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

JUNE 5, 2012 Cory's bday

That is really cool that you got to practice teaching the second lesson. I remember well that time when we practiced at the Busby's house. I remember that has become a part of my testimony too, that every time I testify of the Book of Mormon, the Spirit is there. There are a lot of people here that belong to the Pentecostal church and a lot of them don't listen to anything we say, and it seems like almost nobody can accept that there's another book of scripture, but I can always feel the Spirit bear witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. That has been one of the biggest things I've learned, to rely on the Spirit, not just use in a supporting role in the lesson. It sounds like our ward is going to have some prepared missionaries! That is so exciting. There are two missionaries leaving from Juncos. One just got his call to Arizona and leaves next week and one is waiting for his call. Those two went on splits with us last week and it was an awesome experience. I love seeing the missionaries who are leaving because I know what they're in for and that they have no way of knowing how much they'll learn and grow from their missions. I know I didn't understand it.

The thought hadn't even crossed my mind that I went to the temple a year ago today. I have grown to appreciate the temple so much more out here, especially learning about and teaching the Plan of Salvation, I've seen how important the temple covenants are. I especially like in Doctrine and Covenants section 84 about the oath and covenant of the priesthood and about how through the ordinances of the priesthood, the power of godliness is manifest. I was studying that today in my personal study, actually. I was in 3 Nephi when Jesus is teaching the discourse like the Sermon on the Mount and he says the pure in heart will see God, and I've made the connection recently between the priesthood ordinances of the temple and the privilege of seeing God. (there's a Topical Guide section called God, Privilege of seeing that helped me see that) anyway, I love this! I feel like every day I'm instructed from on high and I'm growing in a way I never could if I was sitting at home. Thanks for always helping me prepare for the mission. I've seen the blessings for that preparation.

Well I love you both, I'll talk more about the week in the other letter

Elder Duclos