Week 13: Great Falls, VA - "If you don't know what to say, testify of the Savior."

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!

How is everyone? Anything good happen this week? How are Jordan and Mikaila feeling? What day is it again? It's getting close though!!! How's Lauren's physcal therapy? How is school going for everyone? How's work going for Emily? 

Tell Grandma Duke Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nathan to!!!!!!! That kid is old! 18! Pretty crazy! And Brother Davis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think his was the other day. Love you 3!!!!!! You guys are kinda the best ever!

This week was pretty good. We had a lesson with Nevin again on Saturday. It was good, I guess. It was a struggle in the beginning, but it ended well. One of my favorite things I learned in the MTC was, "If you don't know what to say, testify of the Savior" That totally works!!! The lesson was going kinda rough and she was asking some off topic questions, so we both felt that we should change what we were talking about and testify of the Plan of Salvation! It went way better after that! She is trying to find peace in this life and hopwfully has been reading the Book of Mormon cause peace definitely comes from it's pages!

Marco came to church again this week, but we couldn't meet with him Sunday morning. He's doing good, just waiting for life to settle down.

We've been trying a new approach to help the members do their part in missionary work. Its suppose to help them feel less intimidated to invite people to activities or to learn about the gospel. We'll see how it goes 

Nothing too crazy happened this week. I got a haircut, cause I needed one pretty bad. Other than that, it was pretty normal. I hope you all have an awesome week!

We watched the guard switch at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers

The headstone pic is for our recent convert, Earl, who got baptized my first Saturday here in Great Falls. It's the headstone for his wife. His big reason for joining the church was so he could be with her forever. He's having his Aaronic priesthood interview next Tuesday. The goal is to get him to the temple before Elder Mix goes home in June. But he's gotta go all the way to Philly. He's gonna do the work for his wife as soon as he can! So cool!! It was awesome being there at his wife's headstone!

Love, Elder Duke

Week 12: Great Falls, VA - "3 months!"

Hey everyone!!

How are you all? I hope all is going good  Anything crazy happen this week?

This week was pretty dang good! Earl (older man that was baptized last week) is preparing to get the priesthood and go to the temple, which is super exciting!

We have an investigator name Marco. He's from Egypt and mostly speaks Arabic, but speaks enough English to understand the lessons and church. He is an amazing guy! He loves our church so much and even brought a friend yesterday! His friend said he's gonna be there next week with Marco, so that's awesome! Marco has been having  a rough time these past months, and always asks us to pray for him! So prayers his way would be amazing! He's been reading the Book of Mormon in Arabic and loves it and wants to get baptized after his life calms down and he straightens some things out. But ya, amazing guy!

Next is Nevin. That one is a pretty cool story. So she was a former investigator in our area book that had been taught by some sisters a couple years ago. So we stopped by on Friday. Her husband opened the door and said he was busy right now. Then his wife called and asked who it was. He said the missionaries and she came to door and let us in right away. She came to the door while on the phone with her daughter that loves in Maryland who was JUST BAPTIZED INTO OUR CHURCH! So that was pretty cool. We talked to the daughter on the phone for a sec, then talked to Nevin about her experience with the church and with the Book of Mormon. She hasn't read the Book of Mormon, but likes our church a lot. She was the one that pushed her daughter to be baptized because she told Nevin that she found so much peace in the church. Nevin told us that if she found peace and happiness in our church and came to know that it was true, she would be baptized. Prayers for her would be awesome!!!

Overall it was a pretty great week! I went on 2 exchanges this week. One with the DL, Elder Baldwin, and one of the ZL's, Elder Jelderks. They were pretty awesome. Elder Baldwin is awesome! He's from Idaho and is such a chill guy. We had my first Skype lesson with thier Bishop and his wife for their most progressing investigator. It was pretty cool!

The members here are awesome! We've got lots of families with people they're inviting to church and  activities, and giving Book of Mormons to! They're pretty great! And they fellowship our investigators so fast! It's insane! The old couples (there are tons in this ward) are the best! There's an old couple, the Canons, that grab Marco every Sunday and makes him sit with them!  It's great and Marco loves it!

So this week, we had to take the car in for some body work on Tuesday and we got it back Saturday. We had to bike for 3 days, which isn't too bad, but our area is big and it's split by a big highway so we couldn't get to the north half of our area... But we talked to tons of people in the streets, so that's good 

Scripture thought from my studies this week! I've been reading in 3 Nephi this week. It's basically the coolest! There is too much awesomeness in 3 Nephi so I'll give you some of my favorites: 

12:14-16        11:39      11:11,14-17       14:24-27      20:1

I'll let you guys read them for yourselves. They're pretty great!

I hope you all have a great week! I love you and pray for you all the time!

Love, Elder Duke