November 22, 2011, Caguas

Hey,

It's still hot here, even on the day before Thanksgiving. Today we're emailing last because we had a turkey bowl with all the elders in the zone. It was a lot of fun. We have a few appointments for tomorrow. We're going somewhere for lunch, and we have an appointment with both the Gonzalez family and the Rosarios (they are in Aguas Buenas, a different zone, but he's the mission leader for their branch and he invited all of us over). So we should be taken care of. It's still weird to be wearing short sleeves though. 

Things were pretty good this week. We had Zone Conference on Friday and that was awesome. President was there, and we learned a lot of really good things to help our area and zone. He told us about when the area was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel that it happened in the Caguas chapel, where we meet. The general authority who was giving the prayer (I can't remember who it was) said in the prayer that government officials would take notice of what was happening with the Church and they'd have an interest in it. That was over 30 years ago and just recently that has happened. There was a conference or something on peace, and the stake president was invited to talk and to share about the church. There is also an activity put on by the church throughout the island, in all the stake centers called the Christmas extravaganza. It's going to be a kind of concert with choirs and soloists and all kinds of stuff, but the Caguas city government heard about it and decided to help put it on, so instead of being held in the Caguas stake center, they're having it at a giant city pavilion that holds up to 10,000 people, and the city is going to be announcing it all week. It's pretty exciting to hear, and it will be an awesome opportunity to share the gospel with a lot of people here in Caguas.Braylin's baptism was really good. I have some pictures, but I might not get a chance to upload them today. We went by Irelsi's house and had another good lesson on faith, and how important faith is in gaining a testimony. We used Alma 32, where it compares faith to a seed, and we told her we could tell she'd planted the seed but that it was up to her to keep the commitments we invete her to make so she can have a perfect knowledge that this is the church of Jesus Christ on the earth. It was good. 

Anyway, I hope Thanksgiving is good, know that we're being taken care of over here. I love you 

Elder Duclos

November 15, 2011 Caguas

Hello,

Wow, it seems like yesterday was P day, the weeks go by so fast out here. But there is also so much going on. We had to stop going to Alex's house. He just hasn't been keeping any commitments. It was hard because he loves it when we come over and we always have spiritual lessons, but he's just not willing to do what's necessary to gain his own testimony. We'll keep stopping by every once in awhile though. Sister Gonzalez's dad has been good. We go over every Monday for Family home evening and teach him. This Monday was the day his son left for the MTC in Utah, so he was kind of sad but I really think that's where his interest is coming from. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ -  faith repentance baptism receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. It was a really good lesson and we could tell he had a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. Brailyn's baptism was moved from today to tomorrow because the youth are having an activity tonight that they want him to go to with his brother. So tomorrow he'll be baptized and so will Eugenia, whose husband was baptized a few weeks ago on the same day as Randy, Brailyn's brother. The zone leaders have been teaching Eugenia and yesterday one of them, Elder Wardell, went out with us so we passed by her house. It was a good lesson, we just finished up teaching all of the commandments, she was a little unsure about being baptized on Thursday, and wanted to move it to Saturday or next week so we said we could change the date but we invited her to pray about it. Later that night she called and said she'd gotten her answer and that Thursday was the day. That was awesome. So they'll be baptized tomorrow. Elder Griffin and I also have another investigator, I don't think I've mentioned her before. Her name is Irelsi, we found her knocking on doors. Right after we met her, we were talking about how much the Plan of Salvation would help her. Right before we went by again, we were planning what to teach and we decided just to teach the restoration. So we got there and got to know her a little bit and started the lesson and every question she had had to do with the plan of salvation, so we switched and taught her the plan of salvation. It was really good, she always has a lot of questions, and understands everything really well, and she's read everything we've left her to read. She says she still doesn't know that this is the one true church of Jesus Christ but she is also on her way to find that out. We've gone by three times now, with three different members of the ward and four different missionaries (because of exchanges). Yesterday we went by and talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was probably the best lesson I've had on the mission. We started out and she'd read from the beginning of the Book of Mormon, she had a bunch of questions about the testimony of Joseph Smith in there and about Nephi and Lehi. Then we taught about Jesus Christ and we testified that He knows her personally and that He has felt everything she has ever gone through in her life and that it's by coming to Him that we can be completely clean from our sins. It was really powerful and she's coming to the baptism tomorrow night and church on Sunday. The member who was with us yesterday offered to give her a ride and everything. Members help so much with missionary work. When we have members at lessons to share their testimonies and to get to know the investigators, it makes them so much better. So do everything you can to be involved in missionary work. 

So even though it feels like P day was yesterday there has been a lot going on. People still keep telling me I look like their relatives. Last night a family said I look like their cousin's husband, and the other day we were at Randy and Brailyn's house and they were looking up pictures of Harry Potter on Google, because they said I look like him. Elders are moving in and out of our apartment, they're reopening an area nearby so some elders were living here and are now leaving, so that's been kind of crazy. Also, it's really cool that Steve served in Caguas. I've asked a few people about Miri Flores, but nobody has recognized the name, and they do always use straws to drink from cans here. I've always been sure to use one, thanks Bekah. 

Anyways, that's what's been happening around here. Everything is good and we're doing well. The church is still true.

I love you

Elder Duclos

November 8, 2011 CAGAUS

Hello Everybody,

Everything has been really good here. Today we had transfers, I'm
still here in Caguas with Elder Griffin. One elder left, but his
replacement and another companionship are moving in, so we'll have 10
elders in our house. It's pretty crazy. It's really exciting to hear
about Joseph's mission call! I'm glad to hear about everyone going
out, I don't know if you told me which mission Hunter was going to,
but Elder Geronimo, who lives in our house, is from a place called
Azua in the Dominican Republic. He was excited when I said that my
friend was going there. Where is Nick's new job? I was excited to hear
that he got one, I've been praying for them. And Kendall and Megan are
going to Taiwan!? That's crazy.

Things have been going well with our investigators. We took the stake
president to a lesson with Alex, and they got along well. Alex told
him about how his dad died when he was 13, and President Santos bore
his testimony about how we can be together with our families for
eternity. We told him that the first step to achieving those blessings
was baptism, and that he needed to read and pray to get a testimony of
the prophet Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel. Also, with
things changing around we started working with a 14 year old kid that
the sisters were teaching. His mom was inactive and his older brother
was just baptized a few weeks ago. So we are preparing him for his
baptism on the 16th. His name is Brailyn and he's really cool. It's
cool to see the whole family supporting each other and learning the
gospel together. We are also going to start teaching somebody the Zone
leaders were teaching. She's the wife of a recent convert who was
baptized on the same day Brailyn's brother was. He's really awesome
and has been studying really hard to understand the gospel too. We
haven't met with her yet, but we'll go over tomorrow. We taught Sister
Gonzalez's dad about the Plan of Salvation on Monday. It was really
good again to see the power there is in a family supporting each other
in learning the gospel. He's still got some doubts but I can tell that
seeing his son leave on a mission had an impact on him.

It's still been pretty hot here, the past few days have been really
rainy, but still hot. It's hard to believe it's November already.

anyway, I love you and I'm glad to hear everything is okay with the family.

Elder Brock Duclos

PS Cory, what is that smell?

November 2, 2011 Caguas

Hey!

I'm glad to hear things are starting to get back to normal at home. I'm so glad Elise is home now, and I hope everything is okay with Holly. I'm so thankful for the eternal perspective we have because of the gospel. So many people here don't want to hear what we have to say because they already believe in Jesus Christ, but it's such a blessing to have the fulness of the gospel, to know Heavenly Father's plan for us, and what we need to do to follow it. That's why missionary work is so important, and everything going on at home has really strengthened my testimony of that. It's awesome to hear about Joseph, Hunter and Evan getting ready to go out. I'm excited to find out where Joseph is going, so let me know asap as possible. Its really cool that Hunter is going to the Dominican Republic. We have met quite a few Dominicans here, and they're all good people. and good cooks.

Things have been going well here. I think I told you about Sister Gonzalez's dad the other week. We had family night at their house again on Monday, and he's been reading the Book of Mormon. We had a lesson on it and how it can be a blessing in our lives, and next week we're going to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. They keep saying I look like his son, who is leaving on his mission to Honduras in a few days. I don't know what it is about the way I look but it seems like everyone in Puerto Rico has a son on grandson that looks exactly like me. We've been working hard here, and everything is going really well. We have some goals to strengthen the ward in Caguas, so please pray for the church here. The stake president made the goal to split the Caguas ward into two wards by the end of year so we are working really hard to make that happen. We will need a miracle. Last week was the primary program, and it was really good to see that. It good to see how blessed those kids were to have the gospel in their lives, and to havng of growing up in the church.

Anyways, everthing is going really well, and the church is stilll true.

I love you, 

Elder Duclos

October 19, 2011 Grandma D's Birthday

Hey,

It's been a really good week! We have some really solid investigators that we've been teaching. Alex, the guy we found on the first day, is progressing really well. We had a lesson with a ward member the other night and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. It was really powerful to be able to teach him what his potential is as a son of Heavenly Father, that God set up this whole plan so that he could obtain that potential and that we were there for that reason, to invite him to take the necessary steps that lead toward the Celestial Kingdom. That was really rewarding to watch him learn that because we knew it was something new for him but he accepted it and knew it was true. We have also been teaching Nelson, who is a pretty young kid. We've taught him a few times and he is always really willing to learn and make appointments for us to come back. We had an appointment with him yesterday but he didn't answer the door, we were worried but he called later and said it was because he was sick and he asked if we could come Thursday, so that was a good sign. On Monday we had Family Home Evening with the Gonzales family. The parents were both born in Puerto Rico but they moved to New York and started their family there and just moved in here recently, so the kids all speak English and are learning Spanish. Anyway, we taught the lesson, we taught about missionary work and how they can share the Gospel with their friends and family. One thing we didn't expect was that Sister Gonzales's dad was there, who wasn't a member, but he seemed interested and even participated in some of the practices. At the end we had everyone choose a pass along card to give out during the week and then we gave the family a Book of Mormon to give out too. When we did that the dad said, "hey can I have that, my daughter has been wanting me to read it" so we gave it to him and marked 3 Nephi 11 for him to read. After that, Sister Gonzales said her dad had met a lot of missionaries before and had never even talked to them, but this time he was interested. That was really cool to see.

Puerto Rico has been pretty cool. It's still really hot here. There are some weird things, like restaurants only ever serve Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, 7 Up and Fanta. I don't know why but it seems like that's just what all the Puerto Ricans like. Also in my apartment there's a bidet, but I still have not used it. Also, some people will sell these things called limbers from their houses, they're like popsicles but they're just in a little plastic cup, and they're really good. They also have a sandwich here called a tripleta. It's a huge sandwich with chunks of ham and chicken and all kinds of stuff. I got one the other day when I was on splits with my district leader, and that was probably the best thing I've eaten here. Anyways, I hope everything is going well at home, I love you and I'll talk to you later. The Church is true

Elder Duclos

Pictures From September 7 to October 5, 2011

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