October 5, 2011

Hey,

 

Things have been awesome here this week. General Conference was really great. I got to watch all the sessions at the stake center and they had it in English for the missionaries and English speaking members, so that was nice. I loved the talk about the Book of Mormon, I can't remember who gave it, but I'm going to use the example of the dots and lines in lessons. I was also really excited that they said the choir from the preisthood session were from Pleasant Grove. I think I saw a few people from the ward, and President Gleason. Christian Hansen said he'd be in it so I was watching for him, but never saw him. It was really cool knowing that everyone back home was watching the same thing I was, just like Dad said. I thought of everyone there and mom making cinnamon rolls, and it made me really thankful that I have such an awesome family. Next conference I'll be sure to look for starburst jelly beans.

 

Elder Griffin is from Provo, he played baseball. He really is a hard worker, he's new to this area too and the other elders didn't leave any progressing investigators so we do a lot of contacting. It's pretty cool though. We focus on finding families so we can build the Church here in Puerto Rico, because it's still relatively new. We have picked up a few investigators now, and that has been really cool. The other elders are all from the US except one from the Dominican Republic. His name is Elder Geronimo and he's really funny. Whenever I see him I yell Geronimo! and think of War of the Buttons. Our typical day is to wake up at 6:30, exercise for 30 minutes, then get ready. At 8 we have personal study and at 9 we have companionship study. After companionship study we go to the plaza for language study, we pretty much just contact for language study because the best way to learn is to talk with the native speakers. Then we come back for the other hour of companionship study, the in field training for the first 12 weeks. After that we eat lunch and go out. Usually we pick a few neighborhoods to go knock doors and we just get to work. We live about a 10 minute bike ride from our area so we just ride over and go contact. We go to any appointments we've made and then come back home by 9.

 

We found one investigator, Alex contacting on our very first day in Caguas and we made an appointment to go back last Monday. We didn't have a long time to teach him but we taught him about baptism and how it is such an important step in following Jesus Christ. Part of the in field training is that the new missionary is in charge of extending baptismal invitations so we testified to him about the importance of baptism and the Spirit was really strong and I asked him if he'd follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and he said yes! That was so exciting. I could hardly believe it when he agreed. I actually asked him again because I wanted to be sure. So we set a date for the first Saturday in November. I'm so excited for him, he is really cool. He lives with his sister and daughter so we really hope they'll come listen too. We are going back today to teach about the restoration. The Zone leaders were contacting in a store and they found a family that lives in our area so we are going to go by their house today too. They said they were really cool and very receptive so that's really exciting.

 

Anyways Puerto Rico is great. I am learning so much, we are having a lot of fun and working hard and we've had some great success too. Pray for us and our investigators and everyone here in Puerto Rico. I love you, the church is true.

 

Elder Duclos