :)  So we started talking about horrible experiences with Spiders!  I was in the process of telling her the story about Leslie George, when a spider randomly fell from the ceiling during seminary, and in her scriptures.  (It happened twice, haha! Love you Leslie!) Just as I finished telling her the story a HUGE yellow thing fell right in-between Hna. Roos and I, and we FLIPPED. .....Turns out it was only a leaf!  We started running around screaming and laughing and we just about had a fit.  Hna. Roos was bent over laughing so hard, she couldn't breathe!  It was sooooooo funny!  So, we now have foliphobia! :) I would say that that was the highlight of the week! :) haha :)

 

For the past 4 days, we have had a race between our roommates to see who can get home the soonest, so that we can scare them.  The first time was great, because we hid in their shower and scared Sister Smart really bad.  Then the next night they scared us by hiding in the closet by the front door.  The third night we got home and turned off all the lights and planned, then we planned on hiding in their room when they got to the apartment.  It was starting to get late and I still needed to take a shower, so I told Hna. Roos that when they got home, to tell me and I would turn the water off so they couldn't hear us!  5 minutes into my shower, Hna. Roos shuts the lights off and I turn the water off!  I stood there for 5 minutes until I hear a "RAAAAAAWR!" and a "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Coming from Sister Lafluer and Sister Smart.  Then Hna. Roos knocks on the door and says, "You can turn the water on now!"  And the sisters thought that was soooooo funny, haha. :)  But this is the best part!  So last night we got home at 9:12, and we were joking around that the sisters were going to be late, and we decided to take a break from the whole scarring thing, or else it would get really old.  We started planning, then got ready for bed, and we were going to call in numbers and I told Hna. Roos that I had to go to the bathroom first.  I walk in to the bathroom and turn the light on, and then the shower curtain practically explodes and Sister Smart and Sister Lafluer come screaming out of the shower!  I LOST IT.  These were my exact words: "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFLIP! FLIP! I FLIPPING HATE YOU GUYS! I HATE YOU!" (I don't hate them, don't worry!  But when you are in that kind of situation, things just fly out of your mouth without permission...)  And I fall on the ground whimpering like a baby and they are laughing soooooooo hard. My companion comes running in and just looks startled with her mouth wide open and says.... "Well. Okay."  But it was soooooo funny, and sooooo horrible at the same time.  I just love having roommates! haha :D

 

Love you guys! Hope you have a great week! :)

 

Con amore,

Hna. Rachel Duncan :)

 

Spanish of the Week:

Que paso?! (K-pas-o)

What happened?

FELIZ ANO NUEVO!!!! ^.^ (Week 10)

WASSUP?! Hola! Como Estas?! :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! C: I hope it was a great one! :)

This week has been full of miracles! We have witnessed the hand of the Lord in our service countless times this week! We taught Ya-- for the first time this past Tuesday and it was so wonderful! We were fortunate enough to eat breakfast with Sister Murray, who is in the YWs Presidency and she was so helpful! We taught her the Restoration and she was very receptive of it! She seemed so interested to know more, and the Spirit was so strong! We invited her to pray to know if what we had taught her was true and she did so and after a minute or so of pondering, she told us yes! We invited her to be baptized on January 17th, and I think she was very overwhelmed, that she simply said, "I don't know!" But she was soooo happy! I have no doubt she will be baptized though! We were talking with her mom the next day and she said that she was so much happier when she got home and giving her a lot of hugs, and I know that it was because she felt the Spirit. :) We are so excited! Unfortunately, the past three days we had lessons set up and they all fell through because they had a friend from Mexico come and stay with them for a few days, but Em-- told us that Ya-- really wanted to see us. But we are seeing her later today, and we are so excited! :) We are planning on teaching her about the Book of Mormon! :)

We had a lot of windows this past week, and we met a lot of potentials! We have been trying to get in contact with them, but we haven't had any luck. But we are still working on it! Unfortunately, a lot of the people we contacted gave us wrong numbers or addresses.... Which is really sad.. But it is okay! :) We are still trying to find them! :) 

Not much is going on!  Our heater broke the other day and so it was FREEZING! Ugh.  But all is well now! :) 

Please pretty please keep investigators in your prayers! We are soooooo close!  Also please keep my family in my prayers and my best friend Zachary!  They have been sick for the past few weeks! :( Sad. :(

Love you all so very much! I hope your new year is FABULOUS!!!

Oh! I have a challenge for all of you!

We are challenging all the members to read the Book of Mormon every day since it is the New Year, so that they can finish it by the end of the year! I extend this challenge to all of you! If it be personal, or with your family, please do so! I promise you it will enrich your life forever! :)  Thank you everyone!

I love you oobers!

Con Amore,

Hna. Rachel Duncan

Spanish of the week:

Que tenga buen dia! (K-tang-a-bu-en-dee-a) Have a great day! :)

Apartment View

Mountain Snow

Rachels Many faces

Hermana Duncana and Hermana Murphy

It's A Wonderful Life!!! :) Week 9 - Month 2!!

Heyyyyyyyyy!!!

 

How is it going guys?!  Hope your Christmas was great!

 

Sorry guys, this is going to be really short! :P I don't have a lot of tiiiiiiime! :(

 

This week was wonderful! So many great miracles this week! We potentially have a new investigator! It is Em-- daughter, whom just previously got baptized, Ya--, she is 13. She goes to church every Sunday with her mom and she went to Young Womens for the first time yesterday and she loved it! She was so excited for all the activities and she loves the girls there! We are going to visit with her on Wednesday at Sister Murray's house for breakfast and we are really looking forward to it! She seems so excited, and we are just as excited! She is so ready! We just need to teach her and she should be hopefully baptized soon! :)
We met a recent investigator in a window! She supposedly moved and so the hermanas lost contact with her and when we saw her Hermana Roos was so excited! She wants us to visit her sometime this week! So we are planning on doing that. She seems more open to us teaching her, but she told us she has a really hard time accepting the Restoration and more specifically Joseph Smith. So we are going to go point by point with her to make sure she really understands and make it very simple. We are really hoping that all will be good with her once again!

I feel like the language is finally clicking and I am speaking a whole lot more! Hermana Roos and I are doing a 40 Day Fast and included in that fast we are speaking Spanish most of the day. So we should definitely have some improvement! :)

We had two windows this week and we met a lot of people! We contacted 61 people in total, so it was great! I was on exchanges this week with Hermana Williams and it was wonderful! We had a window as well and we met this girl Sa--. She said she has been trying to go to church to participate in "mass" but she must have been trying to go at night, because every time she went it was closed up. So we told her that there was going to be a service the next day and she said she would go! So hopefully she did! Hermana Williams said she would get ahold of the missionaries in that area, so hopefully she did! Because she seems SUPER interested!

 

Christmas was great! Loved it! :) Thanks everyone who either sent me a card or sent me a package, I truly appreciate it! I am going to try to personally write each one of you, but it is kind of hard to do that, but I WILL try! :) So thank you! :)  We had a lot of fun, and I loved it so much.  We had a Zone fiesta on Christmas Eve and we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" which was the first time I have ever watched it! It was great! :) Loved it! :)

 

Thank you everyone who has done something significant or something small for me, especially at this time of year, you are all in my prayers! I hope all of you had a wonderful week! Oh! And Happy New Year! :)

 

Love,

Hna. Rachel Duncan

 

PS: These are all the pictures that I have been meaning to send, but I either forgot my camera, or my cord. :P Enjoy! :)

Christmas 

Outside of Rachels Apartment 

Christmas Skype

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!! Week 8

Hola Everyone!!! :)

 

FELIZ NAVIDAD! :)

 

Merry Christmas, everyone! So excited for Christmas! :) It doesn't even feel like December! It is so weird! :P Oh well!

 

This week has been crazy! But at the same time, nothing has been happening! So this just may be a short email! I don't have a lot of time anyways! :P

ugh. I don't even know where to begin! :P

Last Monday I got to go to the New Missionary Dinner, it was very nice! I want you all to be very jealous, because Sister Orgill makes really good food! :)  On Wednesday I went to my first ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) It was super awesome! :)  We learned a whole bunch of great stuff! :) Then on Thursday we had our mission Christmas Party! :) Had so much fun! :)  On Friday we got to go to the Chalk Walk, which it super cool! :) It was at the Laguna Niguel building (It is so pretty, I will send pictures! I failed to bring my camera, sorry! :P) And the choir was singing.  A bunch of people from all over got to draw pictures on the ground and there was a competition (I think) And there were some REALLY pretty ones! So cool! :) Then on Saturday we had our ward Christmas Party! :) Might I just say, that the Spanish ward really knows how to party! There was dancing, piñatas, and so much more! if anyone were to do that back home, you would be considered weird! :) haha :) But there were a bunch of non-members there! So we got to meet them and talk with them! :) It was great! :) Funny story! Okay, so there was so many people! SO MANY! And because of that there wasn't a lot of food, and so by the time I got through the line, all I got was a tiny scoop of rice and beans.  Haha :)  Oh well! ;) It was fun! :)

 

So! Something cool happened! In our mission we do this thing called the Windows of Heaven.  It is a proselyting technique we use, and I haven't done it yet, BUT I'M REALLY EXCITED!!! :) So before we set up a window, we pray to know of a VERY specific date, time, and place that we are meant to go.  Windows only last for an hour, and we are planning on doing 3 this week! One tomorrow, on Christmas Day, and on Saturday! :) Okay, to the cool part! :) So as we were praying to know what day, place, and time that we should do these windows, I had  a VERY strong impression that we needed to go to the plaza near our house on Christmas Day at 1 PM. As I was pondering, I simply wanted to know why, and right away, I saw a lady.  She has blonde hair, and she will be wearing a scarf and she will be on her way to return something.  I told my companion, and the Spirit was sooooo crazy strong.  It was so cool. :)  But yeah! Can't wait to meet her! :) I know that whoever she is, she has been waiting for a long time for the Gospel, in fact, she has been looking for it! :) The church is true, the book is blue, and God loves you! ^_^

 

During this week, I have been really pondering and studying the love that Heavenly Father and Jesus has for us.  And I promise each and everyone of you, and they do.  I have no doubt in my mind.  And because of Christ's infinite love, we are here.  We are who we are.  I truly believe that. Christ didn't have to die for us, but He chose to do so because He LOVES us.  I don't think that the Atonement would be an INFINITE Atonement unless there is love from Him.  Without love, we could not return to our Heavenly Father.  And Heavenly Father loves us so much, that He gave His son to us.  And He truly is the gift.  He is our reason for the season.  He is love.  And I would ask each of you to ponder within your heart to know what that means to you, and within this week, I encourage you to serve someone, anyone you meet, even if it is simply giving them a smile.  But I would encourage you all to pray for chances to serve others.  You will not only be blessed for your efforts, but you will be surprised who you will bless on this special Holiday.  May your holidays be full of love, happiness, and full of remembrance towards our dear Savior. I love you all, and I wish you all a very merry Christmas! :)

 

Con Amore,

Hna. Rachel Duncan

 

Spanish of the Week:

Estamos muy agradecido por todos bendiciones en nuestras vidas. (Eesta-mos(t - like most, but drop the t)-agra-des-ee-do-pour-toe-doe-bend-is-ee-on-ees-en-no-est-ras-vee-duhs) (That was really long! :P)

 

We are very grateful for all blessings in our lives :)

(appropriate for prayers) :)

 

LOVE YA! :)

Blowing up phones, ties, and brain cells!! Week 7

Hola everyone!!!!

 

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN CRAZY! But it has been soooooo wonderful!!!! C:

 

I finally made it to California! And I looooooove it! :) I forgot how wonderful it is here! So glad to be back to this wonderful place! :)  My companion is Hermana Roos, she is from Idaho Falls, Idaho, and she has 4 1/2 months left.  I LOVE HER OOBERS!!! She is so nice! :) And she laughs at all my jokes, so that is a plus! ;)

 

This week has been so crazy, so busy, I just don't know what to do with myself! First off, getting here to California was great, but I was soooo tired! I still am recovering from all the traveling.  But all is well! :)

This week we had a BUNCH of choir things! Oh! Yeah, I am in the choir! X) Yay! :)  I love it! We had a bunch of events to go to this week! We had a really awesome experience yesterday while at the Innerfaith program!  The Innerfaith thingy is a bunch of churches from all over join together (peacefully) and we put together a music program! We sang last and it was soooooooo cooooooolllllll!!!!

We say Joy to the World in a flashmob(ish) way.  First Elder Mitts started singing, then Elder Mofatt, then Elder (Icannotremember...) And then we stormed in and BANG! Started singing! :) It was so cool! We totally caught them by surprise! ;) Then we say He Sent His Son, and I just love that song because not everyone has ever heard it, so I noticed a few people tearing up! (Good job choir!) And then we finished off with Angels We Have Heard on High (LOOOOOOVE) And it was sooooo powerful! The Spirit was so strong and We got a standing ovation! It was so awesome! :) We have some other choir events this week, so I am excited! :)

 

We currently only have one investigator, and that is Ma--.  We visited her on my second day, so I don't really know her that well.  All we know is her aunt or something like that is a member and asked us to teach her family and Marisa was interested! So we are currently on the hunt for new investigators!  Which is not easy! But that is what we are here for! :)

 

So, I have some wonderful roommates! Love them! They are Sister Smart and Sister Lafluer (I think that is how you spell it, sorry Sister Lafluer! Teehee! ;)) Anyways, I just love them! They are great! :)  We have parties every night, to celebrate something!  For example, I needed to destroy my tracphone, and we spent a good 15 minutes smashing it, burning it, and melting it.  It was very relaxing! ;D Haha, just kidding! But it was fun!  And Sister Smart had her 6 months the other day and it is a tradition to burn something when you make it to your 6, 12, and 18 month mark.  So an elder from her district gave her a tie and we poured a bunch of hand sanitizer on it and let that sucker BURN.  It was great.

*Disclaimer* We are not missing any limbs and nothing caught on fire! We were very safe!

 

Well everyone, this week has been a great one! I could say that not a lot happened, but at the same time, a lot did! So yeah!

 

Love you guys! :)

 

Con Amore,

Hna. Rachel Duncan

 

PS:  Check out the new Christmas video!!!!! It is amazing!!!

(Spanish): navidad.mormon.org

(English): christmas.mormon.org

 

It will knock your Christmas stockings off your feet! ;) Love it oobers! :)

  

Spanish of the Week:

Feliz Navidad! (Fell-ease naw-vee-daad)

Merry Christmas! :)


If you live in the area and would like to go see the choir perform here is their schedule. http://www.irvinemission.com/p/choir-events.html

She is in the field

Rachel wasn't able to send out a mass email this week because she was traveling but I thought I would post some pictures from her new adventure.

 

Para Siempre Dios Esta Con Vos! :) Week 5 *Last week in the MTC*

HoLa EvErYoNe!!!!!!! :)

WASSS UP?! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! :) Thanksgiving was great! :)  It was very special, because we got TURKEY!!!! I miss American food so much! And it was just sooooo nice to eat something that I actually recognized for once! (Seriously, the food here sometimes scares me. Mystery meat Monday!) haha :) They even had table cloths put out and played music while we ate, and I just was so in love! haha :)

We got to listen to a LIVE devotional given by Bednard (YESSSSSSSS!!!!) AND IT WAS AWESOME!!!! He didn't give an actual talk, it was more of a question and answer thing, and it was so cool! Everyone from all the MTCs got to participate! It was awesome! My favorite thing he said was, "Does the trial of faith accure daily only to be strengthened?" yep! :) It happens!  Someone asked him the question about how he gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and he answered it in the coolest way! He disappeared for a few minutes and to get a piece of paper, and it was a copy of Joseph Smith's first personal journal entry.  He read it out loud and talked about how Joseph has little education and couldn't write or read for the life of him.  And then he compared it to the Book of Mormon, and we all know the Book of Mormon is super powerful and its words are LITERALLY not of this world. And then we went on about how there is just not possible way Joseph Smith could write the Book of Mormon just to trick people.  And there really is no possible way! It just is not real! So it was just another testimony builder for me about the Book of Mormon, it was really cool! :)  Two days before we had ANOTHER live devotional by Dallin H. Oaks (YES YES YES!!!) and it was AWWWWWWESOME! I love that man.  I just love all of them.  But I will always have something special for Holland, haha. :) Anyways! He talked about some great stuff! My favorite thing he said was, "Do something for men and women that is a small but kind and a brave thing that the Savior would do." Amen to that!!! I just love all that the prophet and the apostles have to say! These men are certainly called of God! GOTTA LOVE THEM!

This week has been great, but it has been really hard.  We have been trying to speaking only Spanish, and at times it is so frustrating.  But I think that my Spanish has really improved, I feel like I don't even struggle that much! I can pretty much talk to anyone, but at times I will be in the middle of a sentence and be like, "Wait, como se díce blah blah blah." and usually I can work my way around when speaking, but it is going well! I am not perfect, but it is sufficient! :) I feel like I am prepared for the mission field! :)

Things with Alejandro and Miguel are going great! :)  Alejandro is getting "baptized" this Saturday and tomorrow is our last lesson with him!  We taught Miguel the last time and he FINALLY committed to Baptism! He is getting "baptized" January 15th! Woooo! haha :) Yay! :)  So proud of them! :)

Well! I have been saving to do this for the last week, and I am just so excited to share this with all of you!  But I have been wanting to bare my testimony to all of you, and if I mess up, I'm sorry! But I have a testimony of Spanish now, and every day that I have been here has strengthened that! :) So here you go! :)

Yo sé que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días es verdadera ! Sé que Jesucristo es muy cariñoso, y Su ama es para todos las personas! Yo sé que nosotros somos muy bendecido ! Yo sé que La Expiación es muy importante, y es parte del plan de Dios . Yo sé que Jesucristo murió por todos los hombres, y no fue fácil. Yo sé que El Libro De Mormón es de palabra de Dios. Yo sé que nosotros tenemos un viviendo profeta, Tomás S. Monsón.  Yo sé que José Smith es un profeta, tambien.  Estoy muy agradecido por todas las bendiciones en mi vida! Estoy muy agradecido por mi familia, y my mejor amigos,y especialmente mi Eterno Padre.  Estoy muy feliz, y yo sé que es porque a Dios y Jesucristo! 

I know that my Redeemer lives, and He loves us all so much! I love you all so much too! Have a great week everyone!!!!! LOVE YOU ALLLL!!!!  :)

Spanish of the Week: 

Estoy muy cansado! (Es/toy moy cone/saw/doe(

I'm so tired!

LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH! 

Con amore, 

Hermana Duncan

Random dude with a machete and cutting up the tree in front of our house!