Week 3: Sterling, VA - "This week has definitely been the hardest of my life, no doubt!"

Hey everyone!

How's everything been? How has guard been? How school going for everyone? How's work and such??

First week in the field, and it's been...interesting. First, our flight from SLC was delayed so we missed our connecting flight in Detroit. Luckily we got on another flight that was only 2 hours later. So we got into DC at like 10pm and went to the mission home. I don't think I got to bed till like 1am that night... The next day, I met my trainer, Elder Jacobs. He's a pretty cool guy. He's from New Mexico, like 4 corners area. He sings a lot in the mornings and in the shower... Loudly!!! He did musical theater and marching band in high school and played trombone.

This week has definitely been the hardest of my life, no doubt! I was extremely nervous and ridiculously homesick, but I've been keeping myself busy. The work has been really slow out here! We have about 20 investigators, which is a lot for out here, but everyone is so busy out here that you can't meet with them very often. I've only met 6 of our investigators...

Northern Virginia is quite the place. It's not nearly as humid as I thought it would be. It was pretty hot the first 2 days, but then it clouded over and rained for 5 days. But it's warming up, so that's good. The people out here are very different! They are crazy busy people, so it's impossible to meet with anyone more than once or twice a month. Also, trying to check on less active or potential investigators before 6pm is impossible! They are all either at work, taking their kids to every after school program under the sun, or running around doing errands! People are busy busy busy. And it's so expensive to live here, that both parents work and husbands work really late so meeting in a home is extremely difficult. I never thought it would be harder to set up a lesson, than actually teach it!

The people here are busy, but some people are way rich!! Over by Trump golf course the houses are huge!! The nicest cars I've seen are a Mercedes S550, multiple Bentley SUV's, a Porsche Carrera GT3, and an Audi R8. I also see tons of Teslas and BMW's.

Anyway, it's been quite the week. P-day is normally Monday, but we got to go to the temple today! The D.C. temple is amazing and HUGE! Thank you for all the support and the awesome emails! They definitely help! Love you all and hope your week is amazing!

-Elder Duke

Arriving in Virginia -- Letter from the Huntsmans

Brother and Sister Duke,

Your missionary son arrived late Monday night to the Washington DC Mission. President Huntsman and I served them dinner at 10:45 pm, knowing they would be hungry and tired from their long day of travels.

Your son now has a new companion and trainer, Elder Nathan James Jacobs. They are serving in the Algonkian Ward in the Oakton,Virginia Stake.

We are overjoyed with his arrival into the mission field and look forward to serving together with him in this area of the Lord's vineyard.

We appreciate your love and support on the home front.

With gratitude,

Sister Huntsman

Week 2 - MTC: "I'm here because missionary work is amazing and being a part of someone's journey to Christ feels amazing!"

Hello!!!!!

How's everyone doing?! How's life been? How's guard going? How's the hunt for a new band director? Mom finally got new phone? That's pretty sweet! she having fun figuring out and getting used to the face recognition and no home button lol?

The MTC has been awesome! You really learn a lot and tbh, I'm glad i'm not learning a new language! well kinda glad... ;) I was talking to Sister Davis and she said all they do in class is study the language and their lessons are basically reciting what they've written down. Not learning a new language is really a whole different experience! My knowledge of the gospel has increased so much! It's kind of insane thinking about how much more I know compared to when I got here. It's been so much fun!! Elder Norton and I are the zone leaders, so we do an orientation with the new missionaries their first night. We just meet with them and talk about general rules and assignments they have for the week like planning a talk for Sunday and meetings with the branch president. We  show them around campus and around the residency halls. We also had to teach Preisthood on Sunday and a member of the MTC presidency came and joined us, so that was fun. Sunday's in the MTC are pretty sweet! You have normal sacrament, but then you have district meeting, then Preisthood/Relief Society. Then lots of meetings and ponder time. In the evening, you have devotionals. The MTC district president and his wife spoke on Sunday, then Tuesday's devotional was Elder LeGrand R Curtis Jr. of the Seventy. That one was awesome! He talked about the power and importance of having a testimony of The Book of Mormon. He shared tons of crazy conversion stories! 

So we change investigators every week, so we aren't teaching Isaiah and Oogii anymore. But now we're teaching Erica, an older Brazillian lady, and Jasmine. Jasmine is really nice and crazy smart! (just imagine Brayden, but as a 5 foot nothing, blonde lady) She's interested in our religion cause she married a member. She's really smart and understands the Book of Mormon, but she isn't much of a feely kind of person. She wants like hard facts and evidence. Erica is amazing! She's had a hard life and had lots of loss. She was taught that when you die, you lose all memory of your earth life. She was super sad when her Grandpa died, cause she was super close to him! But we taught her, from the Book of Mormon, that we don't lose our memory of Earth, and that we'll be reunited with our bodies and loved ones in a perfect state. She got insanely happy and emotional. She's reading the Book of Mormon and starting to love it and love God! 

To answer Dad's questions, ya, those shorts are fine. Elder Dalton has a scale that we can use. 

We left Oogii having watched Because of Him video. She loved it and she loved talking about having hope through Christ. 

The other 4 elders are going to Fort Collins Colorado

3 sisters ( Sisters Elder, Comstock, and Burnham) are going the Chicago West

Elder Norton and I and 3 sisters (Carroll, Flake, and Minaker) are going to DC South.

I learned a lot this week! I really learned how to teach in a companionship! (Mosiah 18) It's hard to teach with another person, especially when they say something that takes the lesson somewhere you didn't want it to go. But that's what planning and the Spirit is for! Teaching is seriously so hard!! I also learned a lot about faith! Ether 12 The MTC is rough at times, and I've definitely thought  like, "What am I doing here?!" or "I just wanna leave and go back home!" But I've always come back to, "I'm here because missionary work is amazing and being a part of someone's journey to Christ feels amazing!" (D&C 18:15-16) Also the feeling you get walking out of a lesson where the investigator really felt the spirit and wants to know more or wants to try harder and do better, is unbelievable! GOD IS SO GOOD AND HIS WORK IS BEYOND REWARDING!!!

I love you all and know that I think about and pray for you all the time!!! ALL OF YOU!!

Love, Elder Duke

 Elders Duke and Norton love bananas for breakfast!

Week 1: MTC "We just have to keep bring good boys and girls, be obedient, keep the commandments, and honor our covenants and he'll guide us to where we need to be, when we need to be there, and what to say."

Mother and Papi!!!!!!

Oh my goodness! I don't even know where to start! This email is just for both of you. I'll send another one Dad can send to everyone else and put on the blog and such later. (Note from Dad: He never sent another one and then told me just to post this.)

How has everything been? Is it weird having only one kid home? How is my puppers and doggo?

The MTC is CRAZZZZYYYY!! My companion is Elder Norton and he is AMAZING! He's from Cedar Hills and went to AF till senior year, then graduated at the fall semester from Skyridge and then left on a mission like a month later. He played baseball at AF until he tore a ligament in his elbow and had a year-long recovery. He's is such a great guy and really loves the gospel! We got along really quick. I was really hoping I wouldn't get a weird companion, and I didn't! ;) He was our district leader for like 2 days before me and him got assigned to be zone leaders! I can't wait to see where he's gonna be in like a year! (We're both going to D.C. South, so we could totally be companions ;)

My teachers are Brother Kohler and Sister Rigby and they are awesome! They're both have a ridiculous amount of energy, but are super humble.  They're great and I'm gonna miss them when I leave. 

The MTC is absolutely amazing! The food is really good so that's a plus!  I've never see anyone drink the orange juice...lol. Everyone is super nice and welcoming! You can feel it when you walk in, that it's a very different, but very spiritual place. It's definitely been a strange and crazy week!

Day one was good I met my teachers and district (who are the freaking best) and had orientation with our zone leaders and such. The whole day I was like, "What is this place and what am I doing here!?!" The rest of The week was getting to know my way around, and getting to know my district and companion, and learning how to do general missionary stuff. Funny story, lol, Elder Norton and I were doing our hour of service Tuesday morning which was cleaning the lights and things that cover and scatter the light, in the hallway of the main building, S1. We were trying to open the cover, but could get it and it kinda broke. The best part was that the MTC  President and his wife were right around the corner talking to someone! They walked in front of us, but didn't really notice. There's my good story for the week ;)

So you know how you have "investigators" in your classes that you teach, but they are really just other teachers? Ya so we taught 4 teachers, which is weird... imagine commiting your teacher to get baptized! Crazy stuff!! But anyway, your 2nd week, they give you TRC's which are real people that to teach. Some are members, some aren't and you never know the difference! We have 2 investigators, one named Isaiah, and a lady named Oogii from Mongolia. Oogii is Buddhist, and as we were teaching her about God is our loving Heavenly Father, and through Jesus Christ we can be saved, she kept asking, "Well why can't God just accept us back if he loves us that much?" So we told her that we had to come to earth to learn and grow from our mistakes, but we no unclean thing can reside in God's presence so we have to use Christ's Atonement to get us there. She just kept asking why this, and why that and the lessons went downhill... Idk what we're gonna do... Any ideas, Dad? Isaiah is awesome! He's really quiet, but during our 2nd lesson, we showed him the "Because of Him" video from Christmas and he really opened up and talked about his family and how he wants to have a better relationship with them and with God! If all goes well, we'll invite him to be baptized on Saturday!

Dad, after you sent me that email, we watched a video in class from Elder Bednar about recognizing the Spirit. Basically he said, "Stop worrying about it!  Just be a good boy or girl, keep the commandments, honor your covenants, and be obedient and the Spirit will guide you." It really is pretty straight forward. It took me a while to figure that out... An overwhelming majority of the time, we won't know the outcome, or even if it is the Spirit guiding our actions. We just have to keep bring good boys and girls, be obedient, keep the commandments, and honor our covenants and he'll  guide us to where we need to be, when we need to be there, and what to say.

Sidenote, the Book of Mormon is absolutely amazing! Read it, always!!

Other events that are either really cool or really funny.

1.Noteworthy came to the Sunday Devotional, and Benjamin (j with a y-sound) De Hoyos of the seventy came on Tuesday. That was pretty cool!

2. Elder Dalton has started a lost of useless facts. I told him he had to get to 96 before we leave the MTC. He's currently at like 25.

3. Elder Weyland took 870 licks to get to the center of a tootsies pop. (We do very productive things here at the MTC)

4. I tried to convince the new district in our Zone that got here yesterday that I was British at our meeting last night. It was going good, until I gave up. (The sisters in our district told we I had to do it cause they were so impressed with my accent lol)

5. Reading Joseph Smith History infront of a mural of young Joseph is freaking awesome!

P-day is thursday and PO is #84. So if you wanted to like, send me some Dr. Pepper, I wouldn't be opposed ;)

Love you guys so much!! Send me pics of the family, like our family pics, and some of the doggos to show the other elders. I'll send you pics after gym time. Love you!!

Elder Duke

Sisters: Comstock, Elder (yes, that's her name!), Burnham, Carroll, Minaker, and Flake
Elders: Duke, Norton (Josh's companion) Weyland, Pruner, Dalton, and Brustule