Week 45: Falls Church, VA "It's beginning to look a lot like.... April!

Hello hello, everyone!

Hope you all had a good week and are enjoying the most wonderful time of the year! It's supposedly December, but I think Virginia forgot and skipped right to spring because it has been 40+ and rainy all week! And this next week will be the exact same. But warmer! It's hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it's pouring rain...

But anyway! It was another pretty good week! We had a few lessons with Ken. He's progressing. Slowly, but he's getting there! We're just trucking along with him.

We had a lesson with Ana with Brother Mulladjanov. (He's from Uzbekistan) He's a killer teacher! He went on a mission like 10 years ago, but he's got a crazy greenie fire! Its hard to understand Ana somtimes because she doesnt use pure ASL signs, but Bro M was picking it up super quick and did an awesome job helping her understand!

Our other people kinda dropped off the map this week... But this next week will hopefuly be good! It's gonna be hard cause Christmas, but we got Faith!

Miracle that happened this week! So there's this guy we meet named Jeanpierre (His name sign is JP, so we just call him that). We met him a few weeks ago at our branch Christmas party we invited him to. Well, since then he hasn't been responsive to texts, so we decided to drop by on Friday, but we realized we don't have a complete address. We have a street and apt number, but no building number... So we called the sisters who referred him to us to see if they had met him before, and knew where he lives. They didn't know, and had never met him. They've only had contact through text a few times. Anyway, so after we call the sisters, we text him again, and he responds! He asked us if there were any events happening soon that he could go to. The sisters had mentipned that they had a baptism the next day, so we call them again, about 30 minutes after the fist call, to see when and where to baptism was so we could invite JP. So we call the sisters again, and right as they answer, Sister Clark was like, "Did you know that God is real?!" Right before we called, they ran into JP in front of his apartment complex! They talked to him for a bit and invited his to their baptism and got his full address! So he came to the baptism on Saturday, even though he was super late. But that doesn't matter, we got a good contact with him! And Sister Clark killed it talking with him after the baptism! We gave him a Book of Mormon, and she just bore her testimony and told him that he needed to read it! He was kinda like, "Ya, maybe I'll check it out..." But she wasn't taking anything less than a yes! So she just kept going until he commited to read it! Me and Elder Pauly were just like, "Ya. Ditto!" It was great! And yesterday, JP messaged the sisters and hey chatted for a little. They told him he needed to go to church, ad he said he would come this week. So hopefully we can get meet with him sometime this week, and get him to church on Sunday!

We did have a pretty funny night on Wednesday. So we got locked out of our apartment, for the 3rd time... Normally we just use an old gift card I have in my wallet to get in, but this time we were back for the night and I had already changed and put my stuff away so I didn't have my wallet cause we were just taking out the trash. So we were stuck... and the phone was in the apartment... So we decided the only way in was to climb up to our 3rd floor balcony. So Elder Pauley climbed up the corner of the building near our apartment onto the balcony below ours. Then he got ontop of the railing and grabbed the railing of ours and pulled himself up. It was pretty great! But it was even funnier because we had talked about climbing up it earlier that day.

Twas a good week here in Virginia. Hoping this week next week turns out a little better for our investigators!

Love you and miss you all! Have a wonderful week and enjoy the Christmas season! Keep being the best and loving the Lord!

Love, Elder Duke

Week 44: Falls Church, VA "End of Transfer 7"

Hey hey!

Wow, time is flying! The end of the transfer is here, and I'm starting my last transfer for the first year of the mission! Pretty nuts! It's been quite the adventure here in Northern Virginia! But it's such an amazing place and the people are the best!

Sad things happened this week... We dropped Laura and Faud caue we haven't had contact with them for a while. They're still on the radar, but not being focused on right now. We'll try them again soon!

Shannon, an amazing women that referred herself and requested a Book of Mormon was sick, so we weren't able to meet with her. But hopefully she's doing better and we can meet her this week! She seems super solid!

Ken is doing good, as always! We taught him the 10 commandments, and then he basically forgot them so we had to teach them again. But that time went really well, so hopefully it stuck! ;) He's just such a special spirit! Love him!!

We had a Branch fast for missionary work 2 weeks ago and we're still seeing the blessings! Last night, Elder Pauley and I decided to stop by a less active member who lives in Woodbridge (south part of the mission). So we drive down there and he isn't home, but we meet his awesome wife, who isn't a member. So we sat down and chatted with her. She had some questions and confusion about why there were so many churches and why we have the Book of Mormon. We explained a little to her, but told her we'd love to come back and sit down with both he and her husband and teach them together! Hopefully that works out! Her husband is a great guy and loves the church, just doesn't have a lot of knowledge.

Another blessing from the fast, which doesn't really involve us, but it's from the DC North Sisters in the branch. One of their investigators, José, has been meeting with the sisters for a while, like almost a year, and comes to church often! He loves the church, and has a testimony, but his Mom has said that he can't be baptized till she feels he's ready. Well last week the sisters went over to their house and talked with him and his mom, and his mom said she felt like he is ready! So he's gonna be baptized here in a few weeks! José is a great guy, and is actually the one that gave me my name sign! So we're basically best pals! I'm way excited for him!

We also have dinner with a member couple, and their friends tonight so hopefully that goes well!

I love you all and hope you continue to have a great holiday season! Keep giving like the Savior does! Keep loving like he does! 3 Nephi 12:16 

Love, Elder Duke

Week 43: Falls Church, VA "First Week of December"

Hey everyone!

I hope you are all doing well and had a good week!

This week was pretty awesome and we had some great things happen!

This week we had a district fast. Each companionship fasted for another in the district. And then we had a branch fast on Sunday for missionary work. Lots of good things happened because of it!

First, we got a referral for an awesome lady named Shannon. We have met her before at dinner with a member family. That was about a month ago, and just recently on Friday, we got a referral for Shannon! Apparently she contacted the missionary call center, and requested a Book of Mormon and to meet with missionaries to take the discussions! So were going by tomorrow to bring her a copy of the Book of Mormon and start traching her! Super excited for her! Her husband isn't too interested, but I think he'll be open to sitting in on the lessons. They also have 2 awesome kids! Pray for their family that they'll be receptive and have open hearts!

Another person we got referred to this week was someone some sisters in our district met while tracting. He believes in Christ, and likes church, but doesn't have a church to go to that has an interpreter. He was pretty excited when he heard we have an ASL Branch. He's been hard to contact, but we'll get him soon!

There's another guy we met on Saturday at the branch Christmas party. His name is Jeanpierre. We invited him to the party, cause we had his number, and he showed up! He came pretty late, but he met like half the branch, including the branch President and elders quorum president. He's a super chill guy and has strong faith. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he'd be down to have us come over and discuss with him! Pray that he has an open heart! Such a great guy!

We also had a younger member couple (both RM's. Met on the mission. Super cute, I know! ) invite some friends over for a Christmas get together next week, and invited us to share a Christmas lesson with them. Should be good!

Ken is doing good, as always! Just trucking along with him, helping him understand more and more.

Laura has been MIA the past week... We had an appointment with her, but she wasn't home and we haven't been able to call her and talk to her.

We had an awesome opportunity to do some service the first of December with the youth in the branch! It was at a small horse ranch owned by member couple of one of the wards here. It was pretty sweet! They had about 15 horses. We just helped clean up the leaves and hay and such before the snow comes. One of the horses tried to get me as I was standing there in front of it's corral. I turned my back to talk to someone, and it bit my shirt!  So I guess you could say me and that horse are pretty close now.

Things are going really well here!! We saw a lot of miracles this week, and hope they keep coming!

Love you all and hope you have a great week! Keep reading the scriptures! Keep loving the Lord!

1. Interviews. The other elders in the district.

2. Service on Dec 1st with the youth at a horse ranch!

3. Sister Caplin at interviews

4. Los of leaves we cleaned up at the ranch

5. Wrong Utah school... 

6-8. The Potomac river, Alexandria area

Love, Elder Duke

Week 42: Falls Church, VA "End of November Already!?"

Hello, all!

How are ya? How was Thanksgiving? I hope you ate way too much pie, cause I did! (Jk, let's be real, eating too much pie isn't even a thing!)

It's getting cold here, that's for sure! And it rained a lot on Thursday, so it's been a really wet cold, but I haven't frozen yet!

We did our weekly drive to Manassas to meet with Ken again! He's doing well! We reviewed the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him, then taught the 10 commandments. He's retaining things we teach him, and you can tell he's learning a lot! Then we called him on Saturday to follow up and to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with him.

We didn't get to meet with Laura this week, which is frustrating. But we stopped by last night and set up a lesson for Thursday. Hopefully it works out and actually happens!

There hasn't been much progress with the other people we're trying to start teaching...  Sad, but that's the way it goes, I guess. Just gotta find those who are ready and willing!

Thanksgiving was pretty fantastic! We had dinner with our Branch mission leader, Brother Bellamy. His wife is seriously the best cook ever! I've never been a big sweet potato fan, but her's tasted like pumpkin pie!! Me and Elder Pauley were like addicted to them! So good!!! After we had another dinner with the Kendricks. Their family is awesome, and Bro Kendricks is like my favorite ever! They had a few singles from the ward over, as well as a friend from California who was here for an internship. The friend, I came to find out, is a convert who was baptized by Mr. Brown, my Junior year ASL teacher! The world gets pretty small when you're a member. But when your in the Deaf member world, it gets a lot smaller!

We got a few more referrals from some other missionaries this week (that's mostly how we meet deaf people) that we tried contacting. There were 2 that lived in one apartment building in Alexandria. So we went to check it out. One didn't answer, but we did meet the other, an older woman who wasn't very interested. But she said there was another deaf person that lived on the 12 floor. So we went to go check that out, and just knock the doors on that floor. We get to that floor and knock a few doors. Then we saw some keys still in the lock on one of the doors. So we knocked it to let them know about their keys. A man opens the door and we showed him his keys, then we asked if he knew any deaf people that lived on that floor. He said, "I don't sorry. But I'm a member of your church!" We were like, "What?! Really?!" Turns out he is a member of the single adult ward here. He was super nice and told us where another deaf person lives in that bulding! Turns out there's more than 2 in that building! Just gotta find them all! 

Nothing else too crazy happened this week, besides us getting offered food every time we go tracting! Seriously! We got offered cookies, hand warmers, water, and someone even gave us cider and some pumpkin cookies! So no need to worry about me! The good Ol' people of Virginia are taking good care of me! 

Love you and miss you all! Have a good week! Keep being kind! Keep loving the Lord!

Love, Elder Duke

Pics!

-You better believe I made a chocolate creme pie! I ain't missing out on my favorite part of thanksgiving!

- The cider that a nice lady gave us.

- A ceramic dog we found while tracting. It was dark and Elder Pauley walked up to it and started petting it and I thought it was real! I was so confused.

Week 41: Falls Church, VA "Another Week in Blessed VA!"

Hello everyone!

I hope you had a good week!

This week we got 2 new people were working with and teaching!! Pretty exciting!

Ones name is Faud. He's a father of 3 kids, and his wife's name is Sui. Faud is a super nice guy, and is really willing! We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to start reading it. He said he would, and he seemed pretty eager to start! We're gonna meet with him this week, so we'll see how it goes!

The other person is a woman named Ana! She is so funny! She's Hispanic, so her English isn't great. We gave her a picture Book of Mormon and she got way excited!! She is such a sweet lady! Hopefully things go well with her!

Ken is doing great, as always! We were on exchanges, so I missed the lesson with him, but we called him on Saturday to read with him and he's doing well! He's learning more and more every week! Super proud of him!

Laura is doing good! We didn't meet with her this week cause her schedule is pretty busy. But we've been keeping contact with her and she's been reading! Not sure how much, but some is better than none! 

So on exchanges this week, I was in the Arlington 2nd ward. Love that place! If i get transfered, that's where I wanna go! Plus it's where my boy Elder Poulsen was trained, so it's a pretty special place! But anyway, on exchanges we went by one of their investigators, Kristen. She's former military, and works for the government right now. She's the best! Just take Emily's size, and Kaili's witty personality, and you have Kristen! Shes doing really well, too! Her fellowshippers are amazing, and she's progressing really well! Can't wait to see her get baptized soon! (She doesn't have a date, but it's gonna happen! I just know it!)

So Saturday, we were tracting just this small group of town homes in McLean. It's gotta be the nicest group of people I've ever met here in Virginia! None of them were interested, but we got offered food like 4 times! One lady from Kenya gave us some African bread, which was way good! Such kind people.

I love you all and hope you have a great Thanksgiving! Keep being the best! Keep loving the Lord!

Love, Elder Duke

 (LtoR: Sisters Howell, Koch, Flake, and Pugh. Elders Jensen, Dunn, Pauley, and Duke

Some pointy thing...

Washington DC Masonic Memorial Hall

Week 40: Falls Church, VA "...and shall find pasture."

Hello hello everyone! I hope all is well and that you're doing good!

To start, I heard about Jacob and Peyton, as well as things with the Dunn's. I hope they're doing well and in good sprirts! Love them!

This week was another good one! Nothing too exciting happened, but we're making progress!

Ken is doing well! He's learning more and more! Funny story... I was sitting next to him during Gospel Principles, then Elders Quorum (they're in the same room). Both classes were taught by our Elders Quorum President. And try were both in basically the same topic, family history. So for an hour and half we watched the Elders Quorum President talk about his family history and stories of finding his ancestors. I think Ken was as confused as I was!  We both sat there with blank stares like "What is he talking about?" It was great!

We have a new investigator that we met with this morning. Her name is Laura. She's a young single adult from Mexico. She's pretty awesome! We met her the firs time a few weeks ago, but went able to setup an appointment cause of her but schedule. But we finally got to teach her again and go over the begining of the restoration. She had been meeting with JW's before, so she had a lot of questions about the differences. But it went well and she understood everything! We're pretty stoked for her!

Also this week we finally got our VP (Video Phone) set up! It's exactly what it sounds like. A phone that hooks up to a camera and screen for deaf people to use. But we finally got one and it's super nice to have! Gonna help the work go along much smoother!

Signing is getting better every week! I still make a fool of myself, but not as often ;) We went to a Deaf social on Saturday night, which was awesome! We met some cool people. It was one of the first times I didn't feel like everything that was being said went over my head, so that's good!  Just gotta keep studying and working hard! I'll get there!

Earlier this week, I was watching some bible videos, and I watched the one about Christ telling the story of the good Shepherd in John 10. I was reading that chapter, wondering how we become the sheep that "know Him" and "hear his voice." Then I remembered a scripture that's in D&C 19

"23 Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me."

When we learn of Jesus Christ, have Faith in Him, use His atonement, and follow Him, we'll have peace in Him. Or, as it's described in John, "by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved...and find pasture."

Idk, that sounds really peaceful to me. Finding pasture...

Also, another cool thing. The sign for "Faith" is a mixture of the signs for  "Believe" and "Trust" so that's super neat! 

Anyway, I love you all and hope you have a great week! Keep loving the Lord! He's the greatest!

Love, Elder Duke

Washington Monument

George Washington Masonic National Memorial

Week 39: Falls Church, VA "Transfer 7"

Hey all!

How are you? How was your Halloween?

It was another good week here in good Ol' Virginia!

Ken is doing really good!! We had a lesson with him on Tuesday and he remembered a lot of what we taught him, which is awesome! He's making good preogress, and were super pumped for him! His testimony is growing, and he'll hopefully accept a baptismal date for December sometime! I'll attach a picture with him, too.

Monday, we met with a referral from some Spanish Elders in Alexandria. Her name is Laura and she is awesome! She's from Mexico and has been meeting with JW's ocassionally. She is the sister of the Spanish Elder's investigator so they met her and then told us about her. She was really interested in what we were teaching! It's a little hard cause she doesn't know English very well, so we have to teach with more pictures and less words. But she seems pretty solid! Hopefully things go well with her!

I'm still working on the signing! It's getting better and better, but sometimes we'll be at a dinner with a member, and my mind will just completely blank! Then I make a good fool of myself, and everyone has a good laugh, so that's fun!

We took the "scenic route" to church on Sunday past the Mall and everything. Unfortunately you can only see the back side of the buildings from the road, lol. I do have some pictures of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial though. It's the closest I'll get to seeing it all before the end of the mission.

I'm loving the mission, loving the people, and loving beautiful Virginia that has the most amazing Fall! And Fall is the best cause pumpkin spice everything!

I hope everyone has a great week! Keep being the best! Keep loving the Lord!

-Elder Duke