September 24, 2012

We have had a great week. On Tuesday we had interviews with President Alvarado. I always love meetings like that becuase we learn a lot. Especially during interviews, because it's always more personal. Anyway, I learned a lot and we've already been able to apply things with our investigators and we're seeing a lot of success.

 

On Wednesday we went and taught Anibal. We had talked about prophets and left him Mosiah 2 to read, so he could see an example of what a prophet is. When we went to his house on Wednesday he told us he had read and he felt something special. Then he prayed about it and he felt the witness of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon was true! That was so cool to hear. He said, "I know King Benjamin was really a prophet of God" we talked about baptism and he still has a few doubts, but we're going to teach him about the plan of salvation this Wednesday and set a baptismal date. We had a great lesson with Alexis Vicil's mom too. She told us she really wants to recieve an answer that the Church is true. It was a powerful lesson.

 

And the best thing that happened this week was Jairo's baptism! It went perfectly. We finished teaching the commandments and he had his interview and the baptism went perfectly. I could see a difference in him after and he was so excited. His 12 year old brother who hadn't been there for the lessons told us that he wants to be baptized next month, so we'll be working with him now too. Anyway it has been great. Arroyo is progressing really well. I'll try to get some photos of the baptism sent.

 

Elder Duclos

September 17, 2012

Well this week has been great. Yesterday we had stake conference. I've been in the same stake my whole mission, in three different wards, units I guess. But it was good to see all the ward members I've worked with my whole mission. I love the Caguas stake, the stake President, President Santos is awesome. He is one of the most humble leaders I've ever seen. He makes frequent trips to the temple in the Dominican Republic. Things like that strengthen my testimony that the priesthood really has been restored to the earth. I also got to see Edgardo Mercado, and his family. He was sustained in the conference to recieve the Melchizedek priesthood! It was really exciting. More Melchizedek priesthood holders in the stake!

Things have been going really well with our investigators too. Jairo is going to be baptized on Saturday. It was so cool because the stake conference was focused on the family and teaching children. I thought of how Jairo is learning the same gospel he'll be teaching some day as a missionary and as a father. It was a cool thought. He's learning the basic principles now that will become even more meaningful later in his life. He's really excited. We're working with some other investigators too. Tomorrow we're going up to the office for interviews with President Avarado. Those meetings are always good. 

We're riding bikes a lot. I spend an hour a day on the bike just going to and from my area. It's great though, the views are good, especially going to Patillas. It is hot but no hotter than it's always been. Anyway, the Church is true. 

Elder Duclos

September 10, 2012

Well this has been one interesting week. On Wednesday we biked all the way from our house in Guayama to Patillas, two cities over. It took about an hour. We were there contacting for about ten minutes when Elder Bryant called and said that I had to go to the office with his companion Elder Isaksen (who is from Norway) he said that Elder Isaksen was going to work on making a DVD for President Alvarado and that President had some problems with his iPhone and iPad that he wanted me to fix. (Somebody told them that I knew how to use Apple stuff so they always ask me to fix things for them). Anyway they said that I'd need to bring enough things to stay the night. We got to the office and started working together on the DVD, we only had about half the videos President wanted on there but he said, "Just get it done" so we had to be creative. It ended up that we were there from Wednesday morning to Friday night working on all the projects they had for us. We fixed one of his computers, we made the DVD, we fixed the calendar syncing on his iPad and iPhone and all kinds of stuff. So that was pretty different. Elder Bryant and Elder Arteaga stayed in Guayama and Arroyo and worked in both areas for those three days.

 

We have been doing really well in Arroyo. We're teaching Jairo, who is the nine year old grandson of a member of the branch. It's really fun to teach him because we use a lot of examples and everything. He is a really cool kid and it's cool to think about how he'll be able to receive the priesthood and go on a mission, and that the things he's learning now with us will be the base for everything he does later in his life. We weren't able to teach Daniel, our investigator with a baptismal date, last week but we have an appointment with him this week. We have been working really hard at finding new investigators and helping the ones we have now. I think I mentioned this in the last email but we are working a lot with Eugenia, the mother of Alexis Vicil who was a missionary in the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission not too long ago. She has been taking the missionary lessons for about 7 years now but we really believe she can be baptized. We have been praying so much to be guided to what it is that she needs to understand so she can be baptized. It's been amazing how much I've been able to learn about helping others to come unto Christ. It is the most rewarding work I have ever done. It is so special to feel like somebody has learned more about Heavenly Father and gone further in their eternal progression because of something you've taught them.

 

Well, that's how this week has been. I wish I could write everything about that has happened in this week, but I'd be here all day. But I know this is the Lord's work. I know this is His gospel and His Church. There is no way these things are not true.

 

Elder Duclos

September 3, 2012

Well they finally took me out of Juncos. It was a lot of fun there and I loved that area but I'm excited for what's ahead now. On Wednesday night they called and told me I was going to Arroyo. It's still in the Caguas stake so I'm in the same zone but it's about as far from Caguas as the stake gets. It's in the southeast corner of Puerto Rico and our area covers Arroyo, Patillas and Maunabo. We live in Guayama and we don't have a car so we have to bike about half an hour every day to get to our area and another half hour the days we go to Patillas. But it has been great so far. My companion is Elder Arteaga from Bolivia and he got here at the same time as Elder Raymundo.

Arroyo is awesome, it's a branch that just opened up in the past few months - it used to be part of the Guayama ward, so it's small but really great. One of the members here was an AP in the Puerto Rico San Juan mission that just finished one transfer ago. He's the first counselor in the branch presidency and the ward mission leader so we've been working a lot with him. His mom isn't a member and has been taking the lessons for about 7 years. Yesterday we went over and had a really good lesson about reading the Book of Mormon with real intent. We explained that when somebody wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true, they need to read it really seeking that revelation from Heavenly Father. It was so cool to be able to help somebody use the Book of Mormon to find guidance for their lives, especially something so significant as finding the restored church. During that lesson, I think I learned more from what was said than I ever have in a lesson. 

We also taught the boyfriend of a recently reactivated member in Patillas. His name is Daniel and the missionaries have been teaching him for about a month. He always had problems with coming to church and they couldn't ever get him to come. On Friday we went by and had a really powerful lesson about the sabbath day and baptism and invited him to come to church he came on Sunday. and he accepted the 23rd of September as a baptismal date! It was awesome and we are really excited for the 23rd. 

Well, I am as happy as ever. I like the new area and I am excited to see some real growth here. 

Elder Duclos

August 27, 2012

Wow, this week has been eventful! We heard about the hurricane at the beginning of the week, everyone we contacted was telling us that a hurricane was coming, some people said Wednesday, some people said Thursday. Even the ward members called us to ask if we had enough water stored up. But nothing happened; all we got was a lot of rain, not even enough to stop us from going out. It was good that we didn't lose any time working but it was almost impossible to talk to people during those days. Almost everyone told us to go home because Isaac was coming. But I survived, so no worries.

 

We saw another miracle this week. So on Wednesday we were riding our bikes in Juncos to go make contact with some old investigators that we had lost contact with. While we were riding we saw a couple walking, and we stopped to talk to them. Their names are Luis and Dorca, and they told us they were walking all the way to their house in Las Piedras because he had a job interview in Juncos that he'd just finished. Then, a member, of the Church that lives in Juncos pulled up in her car. She asked if everything was all right because she thought maybe something had happened. We told her everything was okay and that we were just talking to the family, and she bore her testimony about how she found the church and asked where they were going. They told her they were walking all the way to Las Piedras and she said, "I'm going that way, get in" so we set an appointment and they drove off. Anyway on Friday we did a trade off, and I was in Humacao, Elder Raymundo, and Elder Lopez from Humacao went to the appointment with the ward mission leader and had an awesome lesson. They told us about how they moved recently and have gone through some hard times and they had been praying to find someone that could help them spiritually. They were both pastors but had some really negative experiences. They said they'd been praying and we were the first people who stopped to talk to them. They came to church yesterday and loved it. All the members welcomed them and they felt really comfortable. It was so cool. We've been fasting and praying so much recently for a miracle to happen in Juncos, and they've been praying too.  So it's been great. We're going to go over there this week to teach them more about the restoration and help them to know for themselves that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that our Heavenly Father has sent prophets to the earth again with the fulness of the gospel. I love the mission.

 

So everything has been going very well here. I'm happy and we didn't even see the hurricane. I hope everything is going well at home.

 

Elder Duclos

August 20, 2012

The meeting we had with Elder Zivick was great! We were there with another zone. He talked a lot about the goal we have as a mission to have one baptism per companionship per month, and he talked about how we need to break old mindsets and do new things and that when we do that, we'll be able to have the success we need. It was really inspiring, and I've been able to see how I can improve and grow to be a better missionary. Every time we have a meeting like that it seems like exactly what I needed, especially because President invited us to fast every week to prepare for Elder Zivick's visit. I was able to prepare spiritually for the meeting and go with the right questions in mind to be able to recieve guidance. It's awesome how that works.

 

We had another good lesson with Francisco, we finished teaching the Plan of Salvation, we explained about what happens after this life. He's been doing well, but says he doesn't want to commit to any church, but he's been reading and praying and waiting for an answer, we trust that will be powerful enough to help him overcome anything that's holding him back.

 

Anyway, things have been pretty busy here, we've got a lot of people we're working with and a lot to do every day. I love being out here serving Heavenly Father and helping His work move forward.

 

Elder Duclos

August 13, 2012

We've been doing a lot of preparation this week for the visit from Elder Zivick. He'll be speaking to our zone and the Ponce zone tomorrow. It's going to be pretty awesome, I'm not quite sure what to expect but I do know it'll be a great opportunity to learn and improve. 

We had an awesome lesson with Fransisco this week. He is the investigator that we found awhile ago but was gone on vacation for a few weeks. Anyway, we went over again and taught the plan of salvation. It was a really cool lesson and he had a lot of questions about agency. It was so great to be able to explain the Atonement and how central it is in everything Heavenly Father has prepared, and also to show what our potential is as sons and daughters of God. We prepare a lot for every lesson but usually when we get there and start to teach, it's something we hadn't expected. It's also amazing how much the Spirit teaches me every time we teach. There's nothing that builds a testimony more than testifying of something and feeling the Spirit testifying that what you are saying is true. I love it. I know this gospel is true and I know Heavenly Father's plan is perfect. 

We had another cool lesson with the Fernandez family. I wasn't there for the first lesson, because we were on splits that day. When we went over for the second lesson, the wife wasn't there and they asked if we could come back later that day. We had planned to teach them the plan of salvation but when we went over at 8 o'clock, the wife was just getting home from work, and seemed a little bit stressed out. They told us they hadn't had time to read the Book of Mormon so we decided to read the chapter with them. We read 3 Nephi 11 and the Spirit was strong. The words of the savior in the Book of Mormon changed the mood so much and everything was calm. We could tell the wife was more interested after because she was asking about our beliefs in the Bible and everything and they both recommitted to reading the Book of Mormon. That book is true. 

So anyway, everything is going really well here, and we are really excited about how well the work is going. The Church is true.

Elder Duclos

August 6, 2012

Cool story about a senior sister missionary here that was sick and needed platelets. I was one of the missionaries that got to donate.

August 5, 2012

Dear Elders and Sisters;

We want you to know that you have taken part in one of the greatest miracles that we have ever seen.  A week ago Saturday, Sister Whitaker, called to ask about the red spots that she had all over her body, and the blood blisters that she had in her mouth.  She was obviously having bleeding issues. Sister Alvarado and I rushed her to a lab not far from her apartment and waited for the results of the platelet count.  Platelets are the particles in the blood that stick to the wall of a vessel and to each other to make a plug if there is a tear in the vessel.  Small tears happen daily. Normal range is 140 – 440.  We were told to bring anyone to the emergency room if their count was below 80 to receive platelets as we treated Dengue patients.  Below 20 is life threatening and below 10 usually results in spontaneous bleeding into the body cavities and death and her count was “1”.  Sister Alvarado took her to an emergency room and they verified the first test.  They then said that they did not have the ability to treat her and sent us by ambulance to Centro Medico. Her status moved her to the top of the emergency waiting line and they began more tests.   We knew when we left the ER at 2:00 AM Sunday morning that only our Father in Heaven could save her.  We prayed with all the energy of our souls that He would wrap His arms around her and keep her safe.  Our prayer was joined by Elder and Sister Whitakers’ and others as they learned the emergency.  By Sunday morning a fast was in place and a call to pray was organized mission wide to take place at designated times.  The whole mission knelt together at the same time to pray for her, and our prayers were answered. She was still alive and appeared to have no active internal bleeding.  She made her way to the top internal medicine doctor in the teaching hospital.  When we talked with him on Tuesday, he said that in his career, or the history of the hospital, or in all of Puerto Rico had there ever been a platelet count so low. Every time they stuck her with a needle to get blood, she would bleed under the skin and her arm was totally black and blue.  She began receiving donor platelets and her count went to 3 then to 9 then back to 3. Her body was destroying them as fast as they were put in.  The doctor said that that many platelets were hard to come by and President Alvarado got permission from Salt Lake to ask the missionaries to donate platelets. What a response! Everyone wanted to give.  Most were not eligible because of the stringent rules in the blood bank, but all hearts were willing.  Sister Whitaker said that she could tell when she got a bag of platelets that was given by a missionary.  There was an overwhelming feel of strength and love when they were going in.  She could feel the love in every drop.  She was given prednisone to slow down the immune response.  They did every test possible to determine if there was internal bleeding.  She had a brain scan, abdominal scan, spleen ultrasound, lung x-rays.  All said that there was no internal bleeding.  She was still being wrapped in her Father’s Arms.  Then the blood tests began to fail.  After the blood was drawn but before the count could take place the platelets clumped together.  They had to run the tests a different way.  Finally Friday afternoon we had a count again. It was 24!!!!  Saturday it was 35 and there had been no donor platelets given which meant that she was making her own platelets.  This morning, Sunday, the count was 64 and still she was making them all on her own.

If the law of justice was in full force, she would have died last week-end.  Because she is one of the Savior’s own and those who fasted and prayed for her are His sheep, He could use the Atonement to fulfill the demands of justice and wrap her in a safe blanket until she is physically ready to function on her own.  We are so thankful that the mercies of the Atonement are available to His sons and daughters.

Sister Whitaker sends her love and tears with thanks for all of you that have given so much from your hearts.  This miracle would not have happened without everyone in the mission doing their part.  Prayer Power is Awesome!!!

Now, we are not out of the woods. As Sister Whitaker is recovering, we have our next missionary down with Dengue.  Please continue to pray for those that are sick that they might recover quickly.  Pray that this Dengue stumbling block might be taken from us that we might be more about our Father’s work if it is His will.

We love you all,

Sister Alvarado, Sister Visker

July 30, 2012

Hey! This has been a great week. Elder Raymundo and I have been finding a lot of families, and next week we have a lot of appointments that we're really excited about. It's been really good because it has been hard recently to find anyone that has stuck around but things are starting to pick up now. But other than that things have been pretty normal around here. The mission is preparing for a mission tour from Elder Claudio Zivick of the Seventy. He is the new counselor in the Caribbean area presidency, and he'll be acting under the direction of President Packer. A mission tour means that he'll be authorized to make any change in the mission that he needs to, he's coming on August 13 and we've been doing a lot to prepare. It's pretty exciting! They've asked us to fast every Sunday until he comes so we can prepare, because it'll be a really good opportunity to reflect on the things we can change and improve. It'll be great. 

A priest from our ward just got back from a mini mission, where he went out for two weeks with the missionaries in a different area. He came back super excited to help with missionary work and it's been pretty contagious with the whole ward. He's even coming out with us on bikes on Saturday. We found a new investigator next week named Reynaldo. He was in the military and was injured so now he's retired. He investigated the church with his family when he was about 15 but doesn't remember a lot. The first time we went we taught the Restoration and showed the video of the first vision and when we went back the other day he had been reading the Book of Mormon. He has a lot of free time and as a hobby he makes little sculptures out of aluminum foil. He has an entertainment center in his family room with hundreds of them, he makes anything that you can imagine, and they're pretty cool. He even gave one each to Elder Raymundo and me when we first contacted him. 

But everything has been going really well. I love it here and it is so awesome to be able to spend all day helping people receive the restored gospel. I hope next week I'll have a lot of good news about our investigators and how they're doing. I love you and I know this gospel is true. I know my Savior lives. 

Elder Duclos

July 23, 2012

It has been a great week. We got a new ward mission leader, Brother Vasquez, and he is excited to work. Things have been going really well. We had to go to Caguas today to email, so we don't have a lot of time but I sent some pictures of things that have been happening around here. 

July 16, 2012

Things have been going great this week. I still like Elder Raymundo. Last P day while we were emailing, he showed me his screen, he was telling his family that he was companions with Harry Potter. He is really funny. He really wants to learn English, and sometimes when I say something to him in Spanish, he looks at me and says "no speak Spanish, man" acting like he doesn't understand what I'm saying. It's been great and he's learning fast. 

We've been teaching a really cool guy named Francisco, he lives right next to the church in Juncos and was really interested when we taught the first lesson. When we went by the next time he told us he had been reading in the Book of Mormon, and that he noticed something different. He accepted a baptismal invitation that when he knew these things were true he'd be baptized. Then, at the end of the lesson, he said the prayer and he asked for guidance and asked that after he knew these things were true, that Heavenly Father would help him share them with his family. He's already excited for missionary work. The problem is that he's leaving for Connecticut on Friday, but we're going to teach him about the importance of reading and praying every day so he'll be able to keep it up during his trip. We also contacted the son of one of the members of the ward. She is the only member in her family but her grandkids have been going to church for awhile. Anyway the other day we saw the son outside and he said we could come by today. His name is Juan Carlos, and he seemed really interested, and Sister Martinez, his mom, mentioned that his wife has had some questions recently about the Church and everything so we're excited about that. We've had a lot more cooperation from the ward recently. The bishop just called two new counselors and the new bishopric has been excited about missionary work. They also called a new ward mission leader to replace the one who left on his mission, and we've been receiving more referrals from the ward members. It has been exciting to see. Yesterday I hit 6 months in Juncos, and I've never seen the members so excited about doing missionary work. That is what will really make a difference.

Anyway, it's great over here. That's too bad about the tree. I hope nobody was under there. Anyway, I will write next week. 

Elder Duclos

July 9, 2012

It's been great! Elder Raymundo is a really good elder, and he's learning really fast. The mission is focusing a lot on having the Latino elders learn English and we've been practicing a lot - he's already memorized the missionary purpose. The 12 week program has helped a lot in the training, it's the study program that prepares a missionary to be a trainer in 12 weeks, but President Alvarado has asked that we finish it in 8 weeks. It's all focused on the application, it lists things the new missionary should be able to lead out on each week (like teaching each lesson, teaching about the Book of Mormon, things like that), then it gives the parts of preach my gospel to study to prepare him to be able to do it. So I can see what he needs to know and we study that part of Preach my Gospel so he can take the lead that week. It has been a lot of fun to be able to do it and it's helped me a lot to go back to the basics and see things that I can improve. The mission is focusing a lot on training, and on using the 12 week program because there are going to be a lot of changes. At the end of this transfer, two groups of missionaries are going home and President Alvarado finishes his mission in a year so the mission will be really young.

 

Things have been going well with the work too. They took away our car because other missionaries needed it, but we hardly used it anyway. Elder Raymundo was in Caguas the first three weeks he was here, where there are hardly any hills but he's getting used to it here. On Thursday we rode our bikes all the way from Juncos to Las Piedras, the city next to us. It's been great. We have been working really hard to find new investigators and to help our investigators progress. We have one new family whose names are Margarita and Junior (his name is actually Raymundo) who have been reading in the Book of Mormon so we're excited about that.

 

Anyway, everything has been awesome. It's been cool to see a new missionary just starting out, and to think of what he has ahead. It's made me think a lot about the reason I'm out here, to remind Heavenly Father's children of what they once knew. To remind them of the plan that was taught to them before they were born and show them how to follow it. I love this gospel and I know it's true. I know our Heavenly Father loves us and His plan is perfect.

 

Elder Duclos

July 2, 2012

Today they made some changes in the Caguas zone. I'm still in Juncos but I have a new companion, Elder Raymundo from Guatemala. He just got here this transfer (about 4 weeks ago) so I'll be continuing his training. I picked him up a few hours ago so I still don't know a lot about him but he seems really cool. Elder Bryant is going to be working in Humacao, so he'll still be close. I'm really excited, and I'm glad I'm still in Juncos. I really love it here, and the ward is really starting to work well with us. A few days ago our ward mission leader left on his mission to the Dominican Republic, and we still don't have a new one, but we have been working through the first counselor in the bishopric, and he has been awesome. 

The day before yesterday we went over to Osiris' house because an appointment had fallen and we hadn't been able to make contact for a long time. He said he'd been having health problems, and he'd been in the hospital for awhile and that's why we hadn't been able to meet with him. He set two appointments for the coming week though, to "catch up" he said. So we're really excited about that, that he'll be able to start progressing again. I have been surprised at the trials people go through as soon as they start to progress. As soon as they start to feel that these things are true and gain a testimony of the Restoration, things go bad, and that has been hard on a lot of investigators that we've had. There are definitely two influences that are constantly acting on all of Heavenly Father's children. We're just trying to improve more and more every day so we can be more effective, and do everything we can to give them enough light to make a correct decision. 

But anyway, I'm pretty excited about having a new companion. I'll try to send some pictures sometime, I can't send any from the computers in the Juncos library, but I'll try to get some sent sometime. 

Elder Duclos

June 25, 2012

It has been really hot this week. We've had about two days of rain in the past few months, and we're sweating like crazy every day. But it's great.

This week was good, but we had some challenges. The baptismal date we set with Osiris was really fast, June 30 was only 2 weeks away and he hadn't come to church once yet but we knew he'd be able to be ready if he did his part. The problem has been that a lot of things have been happening and he has stopped progressing as fast as he needs to, so we're going to have to change the date. He couldn't come to church last week because it was Father's day and this week because he had something the night before that he'd get home late. We're not sure what changed that made him less excited about progressing and preparing for baptism, but we're going to find out this week. We've had a lot of appointments fall through like that this week but we've had a lot of time to go out and find too, and we've had success there. We found somebody named Howard that told us about his father who joined the church after he'd already grown up and left home. He said he noticed the difference in his dad's life and he was really impressed by that. It was a really spiritual lesson to hear him talk about that and to be able to testify that that change came from the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and that it was something that each of God's children could experience. He also had a friend there that was interested too that we're going to start teaching.

The other day we took the bikes pretty far out, away from the city, almost to the edge of Juncos. That was really cool, Puerto Rico is beautiful. We found one family who invited us in to eat lunch. They gave us breadfruit, which is really good, it grows on a tree but it's similar to potato, and parcha, which is passionfruit. There is a lot of passionfruit flavored juices and things here but that was the first time I'd had a fresh one and they are so good. The fruit here is great. The other day the elders who work in Humacao (who live with us in Juncos) brought home the biggest mango I've ever seen. It was almost the size of a football. I took pictures but I can't upload them on the computer here. It was giant. They also brought home mangos that were crossed with pineapples. So good.

This week we also had interviews with President. We had a whole meeting with the zone and they had us make profiles on mormon.org. I didn't finish mine because we didn't have a lot of time but it's a really cool website, they have been showing us how we can use it more to share with investigators and show them what members of the church are like.

Anyway, it has been great this week, and we're working hard in the sun.

Elder Duclos

July 18, 2012

Well it has been another great week. Osiris accepted a baptismal date for the 30th of June. We're really excited and so is he. We're working on getting him more integrated into the ward and we have all the commandments to teach but we're going over there twice a week now. We keep being blessed with new people to teach, this week we found a couple named Jose and Damaris. We found them when we were biking up the hills we were next to what looked like an abandoned house and there was a huge hill in front of us. We were trying to decide whether or not it would be worth going up the hill when we heard somebody working in the house so we thought we'd go see if somebody was there. We went up and it was Jose and Damaris, and they were actually building the house. They invited us in and we helped them with some of the work. They were really interested in the Church, they have friends who are members (they even asked us why their friends had so much food saved up in their house). We talked a lot about things we understand because we have the fulness of the gospel, including things like self-reliance. They were really interested in that and we have an appointment with them this week.

 

It's been great, we have had a lot of success, and we're really excited. Yesterday it rained for the first time in a really long time and we got soaked. But it was a nice break from the heat. Anyway, those are kind of the highlights of the week, a lot has happened and I wish I could fit it all in. I know the church is true. I know this is the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know our Heavenly Father loves His children.

 

Elder Duclos

June 11, 2012

Transfers were on Wednesday, we got a call on Monday saying we were going to have a transfer meeting, and that our house had to be spotless so we cleaned like crazy last P day, and packed everything up. I didn't get transferred though, and I'm still with Elder Bryant. I'm excited to stay because we've been seeing a lot of success. Two weeks ago we had an awesome week and found a lot of new investigators. They're all doing really well. It makes such a difference when members are out with us. We weren't able to get as many members with us this week, and we lost a few days because of the transfer meeting but it's been great. We have one investigator named Osiris who I don't think I've mentioned. He was a referral from a nonmember that we contacted. The guy said he'd taken the missionary lessons, and he had a friend that might be interested. We went by the first time and he loved it. He has an iPad and so did the member who went with us, so he showed him all the church's applications and everything so he's got it all on there. He is really great and he really wants to be able to make changes in his life to follow Jesus Christ, he's really humble too. He told us he's been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon, but hasn't felt anything yet, but that when he said the closing prayer at the end of the first lesson, he did feel something. He wasn't sure what it was that he felt but we told him it was the Spirit, and that those are the experiences that bring us closer to our Father in Heaven. We've had a lot of good experiences and this area is growing a lot. We're going to see baptisms soon.

 

At the beginning of companionship study we always sing a hymn and pray as an apartment then split into companionships to do studies. Yesterday, we stopped by the house in the middle of the day to get something and we started talking to our next door neighbors. We'd talked to them before, but just in passing, we've never really talked a lot to them but they said they noticed that every day at 9 oclock sharp we sing, and sometimes they stop to listen. I had to apologize that we didn't sing very well. But we did set up an appointment to come over some time to teach them. They've lived next to the missionaries for a long time and they've taken the lessons before, when the sister missionaries lived there.

 

Anyway, everything is going great here. It's been really hot and sunny all week. Really for the past two weeks. But there hasn't been any rain, so at least we've got that going for us. I'm doing really well and I wish I had enough time to tell you about everything but this will have to do.

 

Elder Duclos