July 9, 2012: Week 38

Hey family!

How are you all doing? I'm great! We are going to have another baptism on the 15th. His name is Ruben. He's the older guy who lives in a little 1 room house. He had problems with smoking and drinking but now we've helped him drop those vices. He is a really humble man and has a lot of faith. I know that this will bless him in his life so much. Also we've had some little miracles where we found the rest of the families of Andrea and Marcela. Last night was the birthday of Marcela and it was great. We had super delicious cake and a nice little lesson with the family and friends. We've kept a little contact with Janet (the lady with a son in Deo) but she went to Argentina for a week or 2, so it's going to be hard for a little. We still do soccer and it's going good, we've met a lot of great kids and are working with them. Also we have talent show on the 14th with the Branch. It's going to be so fun!

So to start off I have a few questions/stories. First is that I gave my taco mixes to a member to help him make tacos for his birthday. We didn't end up using them all and we asked for a couple back to make tacos with another family, and I told him I'd get him more taco packets back to replace the ones I took. So, long story short I need more taco mix. Second is a question: How old is Grandpa Ward? Is he 88 or 87? Third was about the stamps so you already answered that.

Last is a story of something that happened last week. SO in the morning we were leaving from a lesson with Ruben and we were contacting down a certain street. As we were walking a man motioned us to come over. He asked us if we wanted to sit down and we said sure. he got chairs out and we sat down and the first thing he said was, "I love what you guys are doing trying to help people, but I'll tell you why your wrong." It took us by surprise. "What do you mean wrong?" "Well you see in the Bible it talks about how you can't add anymore to the Bible in Revelations, and Paul says that if a man comes saying he recieved good news from an angel, cursed be him and blah blah blah." Of course we thought, "great another one of these people...." We bore him our testimonies and then started to explain to him more. He just got frustrated and kept giving us the same reasons and scriptures of why we're not right. This is were the story gets crazy. He then told us that he knows the truth. We asked how, and guess what he said... He told us about how he saw Jesus Christ in a blue light, (first indicator there, the light wouldn't be blue...) Then he said that he had written another book of his accounts and claimed it to be scripture. We just listened to him, and then told him thanks for the time but, we're just going to leave now. Then he got mad and started saying that I fell into the trap of satan because I use glasses.....and how if I had real faith I would be healed. Which made no sense because he had to use glasses too. I just nicely as I could explained to him that he was wrong and that no matter what he said, we know the truth and nothing he said will steer us from the path. We then just got up and left. I felt super weird and Elder Glenn said he felt weird also. We then were talking about it and how it says that satan can come in the form of a angel of light, but if it was really Jesus it wouldn't be a blue light and Jesus wouldn't "tie" you down to your bed with his power like the guy told us. So we met a crazy Prophet man last week, really interesting...

I told Elder Glenn about how you guys were invited to his homecoming and he says "Great see you there!"

Tell Brad he'd better watch it. ;) 

Scout camp! The memories are endless. Hope the food is good. The food that we made was like a breakfast burrito without the burrito. It had rice, ham. cheese, peppers, onions, and potatoes with seasoning. It was great!

Good thing we finally got rain! I was scared that utah would be all black and burnt when I get back ;) It's a great blessing though.

Wow, sounds like the NBA is going to be interesting this year, well see what happens.

Lehi in 5A, weird. And good luck with Timpview. I think we'll do great!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!! I'll make sure to write a letter and tell you in there, too.

Thanks everyone, family, friends, church leaders for all your support in helping me be where I am now. I'm grateful for all your examples to me. I know this church is true and that I'm helping to complete the Lord's work in Uruguay.

Love,
Elder Duke

P.S. I'll definitely not do anything stupid, Lauren ;)