Monday, August 5, 2013

August 5, 2013: Week 94

Hey fam!
 
How's it all going? First off promise, Dad, that you won't do a countdown. Haha! We played basketball today, and afterwards everyone was saying how they we're tired. I asked Elder Watts how he was and he said that he had been tired since yesterday. Meaning that we work hard yesterday ;)
 
Also he showed me a part of an email from his sister that told him to not let me get trunky. Don't worry I'm not, or at least I don't let it show in the work. I'm sure that every missionary thinks about the house even a little towards the end, the thing that makes the difference is how they react to those thoughts. I think the fact that I'm training helps me a lot to not bring out those tunky thoughts that sometimes come. Really I'm grateful that I was allowed to train and I think doing it at the end is a strength to me to help me endure to the end. I'm happy to say that as a companionship we are doing so and that the work is going good.
 
Speaking about that work, We were able to see the fruits of our labors and Soledad was able to come to church with two other friends of hers that we got to know last week, Alison and Barbara. We have a lesson with all of them and they all enjoyed the church. It was fast sunday of course and as we were sitting there waiting for someone to get up, Soledad and the others told me that I should go up. Thinking that it would be a bad example of a representative of Christ to decline the chance to testify, I told them I would and got up, and looking the 3 in the eyes, testified of the truthfulness of the church and of all the things that they had heard that day from the members' testimonies. When I sat down, next to themm since your supposed to sit by your investigators to support them, they just gave me a sincere "thank you." I felt good knowing that what I had said had touched them. They are all excited to come to church again next week. This time with all of those that listen to us in that house, being 7 or 8 almost everytime. Soledad, Gabriela, Agustin, Alison, Barbara, Nicolas, Richard, Emanuel, etc. We seriously find someone new in that house every time we go by! We're going today, so we'll see who we find.
 
The rest of the investigators are good. We've had to drop a few from not progesssing, but the Lord has blessed us with new investigators to replace the empty hours.
 
Something I'd like to share about new investigators is this: After being in cyber last monday, as we we're walking down the street to a lesson, a couple of men stopped in the street, and my first thought was, "Great, here they come to mess with us." Admittedly, the first impression of them wasn't the best; they both had cigarettes hanging out of their mouths and the one had what looked like a bottle of alcohol. One of them spoke and the words that came out of his mouth surprised me. "A few years ago, people like you came to my door and told me that they had a message about Christ. I rejected them. I was wondering if I could have another chance at hearing that message. Would you guys teach me?" It took a second to register what I was hearing and with a huge smile on my face I told him that we would love to teach him and we set up a lesson for that Thursday. We would have taught him right there, but we we're running to get to a lesson we had set previously. We got there Thursday and we had a great lesson. They both were very much engaged in the conversation and everything about the message of the Restoration fascinated them. When we pulled out the Book of Mormon and explained a little about how it's written scripture from here in the Americas, the first thing they said was "If we read 15 pages per day, how long till we read it all?" I'm not the best at math so I didn't answer them directly but we promised them that if they read and asked God if it was true then they would recieve an answer. They accepted easily. We haven't been able to talk to them since because of some dificulties with the land lord where they live, who is a huge anti-Christ, God, church, everything really that has to do with being happy really is what it seemed like. He was a very grumpy man to say the least. But, I thought about what Dad had said about finding that one that would help bring more to the Gospel and thought about their enthusiasm about what we taught. I feel that they could very easily be those "two" that do it. We have set up another lesson for today and we're going to see how their reading and praying about the Book of Mormon went.
 
So how are you all doing? Sounds like you're all good. Good to hear that everything is going well with the house and that Band camp went well. Can't wait to see the show! (not meant to be a trunky comment.) I'm sure that they'll win a ton of trophies!
 
Sarah HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY!!!!! Love you! Hope you all have fun on her birthday! Eat tons of cake for me!
 
Crazy that Kyle is home, tell him I said hi and that I wish him well on his homecoming talk, also to Tyler that he has a great mission and good talk.
 
I love you guys and want you to know that I know that this work is true. That God lives and loves us. I know that Christ suffered and died for our sins and that we can be cleansed through the atoning power of that sacrifice. I love this work and wouldn't be anywhere else. These past almost 2 years have been the best I've ever had and I'm grateful to my Father in Heaven everyday for this chance he's given me to know this beautiful country and people. Love you all and hope you have a great week full of the Lord's blessings!
 
Love,
Elder Jordan Duke

1 comment:

  1. Looks like the message we left with Zach to work Elder Duke got through :) We love all the success they're having! Also, Zach was having a bit of a hard time with the mosquitos and a trick from Elder Duke saved his face -- thanks for that Elder D!

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