6/9/2014
Hey Family!!!! I can't tell you how
good it is to hear from you, I always look forward to Monday and reading how my
family’s week went. It sounded like you guys had a pretty normal week. Dad
it sounded like you had a pretty normal week, it seems that is how summer goes,
It amazes me how this mission really gets you prepared for life, I look at you
Dad and realize you have never really had 'you time' but you are always doing
things for the family, Mom as well but I feel this mission is preparing me to
not think about myself anymore and about what I want to do. I’m sure that felt
nice Dad to be back in the air again. Mom it sounded like Cindy is
struggling, I always hate hearing that (I am glad you tell me everything
though) but she will be in my prayers. There is one thing I have learned
since I have been out here, the Lord will show us our weakness. My
favorite scripture is Ether 12:27 all we have to do is live our lives according
to our Heavenly Father's commandments and he will give us the strength to bear
our burdens. He won't take them away but he will make our burdens
light, we have to trust in him always and allow ourselves to be instruments in
his hands. My words of advice, there are a lot of people we dislike in
our lives, people that hurt us, people that lie and make our names bad,
and many other things, but one thing I have learned and bear testimony too is SERVE
THEM! Serve the people that hate you, serve the people that you dislike
and those feelings of bitterness will go away, the lord wasn't lying when he
said love your neighbor, and love your enemies. I will share with you an
example. As I have been proselyting there are some people that slam the
doors in our face and tell us they don’t like us, but what I have learned is to
just ask them if we can do anything for them. We had one women in my last
area who we contacted and she was just insulting us telling us how stupid the
church is and how dumb we are and how we are being brainwashed and before we
left we asked her if we could do anything for her, you could see her bitterness
go away and now she personally went out of her way to greet us. Another
one is this week, an investigator that the other missionaries in the apartment
are preparing for baptism and I had the opportunity to meet, well I
accidentally said something that insulted her, not knowing it. Well the
next time we went to see her she didn't really mind me and was kind of rude it made me mad but on Sunday I was like no I need
to be an adult here, so I pulled her aside and apologized even though I wasn't in the wrong, and you could see her whole domineer to me change, she now wants
me to bring my new companion over to her house and see her often. I hope that
helps. Proud of you mom!
President told me that I am going to be
training. He told me that my English is very clear and proper haha not
all hicked up lol and so I should expect a missionary from the Democratic
Republic of Congo, our first in the mission who only speaks French and I will
help him learn English, he is in Provo mtc right now learning English.
President must trust me to open up this new area and to train, I'm super
stressed out right now but excited to tackle this challenge, it will keep
me busy and by the time I am done with this kids training I will be at one year
baby!!!!! This week was super fun we had ZTM on Tuesday and after went to
this pizza place it was so dang good, it was amazing and then there was a KFC
right next to it so we got some real ice cream cones, holy cow I was in heaven.
We went to this store called melcolm it is like a target basically it was
amazing, I was so dang happy!! Then we had a great week and contacted a bunch
of people, I guess that’s the benefit from opening a new area, you start fresh,
so I have a lot of work to do, I will see this week if any of them are serious.
The area is super safe. I feel safer in this apartment then I have in all my other ones so don’t
worry. Oh yeah you will never believe what I drank this week, a real
freaking Mountain Dew, it was so sweet haha I got sick after I drank it but it
was so dang good, some store has so many American things, they have Idahoan
potatoes and real peanut butter and Nutella I may be spending some money there
haha!!
Mom I am excited for the opportunity
you have to give a talk at church. Mom just tell the ward how grateful
and appreciative I am for the support, the prayers and all the letters that are
sent my way. Really this brings tears to my eyes, but I love my Dad so
dang much. I have had no better example in my life than him; he has
taught me so much on how to be a man and how to stand for what I believe in.
Which leads me to what I want the ward to know, is everyone is watching
the church and watching what we do, I know I wasn't the best at this but be an
example, let your faith shine and let everyone know that we belong to the lords
church. Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of this gospel and I will let
it shine. Be a great example to all! I love my dad happy fathers
day!!
Well Family I love you three so
much. I can’t wait for the day when I come home and am able to give you
all a hug again. It’s amazing how much I miss you but I am super happy
and enjoying this experience, I wouldn’t trade it for anything!! Mom Dad
and Colby I love you three tons!!!
Love you guys so dang much!!!
Elder Duke
