September 24, 2012: Week 49

Hey Fam!

Doing good here, and you? It's good to hear that Westlake is gonna kick some butt this year again! Just gotta watch out for Riverton. This past week has been a little stressfull because we had to drop a good amount of our investigadores, because they aren't progressing. But it's alright because I know that we're going to find more people that are more prepared because we have the faith.

 

I can't believe we only lost by .08, WOW! What is the show about anyway? You should send me a video of a part of it. I want to know what it's like. That's pretty funny that they had the parents follow the kids. I'm sure that people we're running into each other all over the place.  lol!

 

So investigadores are a little scarce for now. We took the decision to drop Gilberto for a little bit. He has stopped progressing and isn't showing much desire to quit his vices... We're still gonna stop by and let him know we love him.

 

I still cannot believe that in less then a month I'll have been gone for a year! Time goes by like the blink of an eye! CRAZY!!!

Emily, Don't get discouraged with the math. Your way better at it than I am ;) Just keep working hard and keep those grades Up! Also an E-mail would be nice ;)

That's cool that Brennan is going to Arizona. Tell him Good Luck! Also speaking of friends and missions, in October we get to go down to Deo and have a conference with Elder Oaks. It will be the 2 missions from Uruguay. So I'll see all the guys from the CCM and also Elder Brian Farnsworth. That will be sooo awesome seeing them. I've been told that Brian lost a lot of weight so far. Also Elder Viñas already came. It was soo great. He taught us alot. Also he dropped the cane on us a little for the high inactive member rate here in Uruguay. Well it's not our fault the people here are lazy, lol ;) Nah we can do better to help make sure that the people are truly converted. Good news. I found out my convert Marcos is still active and he's receiving the Priesthood soon! That made me super happy! Also one of the investigadores we were working with, Eduardo, is getting baptized on the 7th of Oct.

I told Elder Petersen about the pillow case and driving through his town, and He just laughed and said he's a fan of both BYU and Utah State. Also He says hi back for his family :)

I always knew that Josh had a way with the food. I definitely miss his culinary masterpieces.

 

Well I hope all is well there and that you all have a awesome week. I love you all. I know that this gospel is true and I'm happy that we can be an eternal family some day

 

Love, Elder Jordan Duke

September 17, 2012: Week 48

Hey how's everything going? How's work? and about Elder Petersen, we're the same height, but I have him by about a centimeter. Still counts though ;)

Please don't tell me about Mt. Dew and Dr. Pepper. I miss it soooooo much. I'm just speachless when the people say they don't even know what it is.....they're so deprived. ;)

Timpview are weenies, but they still have a good percussion section. Keep me updated with scores and stuff for the competitions. I wannasee how "bad" we're whoopin' on them :)

I heard that BYU was playing like crap....I'm just glad that the game isn't as big of a deal now, since we're not in the same conference now. BTW is BYU ranked and How is the MWC without BYU and the U? I think it's funny that they come to our house now. I always knew that you'd wait till I leave to get the big TV. I'll just have to wait for a year to enjoy it too.

YA! Emily must have been too busy texting Atkinson to write me a letter this week....... I read Mom's email and she told me about the thing between Emily and "Tyler." I definitely wouldn't mind him as a brother-in-law, but I'm sure nothing is going to happen, Emily is just a big flirt anyway ;)  Also Mom told me Elder Glenn got engaged to his Girlfriend! WOW! OK not really.... I knew that it would happen. She wrote him every week the entire mission. Happy for him. Tell him good luck with the married life!

Gilberto is doing great! He's making a lot of changes. He cleans up now and he got a haircut. We are giving him a shirt and tie to wear to church and he loves it! He came to stake conference with us yesterday and we got to listen to Pres. Monson and Elder Anderson from the 12 and......Elder Gonzalez. I always tell everyone he's your mission President. :) It was great!

Carlos and Marcia and Maria we haven't had contact with them all week. It's kind of hard because Carlos is Policia and never home and Marcia has school at night. But we're not giving up on them!

We actually meet a lot of people that speak Portuguese here. I actually understand a lot. Speaking not so much though. Almost everyone here in Artigas speaks both Spanish and Portuguese. I'm sure I'll learn a good amount here.

Thanks for the stuff from Pres Packer. Really good info. I'll definitely use it when I study.

I love you and hope all is well over there. I love this work and I love my Savior.

Here are a couple of pics...one of a nice big spider we found in our apartment and one of Elder Petersen.

Love,
Elder Jordan Duke

September 10, 2012: Week 47

Hey fam!

We had a good week! We had 4 people in church and all with fecha (date for baptism) for this month! Also right before sacrament meeting I was asked to give a 10 min talk. I just got up and talked about the BoM. I then challenged them all to the promise in the intro; that if you read and ponder on it then pray to know it's true, you'll receive an answer. I think it went well.

We have Gilberto, really great humble guy! He has a fecha for the 29th. He needs help to quit smoking.

Maria, Carlos, Marcia- Maria is the mom of Carlos and marcia is his novia (girlfriend) . We found them on Saturday and they came to church! They also accepted a fecha for the 29th.

This past week was fun! I got to know a lot of people and we have a great support from the ward here. We play soccer on Tuesdays and I have some nice pics from an accident I had playing ;)

Sounds like Colts are still in trouble. I don't remember him... sorry lemen...lol.
Who is Griffin III?
I heard there are a lot of the good teams are dropping and that the bad ones are going up.
Also about sports, I heard that the Lakers picked up Howard...true? they are sooo stacked if  it is...

I'll definitely pray for them (the Westlake marching band kids). Hope they do well! I wish I could be there. Tell me how it goes! Pics also would be great!

I love you guys! I would write more but I have a really really crappy keyboard and not a lot of time.
 Love you all a ton!!! Like how I love PB! (Won't he be surprised when he gets the package sent last week with a jar of peanut butter!)

Love, Elder Jordan Duke

p.s. His name is Eli from Wellsville, UT by Logan. (new companion)
 Thought I'd forgotten... lol

September 3, 2012: Week 46, First Week of 7th Change

All right, to tell you about my comp, he is Elder Petersen. He's from Logan, UT. He played baseball in highschool. He has 16 months in the mission. Weird to think that's only 5 months more than me... This will be his 2nd change in Artigas. We are doing really good and I think we'll have a lot of success. I don't really know alot about the investigadores but when I do I'll tell you.

Wanna know something awesome?!? We went to Brazil to a buffet and there they give you endless meat that they cut with a sword! And I tried chicken heart! It was actually pretty good!  but... I forgot my camara..... ya i know dumb, but it won't be the last time we go to Brazil so don't worry I'll get pics to you guys ;)  It was weird though cuz they all speak in Portuguese. Speaking of Portuguese they have a mix of Spanish and Portuguese here called Portuñol. It's really weird. Also when the people get mad at their kids they speak in Portuguese. I don't understand them half the time but it's pretty funny.

I like it here in Artigas. It's going to be great but it's also going to be hot! They said last summer it hit 57 degrees Celsius... that's like 130 F!!!!!!! I'm going to die this summer!!! I'll just have to whip out the old water bottle I guess. I'm looking forward to it but at the same time I think about how it will be my last summer in Uruguay. The time is going by way too fast I don't know how we're already at the point of Alex coming home in 7 weeks! That's crazy!! I don't even know what to think! I'm the oldest junior comp here in Artigas, except for an Elder Miranda, because he's dying this change and to give more people chances to go up as senior comp President moved some people down. He said that it wasn't to "castigar" anyone, just giving others a chance who haven't had it in 9 or 10 changes. But Elder Miranda took it pretty hard. He was a ZL before he got bumped all the way back down to junior comp. He's better now though. We have Elder Viñas coming this Month! And Elder Oaks will be coming in Octuber. That's going to be super exciting!!

I don't really have much more to say today. I'm sure once I get to know more of the area and stuff I'll have more to say. I love you guys and hope you're all doing well. Keep close to the Lord and stay on the path to eternal life. Thank you for all the support and know that you're always in my prayers.

Tons of love,
Elder Jordan Duke

P.S. Emily tell me more about college. I need to know what it's like since I've never lived the real college experience. :)

August 28, 2012: Week 45

Well to start off I'm..............going to Artigas, Barrio 2!! My new comp will be Elder Petersen, no idea where he is from, just know that he's gringo. I now have 50/50 3 latinos, 3 gringos as comps. The only thing that isn't great about going to Artigas is that it's 12 hrs of traveling in a bus..... at least there will most likely be other missionaries also. Elder Ruiz had to come down from Artigas all by himself. Also something funny is that I'm going to the exact same area that Elder Ruiz came from. He was telling me about the area, and it sounds awesome! He also said that there are alot of great people there and alot of people to baptize.

Also we just got the news from Pte Heaton that Elder Oaks is coming 27th of Oct. and we're going to have a reunion in Montevideo with both missions!! That's going to be crazy packed!! I'm super excited to get to meet an Apostle. It will be my second time in the mission! Elder Christofferson came to the CCM when I was there. Also this month Elder Viñas is coming. These next 2 months are going to be crazy! Not to mention I'l hit my year mark...

I was talking to Elder Atkinson last night and he told me that his family is coming to get him and they'll be in Artigas on saturday and sunday. I think it's going to be weird seeing him again after a ton of time and with his family... It will be great though. I still can't believe he is leaving.....so crazy fast.....

To tell you more about Elder Ruiz. He is from a family of 6. He is in the middle. He has an older brother an older sister and 1 younger brother. The family is all members. His parents are converts of about 25 years. His older brother served a mission in Colombia, and his younger brother is filling out his mission papers and will most likely leave the end of this year or beginining of the next. Also his older brother is maried and has a daughter. So Elder Ruiz has a niece that he doesn't even know yet. His dad is the Bishop of their ward. Elder Ruiz studied english in college before coming on the mission and worked as a DJ. I do talk to him about a lot of stuff I just forget to tell you guys...lol
We didn't get anymore baptisms, but there are a lot of great people that we are working with. I was told that there are a lot of great people in my new area that need to get baptized.

I hope that Kaili and Sarah get there licenses soon....lol. I don't know how good I'm going to be as a driver after 2 years without touching a car...

I glad to hear that all is going well and that everyone is busy being awesome!! I love you guys! I'l have more to say next week when I'm in Artigas.

Love, Elder Jordan Duke

P.S.
Here's more pics. One is a tower of animals I did, another my last district in Colonia, another of my Zone in Colonia. One is me in front of the Ocean in Colonia. And the others are me and Elder Ruiz using a really old lawmower. Enjoy!

August 20, 2012: Week 44

Wow! this change flew by! It's really worrying me how fast this is happening. I realized when I read Dad's email that I have exactly 2 months until I have been gone for a year.... I swear I just left. Also scary because I'm at that point where I could go up as senior comp and I could train. I don't think I will quite yet, but it's possible. Also to answer your question Dad, yes we have junior and senior comp and what's called "Compañeros de Proselitismo." (Co-Comps) Most of the time no one is Compañeros de proselitismo--usually goes straight to senior from junior.

Also Marcos got confirmed yesterday. If all goes well we should have 2 more baptisms possibly 3, two more friends of Marcelo Gomez and a granddaughter of a menos activo that we recently reactivated named Ayelen (Here in Uruguay pronounced A"sh"elen because the y and double l makes the "sh" sound).

I can't believe that your already in college Emily!!!!!!!! That's nuts!! Who is your roommate? Is she cute? lol ;) Have fun in college and don't be a slacker like me. What is you major anyway? You changed so many times I don't remember which one you finally went with...

As for the mail, absolutely nothing is coming into Uruguay. No packages, letters, nothing. We aren't even getting the letter from the pouch. I sure hope it ends soon, one things for sure is that the Bolsas are going to be overflowing when it ends. Going on almost 1 1/2 months now with no one getting anything... I also thought that since I'm pretty sure that you guys are still able to get letters from us, that it would be good for now to use that urugoest@gmail.com that we have to write me letters until it stops. But for now nothing handwritten with a stamp is coming my way.

Funny thing is "that girl" has probably gotten more letters from me than some in my family...but I'll write her. I'm pretty sure I sent one last week or 2 weeks ago. Still I will write another. Also I knew I'd never get that ring back (Jordan's CTR ring....not THAT kind), either from her or Emily, whichever one ended up with it.

Why am I not surprised that Dayna is engaged... :) You know, the name Andrew McCoristin sounds really familiar. I think I know him. All I have to say is that he better have gone on a mission. ;)

Did Kerryn or Laura get married first?

I sure hope Chandler is still considering a service mission at least. If not that he stays active in the church. I know that he doesn't really have much help from his screwed up siblings, but he's a good guy and I'd hate to see him lose his way. I'll be praying for him.

The investigators are good. Like I said, we have 2 possibly 3 baptisms before the end of August. Also we are starting to talk to some of the sibling of Kevin but not much progress there because we haven't had much contact with them lately. We are also doing A LOT of menos activo visits and it's paying off.  This sunday we had almost double the assistance (that would be "attendance" in English....the Spanish word for attend is "assistir a") in church with a good 6 or 7 menos activos (less actives).

We're working right now to start building up the youth part of this Branch which is sorely lacking. The youth are definitely the "life" of the Ward(branch). Also turns out the JW's only wanted to Bible bash. Not a big surprise, but they did give me a folleto from their church and it's pretty interesting, of course it's a bunch of bologna, but still good to know more about the other religions.

I'm still Junior comp for now. It's possible that I go up in the next change or few. I think I will be a little dissapointed to leave the area, because there is still sooo much to do here, but if it's what happens I'll just go with it and keep working hard.

I still can't believe that Elder Atkinson is leaving! I got his little goodbye letter in the Bolsa last week. just weird....

Wow, Cotton is now gone also.

And I think that Elder Atkison said that he has a friend in the Rapid City Mission, is it English or Spanish speaking for Garrett?

It's great to see how many people are going out on mission we really need it.

Elder Viñas will be here 19th-21st of September and Elder Oaks is coming in October, should be great!!

Contacting here is a little diferent. Here you clap your hands to "knock" the door. It's still a little weird, but I'm getting used to it. Sometimes it's just knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell, except that 9 out of 10 doorbells here don't work...

Thanks for always  being the best most supportive family ever! I love you guys super tons (I don't know if that works grammatically but I don't care!). Stay on the path or like I read in a quote recently from some church leader: "I don't follow the straight and narrow path to exactness, but I try to cross it as much as possible." :)

I love you guys!

Elder Jordan Duke

P.S. Here's a picture of me knocking on the Devil's Door ;)

August 13, 2012: Week 43

Ok this time I won't write in Spanish. There is google translate you know ;) This week was great as you can tell by the pics, Marcos got baptized! The pics didn't turn out to great, someone had their finger in front of the lens. (Can't trust a 11 year old to take a picture, lol). It was so great that his parents finally gave him permission to make this step. All the group of friends came to the baptism and were there to support him which was great.  Soon we'll have that whole group of friends baptized ;) Also in a couple of weeks Marcos will recieve the Aaronic Priesthood. Now we have 2 jovenes (young men) instead of 1. The Young Womens still doesn't exist, but we'll fix that :) That was the miracle this week.

Also we had a good turn out in church, and we got Marcela Rodriguez (Menos activa of around 2 years) and Hna Crespo to come back to church and they both have said they are back for good. We'll see. I'm hoping so and we are definitely working with them to keep them going strong.

Investigadores:
Janet-  Left again for Buenos Aires so we didn't have much contact with her, really not at all. Still doing good and Ezequiel is helping a lot.

Kevin- We found his sister and his cousin who both live with him and we are helping him work towards the 19th, this next Sunday. His cousin and sister would be in a few weeks like the end of August, beginning of September.

Marcos- (see photos for more information, lol) BAPTIZED!

Daiana- She is doing good. She was really sick this past week and couldn't come to church but she is progressing well. Still a little stuck on the traditions of the Catholic Church, but she is starting to notice how many contradictions there are in the Catholic Church. (Really not hard to do that, just look at the first 2 commandmentsof the 10.)

Alejandra and Matias- They're doing alright. Alejandra is still looking for a job because she quit the one at Los Balla. We're trying to help her with that and as well to help her finally quit smoking. She's right there, she only smokes like 5-6 a day. I think by the end of August they'll be in white.

Claudia- She just dissapeared, still hasn't showed up from her trip. I don't know. She doesn't respond to our messages either..

Also this week we found a young couple who are Jehovah's Witnesses and a man named Julio. He's a little more open as you can imagine. The young couple is very nice but I wonder whether they just want to fight over who has the truth, or if they are willing to listen.  We'll see.

Also speaking of Jehova's Witnesses, we met another one who told us we can't be the true church because we help in the army when our country is at war, and we are breaking the commandment "thou shall not kill." We tried to explain to her how it means innocent blood, and that someone with a gun trying to kill you isn't really that innocent. As well that the Chosen people of God went to battle hundreds of times. She told us that was back then and that now is diferent. After a few minutes of talking we just told her that we don't want to fight with her. We nicely invited her to read in Matthew 18:11 and to have a nice day. (The Bible of the Jehovah's Witnesses doesn't have that scripture, it just says 11.---- with a line after the number. ;) )

So a few things I need to say:
First- There is an international stoppage of mail, so no one is receiving nor have we recieved any kind of mail in a little over a month, but they decided to just tell us so we all thought that our families had forgotten about us ;) but I knew you guys hadn't. So just so you know I haven't gotten any letters or anything for about 5 weeks now. Hopefully they'll tell us when they stoppage is over. The "Bolsas" are going to be HUGE when they do.

Second- I went on divisiones (splits) with Elder Ponce from Perù. His area is Nueva Helvecia. It's all decendents from Germany and Switzerland and other places over in Europe. Everyone there has weird names and are all whiter than me! Ok, not all are whiter than me.... but it was weird! It's a super pretty place though. I didn't get pics because I forgot my camera.

Lastly- HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:) 15 NO? Hope it was great and full of Fun and Cake!

I love you guys and hope all is going well over there.  Know that I love you guys and that my favorite part of this is showing people pics of my family and explaining to them how I know that I will be with them not just in this life but forever and how they are the best and biggest blessing I've ever received! I love you all and I hope you all will stay strong and never waver from the staight and narrow.

Love, Elder Jordan Duke