November 26, 2012: Week 58

Hey Fam!

I'm doing really good just to start off. My comp is actually from Murray and his name is Bryce Woolston. We have a lot in common so we always talk about stuff for really long times. Only difference is that he likes soccer and I like basketball. Also he's my first comp who's taller then me. By 1/2 inch... He has 2 sisters and 2 brother and he's the oldest, like me.

Investigadores: It's going alright. No one came to church last Sunday....Barely any members came, we dropped from 70 last week to around 40. I just don't get where those 30 people went... Gilberto is doing fine. We actually go by all the time with the first counciler in the bishopric. He's a great guy and really believes that the gospel can help him.
Estela is doing mas o menos. We only met with her once this week because of her ridiculous work schedule. Also when we went to pick her up for church she had gone to visit a friends whose aunt died. Other than them we have people who need to get married.....Such a big problem in Uruguay, and the laws about marriage here are just absurd. First you have to wait like a month just to take out a fecha (date). Then you have to wait another 3 months or so to have your wedding be announced in the big national newspapers. All in all it can take up to 6 months just to get someone married! ya.

We are definitely using the members. In our mission other lessons are pretty much shunned. Right now it's really being pushed to do lessons of retention and do lessons with menos activos and try to find through them. It works really well and you find a lot of part member familes to complete doing it. We've actually found some good people through it. Also we've found a guy and his wife who are really great. Noelia and Paulo. He told us that if God tells him to leave his church and join ours, that he'll do it. Ya, we got really excited like little giddy girls ;) lol!

I wish you could just transfer all your good ideas and successes to me. It would be like having super-missionaries everywhere that don't have to learn how to work effectitively, they would just know.(Edit by Dad: Uh, no. This young man is already a better missionary than I ever was...but that doesn't stop me from giving him ideas! ;) )  But that doesn't happen soo I'll just have to use your advice and use what I know to have success. Of course with using the members.

I haven't found anywhere that does hand tailored suits, but it's alright I have 2 suits now because right before I left a member in Carmelo gave my a jacket that was too small for him. Only problem is I don't have pants to match it.. I can't wait to call you guys either. It will be great to hear your voices and see how your Christmas was.

Fah! I'm super jealous! Clipper-Jazz game! I would love to see Griffin play. We'll still win though. We're just better :) And with BYU, if they don't start Lark in the bowl game then Bronco is making a mistake.

I love you guys and hope that you have great rest of your day! I know that this gospel is true and through it we can have and eternal family.

Love,

Elder Jordan Duke

November 20, 2012: Week 57

Hey Dad, Mom and Kids!

This week was good, we had some interesting times and also had success. This was the last week of the change so now there's changes. Elder Petersen se va a Salto! My new comp is another from Utah, Elder Woolston. He has about 5 months left in the mission. I think he's from South Jordan. He's a really cool guy. I know him from Colonia. It's funny because the mission is so old now with a lot more people that are leaving soon then coming in. Most of us aren't going up to senior comp till like 9th or 10th change. It doesn't really bother me though, less stress really.

Still not much new going on. Estela couldn't come to church this last week which made is a little worried. She is starting to be a little iffy so we're praying for her a lot. Also we did find an old investigador from Barrio 1, but she isn't married and her husband doesn't want it. Just living together is the way to go here....

Gilberto keeps going strong to church. He set himself a date for baptism for the beginning of January. If he keeps it up and gets rid of his vices he can do it. He has been coming to church for a good month now.

Lol, try those Isaiah Chapters in Spanish! It makes even less sense. I've already the BoM in Spanish BTW and I'm on D&C 97 right now. I'm going to read the new testament after. The Old Testament, maybe....lol! It's so great to know that he is getting baptized! Super Awesome! Keep being a great missionary Dad! (Dad had nothing to do with my friend getting baptized....I've just answered a few questions for him.  He was meeting with the missionaries long before I knew about it.)

Thanks for the pics also! Now the people will understand what I mean when I say I live in the middle of nowhere in a desert :)

When I get back it will snow so much that we'll be snowboarding all year long! That would be awesome! Ya.

Speaking of letters, I got one from Brittany Hanks but I have no way to respond. Would you mind sending me her address. Thanks.

Also tell Hno Cable "Hi."

I've thought alot about this last year and even though numbers wise in baptisms and all it doesn't look like I've had sucess I feel like I've had a really good time here in the mission and have taken advantage of every moment. I am doing good with the language and get comments on how well I speak all of the time. It's weird to think that I have only 11 months left but I feel like I've used it well. I hope to accomplish a lot here including helping others get converted. I definitely see myself using Spanish when I get home....especially to have "secret"conversations with Dad, lol!

I love you guys and hope you all have a great week, we'll be talking in a month!

Love,
Elder Jordan Duke

November 12, 2012: Week 56

So sorry to throw you off with my last headline. Changes are next week... The 20th. Also I don't know if you saw, but I'd like some pics from Halloween and the house and around where we live. People always ask what it's like where we live. Pics with snow would be awesome also.

Thanks for the PIN. We went to the bank and I put in my personal card then realized that I didn't have PIN. All good though my card from the mission already came and I bought a new wallet. I'm sure that I'll get my Christmas package before Christmas. It takes about 3-4 weeks so all's good.

HAHAHA. Sarah with braces. Definitely need a picture of that too. Lo siento (sorry) mucho Sarah.. suerte (good luck).

That's soo cool that Scott and his wife are going on a mission. Is it Neuquén? That's the farthest south I know of the misions there in Argentina. So what are they gonna do while Scott is gone? Does it affect you?

What great news. (Told Jordan about a friend in Oregon who is planning on being baptized.) That's cool to hear that a old friend is embracing the gospel in his life. I'm happy for him. That's really great news.

Awesome to hear about all the people leaving for missions. We are going to be super old when the new missionaries start coming in....21 compared to 18....  Really Cree is going on a mission? I thought she'd be married before that. Guess not. ;)

The investigadores are doing great. Estela still has fecha for the 24th. She is a little uncertain but has a lot of faith and two awesome missionaries to help her, lol. The mombers are a big help and have already accepted her as one of their own. Gilberto is slowly marching. Didn't come to church this Sunday and after we found him at his house drunk. We're just going to keep inviting him and let The Lord work on him.

Yep, 2 really short paragraphs to Lizzy but still that is a record. LOL! Tell Emily to stop being a slacker with the writing. I get one from her once every 3-4 week.

I love you guys and hope you all have a great week. I'll tell you how the changes go next week. Don't forget to send the pics.

Love,
Elder Jordan Duke

November 5, 2012: Week 55

So to start off. I got everything back including the drivers license and my social security. I have my personal card but still not the one from the mission. I got the packages I think.... Were they the ones with peanut butter and nutella and jolly ranchers? if so then yes i got them. If not then no.

This week was really good! We had people in church!!!!

First Estela: She is super prepared! The only issue is her husband is crazy and hates anything to do with God or religions. She is super great though and came to curch anyway and got a lot of support from the members. She getting baptized for sure. She has fecha for the 24th of this month for now.

Also Gilberto came. He doesn't really progress but there's nothing wrong with him coming to church.

Lastly Carlos the husband of a recent convert named Maria came. He's really dificult and hates when he's pushed to do something so we're taking it easy with him too. We're already starting to see changes in him. I think soon he'll accept and join his wife as a member.

I'm sooo hapy to hear that the Kids did great in MB at BOAs!! SUPER AWESOME! Sounds like they did good and had fun also. Well little side note.... I won't miss the next end of season... It feels weird to be this far. I never thought I'd be here and yet, here I am.

No one will ever be as good as the "black sax brigade." We were the bomb! LOL! I think it's cool that Mango asked Lizzy to play sax. Well we'll see how the sax section is next year.

SO cool that they're going to have a drum line in middle school!! Josh is going to rock!! Sad that He didn't make the basketball team, but as you always said you can't teach height... Just grow a little Josh! LOL! We'll hope you're all having a good week and I'd love some pics of Halloween, and send me some pics of what it looks like where we live, like the house and just the landscape in general. People always ask about stuff like that.

I love you guys!
Elder Jordan Duke

October 29, 2012: Week 54

Hey family!

All right, first I got all my cards and ID back. The guy only took my wallet and the cash.... They already replaced my money for the mission, but I'm can't pull it out because I'm still waiting for my card. So yes to all 3.

I'm sorry you have kidney stones Mom! That's not fun. I've never had one, but if you say it hurts worse than labor then I don't ever want one! Don't worry either your email made sense. Too bad you guys couldn't go to Alex's (Jordan's cousin who left on his mission 1 year to the day before Jordan.) homecoming. I'm sure he did great. So weird that he's home....

They don't really do anything for halloween here in Uruguay. I heard that the little kids dress up. But no one else cares. We told them how it is in the USA and they said that would be fun, but hard here because there are alot of iffy people here in Uruguay. ;) I actually had forgotten it was even close to Halloween until I read your email. I guess when your in the mission the Holidays are just another day of work.

Great Job Thunder Band! I'm sure you'll make BOA finals for sure. What day do you go down? Also try and film it because I'd love to see their show. What's it even about anyway?
What has Sarah been doing that the trombone is almost broken? Is she sword fighting with it or something? ;)

The people are progressing mas o menos. We had no one in church at all... Which was a little bit of a bummer because we had worked so hard to get them to commit to come, but they didn't. We right now are still in the process of finding good people. We've done good so far and we've found a few good people who have good hopes of progressing. We found a menos activa named Jenifer and her non member husband, Marcelo. He's great and said that whenever she wants to go to church he'll go with her. We going to work hard with them to get them to church this week. Also we found a man named Fabricio. He's the boyfriend of a menos activa. Only probelm with them is that they aren't married and they have 2 kids. Still we're going to work with then and hopefully see some miracles there.

The conference with Elder Oaks was AWESOME!!! He taught us a lot! Also Elder VIñas and Elder Hallstrom from the Seventy were there. Elder Hallstrom talked a lot about how we're not seeking baptisms, we're seeking converts. It was great and it was really needed to be heard, because there is a big problem with a lot of elders just baptizing little kids who have no support and end up going inactive once the elders leave. Elder Viñas talked about mas o menos the same thing about Verdadero Crecimiento (True Growth). After Elder Oaks gave us a inspiring talk on repentance. Not about us repenting but about teaching repentance effectively and right. He explained how repentence is a prerequisite of baptism, not to be done after. He also explained to us about how it's crucial that we teach complete and correct doctrine. We can't expect the people to make a change and repent if we can't even teach them all of the principles. I definitely learned a lot, and realized some areas where I can improve. I really believe that we're going to see miracles here in Uruguay with the council of Elder Oaks and the others.

The big highlight of the week was the conference, but also we had a funny experience going down to Deo (Montevideo). We were in little buses, which were just 12 seater vans. Our van broke down in the middle of no where and we had to wait for an hour to be picked up. A little Toyota Truck came up and hooked up to us with a rope that had to be 4 ft at the most. So we're getting hauled by this truck that's smaller than the van and we're going like 65 mph passing other cars along the way (We were all sure that if the truck had to slam on the brakes we'd be screwed), swerving and drifting in and out of the lane. It was an adventure for sure. There were moments where I thought we'd die! But in the end we made it safely there and had a good time in Deo at the Conference.

Hope you all have a good week and have fun during the Holidays. Make them good because they're the last ones without me! ;) wow, what a thought...
I love you guys!
Elder Jordan Duke

PS I was thinking that ties and candy like Jolly Ranchers and Starbursts are good for christmas. And whatever else you feel like sending me. :)

More "burning tie" pics to celebrate 1 year in the mission:

October 22, 2012: The start of year 2!

What's up every one!

 

SO this week was good. First of all I hit my year mark......I felt super weird that day. We were in a charla (discussion) and I thought, "1 year ago I was on a plane flying to Buenos Aires..." Fahhh super weird! Also we have a tradition where you burn a tie on your year mark. So I burnt one and it was fun. I have pics I'm going to send to you guys of it.

 

 

 

 

 

Also make sure to tell me how Alex is, and tell him sorry for never writing him a letter even once....

 





Thanks for the help fixing the problem with my cards and wallet, I will probably just end up buying a new wallet here. Also I might not need to do the new papers for the DL, because a guy called us and said that he had found a few cards and documents of mine in the street. We're going today to go get them. I'll tell you next week what I got from him. I still haven't gotten the card from the mission. but tommorow we get the bolsa so I'll probably get it there. Also Elder Petersen has a cuenta (account) of all my owings and it's about $20.

 

As for the investigadores, mas o menos. Honorio, Santiago, caroline... none of them came to church, but a couple of ex-investigadores came, so we're going to start going by them again to see if they've changed. This week was a little rough and we had a lot of the members fail on us, which happens way to often. It's hard because we're trying to fix the problems here with missionaries before that really screwed up and now the members have bad view of us. I'm sure that we can help them realize that we're not the same but it's taking work. We've got some great people though and still have good support, it could just always be better. Also thanks for the idea Mom, we've actually been trying that and it works really well. Like President Hinkley said, new members need 3 things to stay active: 1. Be nuirished by the word of God 2. A calling and 3. a friend.

 

So how was your week? Weird to think back on that last Davis Cup when I was dressed as a missionary and everyone was commenting about how we were going to win because we had a missionary helping us. It's crazy that that was a year ago!

 

Cool that you went to Park City! Lame that you forgot your ribs! Lol! Hopefully someone get's that out or it's going to go bad and stink! Sounds like the kids had fun painting numbers. How many have gotten their Eagles since I left? I'm sure we have a TON.

 

For an experience with Portuguese (Elder Duke speaks Spanish in his mission but in the city he is in now, on the Brazillian border, many people speak only Portuguese.) We went to a members house named Julian who has a son who's 10 who's not a member. They weren't home so as we left we saw a garage next door open and we heard music coming from inside and there was a car. So we went over to ask if they knew where Julian was. When we entered there were 3 guys working. We noticed a really foul smell and then realized that they were packaging Tabacco in rolls. We started up the conversation and realized quickly that all we're speaking portuguese. I said a quick prayer that we could communicate with them and we started talking about little things like Church and what we do as missionaries. After about an hour of talking with them we invited them to come to church and gave them a folleto (pamphlet) of the Restoration that we had in Portuguese. I realized after that I had understood everything they said and they understood us. I knew that God had answered my prayer and we we're able to communicate to them about the gospel.

 

I love all of you and hope you all have a great week! I love this gospel and the chance I have to share my love with the people here in Uruguay. ¡Hasta luego!

 

Love,

 

Elder Jordan Duke

October 15, 2012: Week 52! One Year Mark!

Dear Family,

So I just thought about it and this Saturday I'll have been gone for 1 year.... that means that this next november, december, etc. will be my last in Uruguay...What a weird thought. Also Alex comes home in 8 days?!? I swear he just left! Crazy how time flies, no? I'm a little worried because I'm at the point where most missionaries in our mission go up to senior comp and train. I have a feeling that it's gonna happen probably this next change, but I don't feel ready. I mean I know perfectly fine how to communicate and I understand practically everything, but being the "leader" and maybe with a brand new missionary is a scary thought.

Also in 2 weeks Elder Oaks comes!!! WOOT! I'm super excited! It's gonna be the 2 missions in Uruguay so like 500 missionaries!! I'll get to see all my friends from the CCM (MTC) and also Brian Farnsworth from Eagle Mountain! I heard he lost a ton of weight in the mission. President Heaton has asked us to pray and fast to receive revelation for our missions and areas. Also he wants us to pray and fast for an Elder Brian Scott who had his calling to come to our mission in November, but just last week they found out that he had Lukemia (Blood Cancer) and he's in the Hospital in Salt Lake City. He wants us to fast and pray so that Elder Scott can be healed and come serve his mission here with us. I thought it would be a good idea if you guys could join with us in the fast for Elder Scott. We're going to do it the saturday, the 27th. Thanks family, you're awesome!

About the floods, no one in our area had problems but some of the other missionaries just helped pull people out of their house all day. We didn't do much but we helped a few people, who had a little bit of mud and water in their houses, clean. It has stopped raining for now, luckily, but that means the hot is coming and here it is HOT! I'm pretty sure I'll be here at least until Christmas so I'm gonna die!

Not much has happened this week super exciting. We're still working with Honorio, but it's gonna be work to get him to church. Something I'm used to now, because the Uruguayos are a little lazy as a culture. Also we have found a couple more good people. Santiago he's 20 and lives with his Grandma. He's a capo (stud) and really likes everything we say to him. He couldn't come to church because it was his b'day and he went to his friends house in another barrio because his grandma is crazy! Also we found Caroline, she is a ex-investigador and has been to church a few times. Both are great and high possibles for baptism this change. Which by the way ends when I have 1 year and 1 month in the mission.

Emily, I was talking to some of the leaders here like our bishop and stake president about your situation to see what they thought, and they said that with your situation with Brad and all that they probably wouldn't go, but to ask the Lord. The mission is great, but like one of the apostles said in conference, it's an obligation for only the men. Don't get too bummed about your answer. The Lord has something for you that He knows will be the best for you, and if that's stay home then go with it. I love you Emily, keep being the awesomest blonde shorty ever! LOL

We'll that's about all for this week, hopefull my cards and stuff come soon. it's a good thing my comp is a nice guy who buys me what I need. Hope you all have a great week and recieve many blessings from our Heavenly Father.

Love, Elder Jordan Duke