Hey Family!! Again thank you
for the emails they mean so much to me, I literally have a hard time sleeping
because I can’t wait to read them! It sounds like you had a great week
this week! Got some sledding in and were able to spend some time with
each other! You will have to take as many pictures as you can, no I have
fast internet and its sweet, I am downloading so much music right now haha but
now I can load video and pictures so send and take as many as you can!
Especially with the boys, and sledding, and everything, the house,
everything! Mom I got your package thank you! Mom thank you for the treats,
chii those are both literally my most favorite types of candy! Mom I am
trying to send a package home, mommy B gave me some nice cloth for you,
she said she loves the family, and I was thinking you could make a blanket out
of it or something, or whatever, it’s the nicest cloth in Ghana you will love
it!
This area is so sick!!!!! Real
fast my companion is Elder Giles from Provo Utah! He is a super nice guy,
super humble, super smart, and has taught me a ton of things, I really like
this kid I think we will get along great...he is a stud!! My apartment is super
safe, so don’t worry, we live in a compound with a great family. In my
apartment we have Elder Leakehe(from Utah) and Elder Hashwayo(from South
Africa) and we all get along super great, it will be a great six week for sure!
You will like this when we come up over a hill to our apartment you see the
beach and you get the ocean breeze so it’s a lot cooler here, and guess what my
area is on the BEACH...mom you jealous haha don’t be I can’t swim and it’s so
hard with how hot it is out here!! There are so many raygay people out here
like Jamaican people haha its super chill and it’s a tourist spot so there a
ton of white people haha it’s so weird to see a white girl every once in a
while! This area is super big and its super rich, so the people speak
great English, I feel I am going to gain a ton of teaching experience
here!! Guess what else is in my area...SHOP-RITE, it’s so sweet I have
been there once and I will go there again today, chii the people that serve in
the city are spoiled for sure, I really am grateful I served in the bush first,
I just feel humbled out now and grateful for everything! I had a
milkshake in my area too, words can’t describe how great it was, it’s amazing
how many little things I have taken for granted and we have pizza, I literally
was almost in tears as I drank my milkshake haha!! Well I don’t have too
many stories yet because I just got here but hopefully more will come!
Oh yeah I forgot one of our
investigators has a monkey! That thing is so sweet, it knows me now and knows that I will always
itch him so when I come in the compound he starts jumping up and down and then
comes to me and starts itching his back, like telling me to do it for him haha
those things are so dang smart, there like little humans!! The
investigator has a 1 year old child and the monkey just lets it pull his hair
and teeth and is really patient with it, it’s so dang cool! So to
say the least when I get home I want a dang monkey!!
It was crazy, Elder Giles and I were
out proselyting and we went to a part that he hasn’t contacted very much and he
told me that if I was prompted to contact any house I want, well right as he
said that I had no idea but I just turned immediately left and went into this
compound. Well inside was this girl and I didn’t even say anything but she
started grabbing chairs for us and then asked if she should get her
family. I was like uh yeah that would be sweet, she was like doing it all
for me, then her family came out and they are a really wealthy family and Elder
Giles and I were able to befriend them and get them to trust us, their names
are R, E they are a super nice family that
have bounced around from church to church, and only go to the church that is
closest to them. It’s really frustrating because Ghanaians mindset is if
they go to church, it doesn’t matter what church, as long as they go to church
then they are serving God! So we really focus on helping them understand
no there is only one true church, but even then sometimes it doesn’t
matter!! Well again this isn’t my work or missionaries work, this truly
is the lords work it was a sweet contacting experience and I hope they
progress!!
Well in Oda Elder Bigler will
baptize three of the people we were teaching, they have really progressed and
will be baptized this weekend, I am so happy for them!! I will call him
on Sunday and see how they went!! I really am just happy they are getting
baptized, people are like oh, right as you leave, you can’t count them and
really all I care about is that they are baptized, its important when you are
serving to not focus on the baptisms but focus on how many seeds you plant then
in some cases heavenly father prepares someone that you can baptize.
Overall I have gained such a strong testimony of prayer. I know that as
we turn to our heavenly father for whatever we need, as long as we are worthy
for it he will always answer our prayers!! I would encourage you to all read a
talk by president Uchtdorf in the last general conference that talks about
members of the church! We discussed it on Sunday and I really loved that
talk!! Oh yeah the members here are sweet! I am in a ward now its
wild there are so many people its way weird to see that many people. Overall I
am happy with this area and with the members, I am curious to see what the lord
has in store for me here!!:)
Well family another week down! I love you all so
much! I miss you three like crazy!!! Remember to always
pray!! Please keep me informed on what is happening in the world, world
affairs and other things, I heard they pulled the missionaries out of Russia,
just kind of want to know what’s going on. We don’t get the magic valley times
here haha!! I love you three tons!!
Love you tons!!!!
Elder Duke
